University Chaplain Jewelnel Davis has agreed to provide some funding for the Student Wellness Project, giving the newly formed mental health group a boost as it starts to plan events and initiatives.
SWP will begin decorating Lerner Hall today with paper hearts and other Valentine’s Day-themed decorations, in a project that will be paid for by Davis’ office. In a meeting with SWP leaders last Friday, Davis expressed interest in supporting some of the group’s short-term projects, and for now, that means funding the Valentine’s Day decorations.
The student group—which was formed out of dialogues that started last semester after the suicide of Tina Bu, CC ’13—focuses on trying to create a more supportive, healthier environment for Columbia students.
“The wellness of students is a concern of all university offices,” Davis said in an email. “We have and will continue to lend timely support to student concerns following campus, national or international crises/tragedies.”
Mark Hay, CC ’12 and an SWP coordinator, said that when the group told representatives from the Office of the University Chaplain about SWP’s work, it seemed “right up their avenue.”
The plan for Lerner, Hay said, is to “put in place some programming that will actually make people feel a little happier or well during the upcoming season, which can honestly be one of the most isolating.”
A few other Columbia offices have offered support for SWP, including Counseling and Psychological Services and Alice! Health Promotion. But this is the first time that SWP, which is not an officially recognized group, has received University funding.
“Chaplain Davis is an invaluable resource,” SWP founder Wilfred Chan, CC ’13, said. “Since we’re still a very new organization still in the process of figuring itself out, we’re extremely grateful to have a strong supporter like Chaplain Davis who can give us that initial boost to get going."
Clubs and organizations generally need to exist for at least two semesters before receiving recognition from the Student Governing Board or the Activities Board at Columbia. But according to Hay, not being officially recognized hasn’t posed any major problems for the group.
“It’s a messy process—it takes time,” Hay said, referring to the process of being recognized. “As is this is something that came up in the last semester—we don’t have the hours on the ground to become a counsel-recognized group."
Sara Donatich, BC ’13 and an SWP coordinator, agreed, but said that the group’s lack of recognition makes Davis’s aid particularly helpful.
“She put her money where her mouth was,” Donatich said. “Wellness is something that can’t wait three semesters to get recognized, so she’s basically letting us get around a lot of the loopholes, which is great because we want to make the community better now. We don’t want to wait.”
The wellness project hopes to continue working with the chaplain on a project-by-project basis, Hay said. Still, he emphasized that SWP plans to focus on initiatives that don’t require much funding, at least in its first semester.
“I believe in creating first initiatives that require very little except for coordination, manpower, and ingenuity,” he said. “You don’t want to be asking for money right out of the gate—you want to show people a deliverable product that you can create out of pretty much nothing.”
One of the group’s main long-term goals is to develop what its members call a “student wellness hub,” a website that contains links to all campus health resources in one place.
According to Donatich, Go Ask Alice!, which revamped its website earlier this year, has agreed to partner with SWP so that the two sites direct users to each other. Counseling and Psychological Services has agreed to give SWP informational materials for their website.
SWP leaders are meeting with Dean of Student Affairs Kevin Shollenberger and Dean of Multicultural Affairs and Community Development Terry Martinez today, and they may try to secure more Columbia funding in the future. But for now, Donatich said the group is grateful for all the help they have already received.
“We have a lot of support from the deans and everyone has been really great,” Donatich said. “People are willing to find loopholes for us, which is really great. This is such an important cause and it hits everyone personally.”
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