Big Idea 2015: College Can’t Just Be About Book Smarts. Health Matters Too

In this series of posts, Influencers and members predict the ideas and trends that will shape 2015. Read all the stories here and write your own (please include the hashtag #BigIdeas2015 in the body of your post).

When we parents send our children off to college, we worry about the cost, their study habits, their safety, who their roommate might be, how often they will call home. But perhaps we should be most concerned about an aspect of college life that will determine long-term well-being — their health.

Consider that lifelong habits and attitudes are formed during the impressionable young adult years, and that today’s college students are the leaders, influencers, and parents of tomorrow. By encouraging collegians to make healthy choices, and ensure that campuses promote those choices, we are helping secure our childrens' futures — and the future health of the nation that they will shape.

So my Big Idea for 2015: Help college students embrace health and wellness, and you change the world. Because the healthy habits that students develop now means they are more likely to be healthy employees, and raise children with the same healthy habits.

I know, you think I’m whistling down the wind. Health and college are not linked in most peoples’ minds. It’s not just the apocryphal Freshman 15 that we have to overcome. We seem to hear about nothing but negative health behaviors on campuses these days – alcohol and drug abuse, sexual assault, hazing, sleep loss, stress, sports concussions, gorging on junk food. And yet… there are now 1,477 tobacco-free college campuses, up from 446 just four years ago. And it turns out that the Freshman 15 has shrunk to a Freshman 3 to 6 at many campuses. Maybe college isn't as unhealthy as we thought.

College students, though, may be less healthy than we thought. According to a recent Institute of Medicine report funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, young adults age 18-25 have a worse health profile than both adolescents and adults in their late twenties and thirties. The report found that this age group is suffering from the same rates of obesity as the rest of the population. Almost one-fifth had a mental illness in the past year — yet two-thirds of those did not receive treatment. The good news? Most of the health problems afflicting young adults are preventable, which means that colleges have an opportunity to create environments and encourage habits that promote lifelong wellness.

There are plenty of schools moving in that direction. Spelman College in Atlanta, the nation’s oldest black women’s college — and my mother’s alma mater — ended its participation in intercollegiate sports in 2011 and redirected the college’s $900,000 athletics budget to a campuswide student health “wellness revolution.” There are 30 fitness classes a week throughout the campus with more than 1,300 students enrolled, out of a student body of 2,100. Administrators pass out water bottles and challenge students to drink two to three bottles of water a day, and options at the campus dining hall now include tofu, humus, and other vegetarian choices. The pizza is made with whole-wheat dough.

As Spelman president Beverly Daniel Tatum said, "One of the things colleges try to create with students are these habits of the mind. But it's also a wonderful time to develop what I call habits of the body. Students are making this investment in their education, and as educators we are investing in them. We want them to live long enough to see a return on that investment.”

A few more examples: UCLA’s comprehensive FITWELL program offers fitness classes, mind and body workshops, and online health education resources. Stanford University’s BeWell allows students to create a personal wellness plan based on a health assessment. The University of North Dakota's 7 Dimensions encompasses spiritual, emotional, and environmental health as well as physical. At the University of Texas at Austin, where the Healthy Campus Coalition’s slogan is “the healthy choice is the easy choice,” there is a campus wide wellness network and the dining halls promote nutritious food choices. The University of Pittsburgh uses locally sourced in its dining hall, helps students stay well with its healthyu program, and has a stress-free zone in the student union.

You get the idea — colleges are increasingly recognizing that they have to nurture the body as well as the mind. The Princeton Review, a leading college guide, even ranks college fitness centers and health facilities, based on student reviews. And every year MSN.com names the 50 fittest colleges -- check out the 2014 list, pretty impressive. These efforts will pay off far beyond the ivy-covered walls. Colleges and universities are often among the largest employers in their towns, and the programs they institute on campus can impact their staff and the surrounding community.

I believe college students today are open to these messages, now more than ever. Surveys indicate that young people want balance in their lives — a life that is good for them and good for the planet. More than a quarter of all college students volunteer every year, a sure sign that they care about making the world a better place. And part of building a healthy planet, and society, is creating a healthy you.

College students are too often told that these are the best years of their lives. Let’s freshen that cliché, and tell young adults that their college years can also be their healthiest. Our nation’s future well-being depends on their taking those words to heart.

I hope you will share your thoughts about how to build a Culture of Health on campuses – or colleges you know of that are already taking innovative steps to improve the health of their students.

Lower Photo: Spelman College