Engemann continues implementation of Collective Impact plan

The Office for Health Promotion Strategy is beginning to “write the narrative” of student health on campus, thanks to new data and strategies that were launched last semester with Collective Impact.

The Collective Impact plan, led by Vice President for Student Affairs Ainsley Carry, is a new, cross-sector approach that hopes to reshape the USC community as a whole. Its four strategic goals include: enhancing equity and inclusion, cultivating a culture for communities and individuals to thrive, addressing substance abuse on campus and promoting consent and healthy relationships. Each goal is led by faculty members whose work range from campus-wide meetings to one-on-one conversations with students.  

“[The plan creates] a structure for people from different departments, schools, colleges, to work together on complicated problems in our community,” Chief Health Officer Sarah Van Orman said.

The Office for Health Promotion Strategy, which serves as the backbone of the Collective Impact plan, surveyed 4,650 students last spring with its USC Healthy Minds Study.

The survey, which sampled undergraduate, graduate and doctoral student populations, found that 25 percent of USC students had moderate to severe depression, with LGBTQ+ students experiencing the highest rate. It also found that 8 percent of USC students have contemplated suicide, with black students experiencing the highest rate at 10 percent.

“There is a lot of mental health need on campus, like we expected,” Van Orman said. “USC students are not different from the national data set … [but] there’s also a lot of students who are thriving.”  

Van Orman said USC’s new approach makes it one of the only universities in the country to implement the Collective Impact plan.

“There are not other campuses doing this in this way … we’re excited about this as making us a real leader in the field, ” Van Orman said.

The results of the survey illustrated trends that the Office for Health Promotion Strategy plans to incorporate into the Collective Impact plan.

“The data is going to help us a lot,” said Paula Swinford, director of the Office for Health Promotion Strategy. “We have hired somebody to work with our data, so we’re beginning to understand … so that we don’t say things like, ‘All students at USC …’ anymore.”

The results of a second Healthy Minds Study, which was sent to students last semester, are still being analyzed.

Swinford said she was excited about last semester’s launch of a “Student Well-being Council,” which comprises high-level administrators and a student representative from both the Undergraduate and Graduate student governments.

“The Student Well-being Council is focused on broadening the collective impact,” Swinford said. “It’s also a way that policies can get discussed and kind of bigger picture considerations and recommendations can be looked at.”

Swinford said the council is working on streamlining the pre-enrollment curriculum, which educates new students on alcohol and drug use and consensual relationships.

One aspect of the Collective Impact plan is already in place at the lobby outside the Starbucks at Cafe 84: a self-care vending machine that contains condoms, pregnancy tests, medicine and other supplies that might otherwise be hard for students to access. Carry said the vending machine will be operational within the next two weeks.

Carry, who announced last month that he will depart from USC in April, said the Collective Impact plan is not dependent on one person or organization.

“Collective Impact is our collective efforts to do all of the things needed to create a safer campus community for students with regard to particular health issues,” Carry said. “So one person’s exit or entry doesn’t change the Collective Impact effort.”

A replacement for Carry’s position has not yet been chosen.

Carry also said the results of Collective Impact will not be apparent to the campus community for a while, as many of the goals of the plan are long-term.

The Office of Health Promotion Strategy is currently recruiting eight paid community health organizers, who Swinford said will be dedicated to different campus populations.

The student organizers will comprise four undergraduate and four graduate students, and will run student focus groups and attend staff meetings on Collective Impact.

“Collective Impact is a flavor of collaboration and community development,” Swinford said. “We always knew that in order to do this work long term, the students have to be a part of the conversation.”