The simple things can make faculty and staff feel good about working at UCCS.
Smiling or saying “good morning” can make someone’s day, Susan Szpyrka, vice chancellor, Administration and Finance, said during a March All-Campus Forum “A Community of Caring.”
“We are what we decide we want to be,” Szpyrka said. “If we want to be a community of caring, we will be. If we decide we don’t, we can go in that direction, too. This isn’t something that can be mandated. It’s something we have to bring – all of us collectively.”
Szpyrka, Stephanie Hanenberg, executive director, Student Health Services, Benek Altayli, director, University Counseling Center; Jeff Spicher, director, UCCS HealthCircle Primary Care Clinic, and Jeanne Durr, executive director, Office of Human Resources, shared ways that UCCS seeks to create a caring community. Some comments outlined formal actions including health insurance, counseling services, and the availability of HealthCircle clinics in the Lane Center. Others talked about informal actions ranging from walking groups, book clubs, visiting the campus art gallery or attending a campus lecture.
“Benek and Jeanne both called this out in their presentations,” Szpyrka said. “The personal touch that you make with your colleagues is amazing. Just smiling at someone and saying good morning can do for their day whether it’s someone you work with or a student who comes into your office. It may be the only smile or good morning they get. It really sets the tone.”
The forum began with a snack different than the usual coffee and cookies.
Nanna Meyer, associate professor, Beth-El College of Nursing and Health Sciences, introduced two graduate students who served locally grown salad greens with the message of “picked with love and cooked for you with love.”
The salads provided a punchline for Hanenberg.
“If you are really caring, and the person next to you has green left in their teeth, you should tell them.”
Altayli emphasized the challenge that a fast-growing campus presents to personal relationships.
“We need to make sure that the policies, procedures and laws that guide our conduct not be the only guide for our relationships,” Altayli said. “Having the best interest of each other at heart – no matter who we are or what the roles are – is the beginning point, the building block, of a caring community.”
Hanenberg encouraged faculty and staff to care for themselves by exercising, eating a healthy diet, getting adequate sleep and taking advantage of campus perquisites ranging from massage therapy to campus lectures. She also encouraged having a campus peer support group and being safe, including emergency preparedness training.
To care for others, Hanenberg and Altayli reviewed services offered by the Office of the Dean of Students, the Department of Public Safety, the Student Health Center and the HealthCircle Primary Care Clinic, the Dean of Students, University Counseling Center and the Office of Disability Services and University Testing Center. Special response teams are available to assist a student or faculty and staff member in crisis.
“Part of caring for others is to know – to take the responsibility to know about all of them and be able to refer people to locations, offices and individuals where they can get what they need,” Altayli said.
Spicher outlined the services of the HealthCircle Primary Care Clinic as well as the services of other HealthCircle clincs.
The Primary Care Clinic is a nurse-managed clinic believed to be the first of its kind in Colorado. For UCCS faculty and staff and their families, confidential, close-to-campus acute and chronic care services are available. Acute care could be a sore throat, fever or cough. Chronic care services include help with hypertension or diabetes. The clinic emphasizes wellness and disease prevention.
“Most of you who have gone to see your primary care provider in the past year have seen a nurse practitioner or PA,” Spicher said. “I would venture a guess that most of you don’t get in to see your doctor most of the time.”
The Primary Care Clinic is integrated with other HealthCircle clinics such as the Aging Center, Peak Nutrition Clinic, the Center for Active Living and the Trauma, Health and Hazards Clinic.
Durr reviewed employee needs as personal growth and fulfillment, recognition, relationship and belonging, financial needs and security and safety before outlining a myriad of offices and programs designed to provide fulfill those needs.
“It is our responsibility to take care of one another and ourselves and to stand up for those individuals who are being belittled or disenfranchised,” Durr said.
Media Services recorded the forum. See the recording below.
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