The University of Wisconsin Senior Class Office plans to donate funds to the Center for Healthy Minds Higher Education Fund as the class of 2023’s senior gift.
The senior class faced challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic, so the SCO chose to donate funds to the Center for Healthy Minds, according to a press release from the SCO.
The Center for Healthy Minds was founded in 2008 by Richard J. Davidson, a current professor in the Department of Psychology at UW, according to the press release. Their mission is to promote well-being through scientific research of the neural and cognitive processes involved in producing emotions, according to the SCO.
In light of raising awareness of the severity of the impact higher education can have on students’ mental health, UW student activists have begun a collaboration to introduce Healthy Minds on Campus, a student-run extension of The Center for Healthy Minds, according to the SCO.
Healthy Minds on Campus’s mission is to apply and extend the research conducted by the Center for Healthy Minds to the entire campus, thus creating an environment where students can easily access resources that cater to their mental health and overall well-being, according to their website.
The organization will hold guest speaker events and an annual mental health and well-being retreat. They will also host forums known as Community Conversations, where students may talk about mental health and well-being with their classmates, friends and peers, according to the Healthy Minds website.
McLean said having a resource such as Healthy Minds on Campus and the Center for Healthy Minds holds immense value to everyone on campus.
The idea of creating an integrated system that normalizes advocating for mental health and its resources to benefit generations of Badgers to come is also a motivating factor in the SCO’s gift, according to the press release.
“Not only do we want to provide financial support to these types of resources, but we also want to spread the message that these tools exist,” McLean said. “So I’m really glad that it’s two birds in one stone because the attention piece is huge, I think a lot of times we feel directionless when we’re going through some of these issues.”
While the SCO looked at other important issues on campus, they felt mental health was the biggest issue that needed support, Senior Class President Liam McLean said.
“One issue we did consider for some time was housing insecurity, but after polling around campus we found that mental health issues seemed to be a shared concern amongst students and staff alike, that was our low-resolution find,” McLean said.
Each year the SCO works to choose a class gift that will benefit the campus. They also work to create a lasting senior class experience for students. This includes planning commencement ceremonies for the winter and spring, planning senior-inspired events, selecting a gift and advocating for the senior class, according to the SCO.
The students of the SCO and other student leaders believe that this gift will continue to improve the campus in a tangible way as their gift aims to normalize mental health awareness, according to the press release.
