Student mental health and well-being is instrumental in students’ academic engagement and success, and recognizing its importance is fundamental to student life at UBC. UBC’s focus on people, undergraduate and graduate student experiences, and the development of a vibrant intellectual community is strengthened significantly through a commitment to enhancing student mental health and well-being.

While it is important to focus on students in need of professional intervention and care, without a more integrated approach to mental health and well-being we will not structurally and systemically impact our community in ways that broadly support mental health and well-being for all students.

With this in mind, UBC is continuing its work on the Mental Health and Well-being Strategy to support and enhance student mental health and well-being.

> Download the latest Mental Health and Well-being Strategy working document (May 2012, 2.9 MB)

The Committee serves a very important role. It assists the President by investigating allegations of non-academic misconduct made against UBC Vancouver students under the Student Code of Conduct, and reporting its findings to the President. Members of the Committee are appointed by the President on the recommendation of the University Counsel. Except for the Committee Chair, all members of the Committee will be UBC Vancouver students. For more information about the role of the Committee, please see the website of the Office of the University Counsel and the Rules of the Committee.

To ensure that a broad range of students are represented on the Committee, the University Counsel is inviting students who are interested in serving on the Committee to submit their names for consideration. If you wish to be considered, you should provide the following information via email by May 4, 2012 to university.counsel@ubc.ca:

1. your first and last name
2. your student number
3. the name of your Faculty
4. your telephone number
5. your e-mail address
6. your mailing address
7. an explanation of 100 words or less explaining your interest in joining the Committee

If you wish, you may also provide a reference letter from a UBC faculty member, but a reference letter is not required.

Approximately 15 students will be selected to serve on the Committee. Quorum for each Committee meeting is the Chair and at least 2 Committee members, and meetings are set between 9am and 5pm, Monday to Friday. Meetings will be scheduled to fit the needs of the Committee members involved in each case. Training opportunities for Committee members will be provided by the Office of the University Counsel.

If you are selected to serve on the Committee, you will be contacted by telephone or e-mail by the Office of the University Counsel to confirm your willingness to serve on the Committee. If you are not selected, your information will be kept on file for one year in case vacancies arise.

For Mike Johnston, a fourth-year student in the Faculty of Arts, participating in a Reading Week program facilitated by the UBC-Community Learning Initiative (UBC-CLI) allowed him to share his passion for poetry with elementary school students while learning outside the classroom.

The initiative

This February, Mike and other UBC students participated in an initiative at Queen Alexandra Elementary to increase self-expression for kids through three days of activities in poetry, music, and photography. Working in the poetry stream, Mike and six other students guided students through writing exercises to increase their sense of confidence.

The experience

Working at Queen Alexandra Elementary was Mike’s first exposure to an inner-city school, and initially he held certain stereotypes about attending students. An orientation by school staff gave Mike a better understanding of the daily social and economic challenges the kids faced. Over the three-day period of the initiative, he and his peers witnessed kids shift from shyness and a reluctance to participate to an eagerness to express themselves creatively and an abundance of talent. He felt that the “kids were teaching us.” It opened him up to problems they were dealing and he learned “to make no [assumptions] about socioeconomic circumstances people find themselves in.”

The learning

“This community experience has been one of the most meaningful things I have done in my life,” says Mike. Through UBC-CLI’s Reading Week program, Mike has come to believe that “sharing within a community benefits everyone.”

Mike found further inspiration in the people he met, like Rick Lee, a teacher who made a strong impact on his students. Mike says Rick “gave me an idea of what it would look like if I wanted to become a teacher [and] new insight into what my future could be.”

As a result of his experience, Mike feels able to make more strategic decisions on what he learns in class. Referring to his English and Media Theories course, Mike now sees the interplay between the theory on computer tools and technologies usage and its application among kids at Queen Alexandra Elementary, who use Facebook and iPhones to communicate. He brings that knowledge back to class. “Community-based passion-driven learning can teach you how to become a better student.”

Next steps

Mike hopes to participate in further community learning initiatives and has applied to do a summer project at Queen Alexandra Elementary through the UBC-CLI’s Chapman & Innovation Grants. “As long as you are passionate, and…open to new experiences and new ways of learning about yourself…it will transform.”

With Early Alert, faculty and staff can identify their concerns about students sooner and in a more coordinated way. This gives students the earliest possible connection to the right resources and support, before difficulties become overwhelming.

Watch the following video and visit www.earlyalert.ubc.ca for more information on the program.