Submitted by: Jennifer Brewer, jbrewer1@uca.edu on 09/26/2025
Week 6 Faculty for Successful Students focus is: Support Student Wellness.
This theme aligns with the student campaign emphasis: Take Care of You.
Supporting student wellness is vital for academic success and overall well-being. Prioritizing wellness helps students manage stress, stay focused, and balance academic and personal life. A supportive environment that promotes self-care and open discussions empowers students to thrive both academically and personally.
Faculty Tips to Reinforce Success
Here are a few simple ways you can encourage these habits in your classes:
- Discuss the negative impact of social media. (There are several good TEDx talks on this, so consider sharing one with your students.)
- Use the “Community Conversations” discussion board that is pre-loaded into your Blackboard course shell to share resources and events on campus, such as HPER group exercise classes, Counseling Center groups, and Student Success workshops.
- Consider using case scenarios of common student health and wellness issues to normalize challenges and allow students to apply appropriate information about campus and community resources.
- Carve out a few minutes of class time per week to check in on students as a group, answer questions about campus resources, or recommend upcoming events and activities that contribute to student wellness.
- Use the Student of Concern referral form to share information about signs of concern about a student’s wellness with the UCA CARE Team.
Bear Bites Invitation
COMING SOON:
We also invite you to join us for Bear Bites: Supporting Students – Without Losing Your Sanity on Tuesday, October 14, at 12:15 p.m. in the Christian Cafeteria Executive Dining Room. This lunch program will highlight low-lift, high-impact ways to personalize student support and connect them to resources. The focus is on small but powerful strategies you can use to offer individualized support to students—without burning out and protecting your own time, energy, and boundaries. UCA faculty who are doing this well will be on hand to provide details about their experiences. Join us and leave with realistic ideas you can start using right away.
👉 Register for this Bear Bites event!
Resources for You:
Center for Excellence in Teaching and Academic Leadership & Student Success Services