{"id":35982,"date":"2025-01-28T09:44:52","date_gmt":"2025-01-28T14:44:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/?p=35982"},"modified":"2025-01-28T13:59:35","modified_gmt":"2025-01-28T18:59:35","slug":"furman-university-adopts-okanagan-charter-for-wellbeing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/furman-university-adopts-okanagan-charter-for-wellbeing\/","title":{"rendered":"Furman University Adopts Okanagan Charter for Wellbeing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Furman University has adopted the Okanagan Charter, an international agreement adopted by 32 other U.S. campuses \u00a0who have pledged to integrate health and wellbeing into all aspects of campus life.<\/p>\n

A group of public health professionals from 45 countries created the charter as a result of the 2015 International Conference on Health Promoting Universities and Colleges, which took place in British Columbia on the territory of the Okanagan Nation. It represented \u201ca global desire to confront increasingly complex issues related to the health, wellbeing and sustainability of people and the planet,\u201d according to a record<\/a> of the meeting.<\/p>\n

\"Photo

President Elizabeth Davis signed the Okanagan Charter on Monday morning, January 27, 2025. Photo by Nathan Gray, Furman University.<\/p><\/div>\n

The charter \u201cprovides institutions with a common vision, language, principles and calls to action to become health- and well-being-promoting campuses,\u201d and it has two calls to action: Embed health into all aspects of campus culture, across the administration, operations and academic mandates; and lead health promotion action and collaboration locally and globally.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Okanagan Charter reflects Furman University\u2019s Vision, Mission and Values<\/a>, and the objectives in our Strategic Plan<\/a> to foster thriving communities and lifelong learners engaged in understanding ourselves, the world and our place in it,\u201d said Elizabeth Davis, president of Furman University. \u201cMore importantly, it reflects Furman\u2019s philosophy that wellbeing is an ongoing endeavor for our entire community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Furman\u2019s Wellbeing Strategy Committee has been creating and refining strategies for incorporating wellbeing efforts into the university. The Okanagan Charter fits into those efforts, say the committee\u2019s co-chairs Meghan Slining, associate professor of health sciences, and Jason Cassidy, associate vice president for Student Life and dean of students.<\/p>\n

Furman was eligible to adopt the charter as a member of the U.S. Health Promoting Campuses Network<\/a>. Committing to the charter is a pledge to take a public health, or a systems-based approach to wellbeing for all students, faculty and staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt goes beyond saying we\u2019re going to have classes and programs,\u201d Slining said. \u201cThis is a statement of our philosophy and values that says wellbeing is not just an individual responsibility, it\u2019s the responsibility of the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

The responsibility for wellbeing goes beyond health-related professionals, Slining said. \u201cThe Okanagan Charter clearly states this happens by people outside of the health sector as well. They\u2019re saying we\u2019re committed to person, place and planet,\u201d she said, which will require a cross section of disciplines, from public policy to sustainability to student life and other areas.<\/p>\n

The charter provides a road map for looking at policies at the institutional level, Cassidy said. And it\u2019s the chance to network and learn from other campuses who have signed on, which includes large public universities such as Michigan, UC Berkeley and the University of Colorado Boulder, and smaller schools such as College of the Holy Cross. Furman is one of the few national liberal arts and sciences universities to adopt the charter.<\/p>\n

Wellbeing has been an institutional priority at Furman since 2019, Cassidy said. The university has undertaken audits and benchmarks of programs and services, the counseling center was renovated to provide a more welcoming and supportive environment, and the Physical Activities Center is being upgraded in phases.<\/p>\n

The Okanagan Charter goes beyond the programmatic to systemic approach, he said. \u201cIt\u2019s changing the culture of our community. We\u2019ve been providing programs forever. This is more strategic and holistic.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are things we can do structurally and as a community that will support everyone\u2019s wellbeing,\u201d Slining said. \u201cNaming that and committing to that out loud is really powerful.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Furman is the 33rd university in the United States to sign the charter, which pledges to embed a culture of wellbeing throughout campus for students, faculty and staff. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":389,"featured_media":35990,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-administrative"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/389"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35982"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35982\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35996,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35982\/revisions\/35996"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}