University Statements

Dear students, faculty, and staff:

As the academic year begins, we’d like to share updates on campus-wide initiatives to support and improve our community’s well-being in response to recommendations from the Mental Health Review (MHR).

Following the 2020 Final Report, we have implemented dozens of improvements including promoting social connectedness and belonging for all students, reducing clinical wait times for students seeking mental health services, providing resources to faculty to create health-promoting classrooms, and creating clear expectations for graduate student success.

We are pleased to share these developments on the Mental Health at Cornell website, which is home to helpful resources for all undergraduate, graduate, and professional students (including Cornell Tech), and for faculty and staff.

Next steps: Becoming a health-promoting campus
This semester, Cornell plans to adopt the Okanagan Charter, an international guide for universities to become “health promoting-campuses.” We will join institutions across the world focused on embedding holistic health into all aspects of the academic, administrative, co-curricular, and operational culture of the university.

Listening and brainstorming sessions with students, staff, and faculty are underway to create a well-being vision for Cornell. We seek diverse input in this endeavor and encourage you to register to participate at mhrc@cornell.edu.

Finally, Cornell also will form multi-disciplinary teams (academic, clinical services, campus community) to guide the process of becoming a health-promoting campus. One team will focus exclusively on research, measuring progress over time by assessing the impact of programs, policies, and environmental strategies on mental health and well-being at Cornell.

We all have a role to play in supporting the well-being of our community. We thank you for your involvement and support and hope you will join us in making Cornell a health-promoting campus for all.

Wishing you a wonderful semester,

Kathryn Boor
Dean of the Graduate School and Vice Provost for Graduate Education

Ryan Lombardi
Vice President for Student and Campus Life

Lisa Nishii
Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education