Residence halls will hold new events focused on health and wellness, after the college adopted a new requirement.
In the past, the number of required dorm events was only three per semester: one social, one academic, and one philanthropic. This year, the student affairs office has added a health and wellness requirement.
The recent change is more proactive than reactive, according to Hank Prim, director of Residence Life.
“It’s important to note that the addition of this event is not because we see a problem; it’s just so we can best deliver the resources to our students,” Prim said. “We want to provide our students with the best tools to be successful.”
Each dorm event has a specific purpose. Social events, such as Galloway Residence Hall’s Thursday barbecues, try to involve residents in dorm community. The academic requirement provides something that will benefit students academically, such as resume preparation, a lecture on best study practices, or how to avoid procrastination. The philanthropic event aims to promote good citizenship and to support the Hillsdale community.
The newest category is a way for the dorm to encourage healthy life practices.
“It makes sense to have health and wellness as a dorm event because this is the home base for everyone,” said Becca Holscher, the head resident assistant of McIntyre Residence. “Any health problems—mental, sleep, study habits—will show up in the dorm. It’s an everyday living thing.”
While dorm events are all student-driven and the dorm community relies on student involvement, the accountability is on the resident assistants, who head all dorm events.
Although no health and wellness events have yet been held, RAs are busy in the planning stages.
According to Holscher, McIntyre is planning to host an event with Lighthouse, a Hillsdale club that focuses on raising awareness of mental health. Holscher said that Lighthouse is particularly appealing to McIntyre since a lot of students tend to face new problems during freshman year. The goal of the event is to help dorm residents identify issues of academic stress, family- or friend-related issues, or any other mental-health problems, instead of letting it go unnoticed.
“I think it’s really nice that they offer the health and wellness event to promote good habits in college,” freshman Claire Froman said. “Especially since this is the first time a lot of us are responsible for making our own choices regarding our health.”
Although the dorms are required to host a minimum of four events, each dorm goes well over that number, according to Prim. These events are not mandatory for residents, so each dorm tailors events to fit the needs of their particular dorm, in hopes to garner a high turnout. The RAs use the first few weeks of the school year to evaluate the necessities of the individual dorms. According to Prim, the RAs do a great job of recognizing what their dorms need.
“Turnout is extremely strong for Simpson events,” sophomore and Simpson RA Adam Buchmann said. “Simpson and Galloway have always had a baseball game, and they love it. Most of the guys do intramurals, so that’s why a lot of them come out to events like this. Free food is also a good motivation.”
Hope is high for the added event, according to the RAs.
“I’m excited to see how the event will go,” Buchmann said. “I know the guys will really get into it.”