Last semester, Oberlin Student Wellbeing Advocacy Group was created as a chartered student organization in order to bridge a communication gap between students and health-related offices on campus. The group meets regularly with administrators and works with other organizations to create a more informed environment around wellness.
“It really gives [the administration] the opportunity to hear what’s going on with the students more than anything else,” College third-year and Chair of SWAG Ana Howard said. “A lot of the time, we’ve found that they don’t even know that these are issues that students are experiencing. So I think it’s really helpful, and we’ve been able to communicate a lot about what students need and get immediate feedback on that.”
SWAG is an open resource for students to reach out for any wellness-related help they need. Among other projects, SWAG has been compiling resources that the student body has access to. According to Howard, this includes campus resources, community resources, statewide resources, and online hotline resources, as well as potential workshops on somatics and insurance. SWAG will also hold office hours with four peer liaisons.
“A lot of the offices can be intimidating to reach out to, and that’s why we’re here to be that middle ground,” College third-year and SWAG Community Liaison Sydney Epstein said. “That’s really our goal … to help promote everyone’s wellness, whatever that looks like for them individually.”
The organization has also been working closely with other student organizations like the Sexual Information Center, Survivors of Sexual Harm and Allies, and the Multicultural Resource Commons, as well as with The Nord Center, a sexual health center.
SWAG has been in close contact with the Office of Student Health and Wellbeing, communicating frequently with Executive Director Andrew Oni.
“Wellbeing at Oberlin is a holistic approach to life, to the person at Oberlin College,” Oni said. “Our goal is to create not just an environment, but equally to give students the self-agency to take care of themselves or advocate for themselves, because wellbeing is not one person’s job. It’s all our jobs. Because we are a community at Oberlin College, we want to make sure that everyone is part of that.”
Oni and his team have welcomed student concerns and feedback. They hope to continue aiding SWAG and other health and wellness organizations on campus.
“If we are not listening to students, and I’m planning programs around students [that are] not meeting their needs, we’re simply wasting our time,” Oni said. “Student Wellbeing Advocacy Group has done a good job in helping us to understand what they want and how we can support them.”
Howard expressed her hopes for SWAG’s upcoming projects.
“We’re really excited, and we’re all very passionate about this and we all have personal experiences,” Howard said. “Specifically, we really want to promote the peer support that will be starting in a couple of weeks because … I think that we could get a lot of insight about what students need through that.”
