Key chains, a wallet-friendly plastic card, refrigerator magnets and a label stuck to the back of your dormitory room door -- all of which will list the most important telephone numbers for various student services -- are some of the many initiatives proposed by the Student Wellness Advisory Board.
"Say you're in the middle of the street and you need to call for help ... you're not going to forget your keys," SWAB member Jayanth Komarneni said, explaining the need for such portable information sources.
"It's not going to be an obstruction at all," the Engineering and Wharton junior continued. "There are just going to be three, four numbers -- for example, 511 and the suicide prevention numbers."
Also under discussion during a meeting yesterday were the Learning Disabilities Symposium to be held Friday and the idea of paying students to escort disabled students.
"We're thinking of getting student helpers for people who have disabilities because some people like having people their own age to help them," SWAB member and College junior Balaji Perumal said.
SWAB is composed of undergraduate and graduate students, in addition to Associate Vice Provost for University Life Max King and the directors of the Learning Resources Center, Alcohol Policy Initiatives, Student Disabilities Services, Counseling and Psychological Services, Health Education and Student Health Service.
"Students are becoming true advisers," SHS Director Evelyn Wiener said. "For the first couple of years, the different departments have been telling the students [in SWAB] what to do, and now it's shifted so that the students are telling us what we ought to be doing. They're partners with us."
With the goal of improving health services on campus, SWAB members agree that the omnipresence of information on health issues is crucial.
In response to students' seeming preference of seeking information online, a Web site with a map of important student service centers, in addition to the location of emergency blue-light phones, is also in the works.
"The initiatives this year by SWAB ... are what we've always looked for," King said, noting that information dissemination initiatives are easiest to implement. "The notion of students designing information sources for their fellow students helps ensure the information will get to the designated audience."
SWAB is constantly on the prowl for student feedback, one source of which is the National College Health Assessment survey, to be distributed tomorrow.
"If you are invited to partake in the survey ... it's not a joke," Health Education Director Susan Villari said.
