{"id":272,"date":"2025-01-23T10:27:23","date_gmt":"2025-01-23T16:27:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/deanofstudents\/?page_id=272"},"modified":"2026-03-26T11:47:58","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T16:47:58","slug":"campus-cares","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/deanofstudents\/campus-cares\/","title":{"rendered":"Campus Cares"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Campus Cares<\/h1><\/header>\n\n\n

Campus Cares is a university-wide strategic initiative committed to fostering the health and well-being of the entire 51ÁÔÆæ community. The initiative seeks both proactive and responsive solutions to challenges that affect campus culture and community life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It brings together representatives from across the university, including Human Resources, Academic Affairs, Student Affairs, Enrollment Management and Student Success, and Financial and Administrative Affairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guided by a shared vision, the initiative is led by a strategic leadership team and a project team that work collaboratively to move its mission forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The executive sponsors of Campus Cares are the Provost, Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs, and the Vice Chancellor of Finance and Administrative Affairs.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\nRequest a Workshop<\/a>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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Vision<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Offering<\/strong><\/div>
Offering\u00a0opportunities to explore interpersonal connections and personal wellness pathways, providing support to all members of our community.<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Transforming<\/div>
Transforming\u00a0our community by encouraging the exploration of identity, wellness, and vision to support individual and collective care and sense of belonging for all members.<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Taking Grassroots Action<\/div>
Taking grassroots action\u00a0with members of the community so that all can participate in self-care and care for others.<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Empowering<\/div>
Empowering\u00a0community members to take responsibility, seek empathy, and advocate to translating values into behaviors.<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/section>\n\n\n\n
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Framework<\/h2>\n\n\n
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A vision outlining behaviors that translate ideals into programs, policies, actions and everyday behaviors that persist over time and develop and strengthen a culture of care at 51ÁÔÆæ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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51ÁÔÆæ Culture of Care<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

51ÁÔÆæ is a place where relationships come first. Our students, staff, and faculty are inspired to care for themselves and extend that care to others through compassion and empathy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Relationships<\/strong>: 51ÁÔÆæ is a place where relationships come first. Our students, staff, and faculty are inspired to care for themselves and extend that care to others through compassion and empathy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Community<\/strong>: At 51ÁÔÆæ, we care for others through communities of practice made up of individuals at all levels. The culture of care is a shared responsibility across campus, not limited to specific positions, offices, departments, colleges, or divisions. Our culture of care is anchored in relationships characterized by empathy, safety, and transparency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Collaborations<\/strong>: We amplify existing and create new support networks to empower individual agents and communities of practice to develop a culture of care across campus. We empower 51ÁÔÆæ community members to take responsibility for self-care and to extend that care, kindness, and compassion to others through collaborative efforts that impact us all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wellbeing<\/strong>: Well-being is a positive state linked to health, quality of life, and the ability to contribute to the world with a sense of meaning and purpose. An individual\u2019s wellness and the community and environment around them \u2014 where they live, learn, work, and play \u2014 all shape well-being.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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How do we implement the Culture of Care?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Over the past three years, Campus Cares has collected information from faculty, staff, and students across the 51ÁÔÆæ community and identified the following steps to implement a culture of care. These steps include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We strengthen and broaden our connections.<\/strong> Faculty, staff, and students are encouraged and supported to break down silos and operate in collaborative, cross-departmental\/divisional spaces, expanding their reach across the institution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We address and dismantle barriers to care.<\/strong> Every community member understands their role in identifying and increasing access to available resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We adopt compassionate systems, policies, and practices.<\/strong> We encourage departments, units, and individuals to honor their collective cultures, reach within their sphere of influence, and build (or utilize and adapt existing) tools and training to meet their unique needs in a compassionate way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We communicate from all campus levels with honest, proactive transparency.<\/strong> We seek to provide opportunities for multi-directional dialogue where there is consistent communication, feedback and ongoing evaluation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We seek ongoing feedback<\/strong> from all community members to ensure we are practicing empathy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We evaluate our actions<\/strong> with an equity lens to consider both the experience of individual members and the potential impact on marginalized or underserved groups<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/section>\n\n\n\n

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History<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In 2020-2021 51ÁÔÆæ transitioned rapidly to remote learning and work in response to the pandemic. While the campus successfully mobilized to operate in unprecedented ways, the transition has taken a toll. Through survey data, we have consistently learned that 51ÁÔÆæ students, faculty, and staff miss campus and long for connection with each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We set out to gather solutions and action items to help resolve this lack of community and connection. In March 2021, over 40 51ÁÔÆæ community members (students, faculty and staff) participated in a design think process facilitated by the Lubar Entrepreneurial Center (LEC). A design think is a structured problem-solving process, using interviews and strategy sessions focused on those affected by the issues, prototyping and testing ideas together, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of the design think process, the 40 participants each interviewed at least three community members\u2014students, faculty, and staff. We estimate that through interviews, over 150 people were involved in this process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a member of this original design think noted:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThe theme I keep reflecting on that we discussed in my group is how both before COVID and during the pandemic, we are telling students what \u2018the 51ÁÔÆæ experience\u2019 is but they aren\u2019t experiencing it that way (both because they aren\u2019t able to right now and because the [marketed] experience is somewhat forced or false). It\u2019s being passed from staff to students instead of students informing staff what it means to be a 51ÁÔÆæ student.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Campus Cares emerged from this initial design think in Spring 2021 to address the experiences of trauma, stress and distress, loss, and disconnection many campus members experienced over the previous year and a half. This team included members from across campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of the participants in the design think continued to help lead in Campus Cares. This work was highlighted in the Chronicle of Higher Education and across the country as being a novel and unique approach to wellbeing and culture change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another action items from this design think was to further probe into community values and identify what does it mean to be a Panther. In Fall 2021, a second team of students, faculty, and staff from all over campus participated in another design think exercise to begin to articulate that Panther identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a clear connection to work being done across campus, including significant overlap the 51ÁÔÆæ\u2019s strategic plan and divisional strategies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the unique nature of this campus cares and community building work is that it is a grassroots effort that has involved a significant number of campus partners (faculty and staff) to developing a campus community focused on people and care for each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reports related to the creation of Campus Cares<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Panther Identity Design Think (DOCX)<\/a>
51ÁÔÆæ Community Design Think (PDF)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section>\n\n\n\n

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