Ruben Sança
Ruben Sança ’09, ’11, director of the Office of Student Life & Well-Being, holds a Tibetan singing bowl in the university’s new Serenity Center. First used thousands of years ago in Mesopotamia, the bowls can transport listeners into a meditative state.

07/01/2023
By Ed Brennen

Q: Nearly every study shows that rates of anxiety and depression among college students have increased substantially since the start of the pandemic. What are you seeing at UML? Is the picture changing as activities have resumed on campus?

A: Based on information we continue to gather through our Behavioral Intervention Team, UMass Lowell is no different when it comes to increased rates of anxiety and depression in our students. Our clinicians in the Wellness Center work so hard to provide the best service for our students, but just like other institutions, we realize that counseling center appointments alone cannot solve this issue. In addition to counseling, we must find better strategies that can address student mental health issues from onset, before they become much larger. We must take an approach from a holistic standpoint with proactive measures. 

Q: What Has the Office Been Able to Accomplish in Its First Year?

A: First and foremost, we’ve established thoughtful collaboration on campus. We have connected with students, staff and faculty, introducing the concept of health promotions and well-being. So far, we have worked closely with first-year and transfer student orientation to introduce the eight dimensions of wellness—emotional, physical, financial, environmental, social, intellectual, spiritual and occupational—that are fundamental to the student experience. We also launched a student well-being leader program where there is peer-to-peer support for our students. We are still gathering data to be able to understand our student needs. We have partnered with the Student Government Association and Prof. of Sociology Mignon Duffy's survey design class to launch a survey focused on measuring student success through community, family, academic support, daily life, financial, physical and mental health. We are aiming to find specific areas that we have the bandwidth to impact. 

Q: In September, UML Became the First Campus in New England to Sign the Okanagan Charter. What Is It, and What Does It Mean for Students? 

A: The Okanagan Charter provides institutions with a common language, principles and a framework to become a health and well-being promoting campus. For our students, it means that our campus leadership has made a deliberate commitment to embed health into every aspect of the student experience. Health and well-being are important pillars for student success at UMass Lowell. 

Q: College Coursework Is Supposed to Be Rigorous. How Can Students Tell the Difference Between Everyday Stress and a Deeper Issue? 

A: By nature, all of us experience some level of anxiety and stress. We strive to provide resources to keep those levels of stress and anxiety manageable for our students, but it’s never a guarantee that our students are actually using those resources. Through assessments, we can measure where our students are and determine how to effectively deploy resources. 

Q: What Gives You the Most Hope About the Crisis? 

A: The establishment of this office and adopting the Okanagan Charter are big steps—and now we are doing a complete assessment with specific questions related to health promotion and well-being for students. We’re focusing on things we can actually change, and that’s really going to help over the next several years.

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