A Message from the Dean

April 2007

Dear Students,

Over the course of this academic year, nearly 2,000 students have participated in events and workshops offered by Rackham. We have expanded our social event offerings, providing opportunities for students to connect with students in and out of the graduate program. We are pleased to see many of you at Rackham and we look forward to a continued relationship with you!

The Active U physical activity challenge wrapped up last week. Though the official program has concluded, there will continue to be health information and tips available on the Michigan Healthy Community website:

http://www.umich.edu/~hraa/mhealthy/index.html

I encourage you to stay active and make use of the resources available on our campus.

We have developed the final issue of GradConnect for the academic year, a newsletter dedicated to information, programs, and activities on campus to help you both personally and professionally. You can access the most recent issue as well as back issues by visiting:

http://www.rackham.umich.edu/StudentInfo/hwi/gc.html

You may wish to bookmark this site to refer back to when you have questions about resources on campus.

The 34th annual Dexter-Ann Arbor Run will take place on June 3, 2007. The proceeds from this year's event will benefit the C.S. Mott Children's Hospital, Hope Medicial Clinic, Inc., and The Michigan Blind Athletic Association (MBAA). Whether you are a regular runner or walker or you are just getting started, I invite you to “Challenge Yourself for Charity” at this year's event. To encourage you to participate, the Rackham Graduate School will pledge $15 of the registration fee for all races for graduate student participants.* Visit http://dexterannarborrun.com/ by May 6 for more details and to register for the 'Rackham Graduate School Team.'

* Medical School students, please note that your registration fee is sponsored in full by the Office of Student Programs at the Medical School. Please contact Denise Brennan ( or 763-6362) for more details.

Whether you are taking courses, conducting research, beginning an internship, or pursuing another exciting endeavor, I wish you a safe, happy, and successful summer. For those of you graduating this semester, congratulations and best wishes for the next stage of your career!

Sincerely,

Janet A. Weiss

Dean, Rackham Graduate School and Vice Provost for Academic Affairs

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February 2007

Dear Students,

The Rackham Health and Wellness Initiative has some wonderful programs this semester open to all graduate students.

Are you looking for a way to get more exercise? The Active U program begins tomorrow (February 6). It's not too late to sign up as an individual, join an existing team or start your own team. Registration is open through February 6. To register and for more information, visit

http://www.umich.edu/~hraa/mhealthy/index.html

Look at the new issue of GradConnect, a newsletter to connect you to resources on campus to help you both personally and professionally. You can see the most recent issue (as well as back issues) by visiting

http://www.rackham.umich.edu/StudentInfo/hwi/gc.html

You may wish to bookmark this site to refer back to when you have questions about resources on campus.

Our student advisory board has been hard at work planning activities in the focus areas of nutrition, physical activity, and mental health.

  • Rackham will be sponsoring cooking classes on Monday evenings in March, as a part of National Nutrition Month. Class participants will be asked to make a food or monetary donation to Food Gatherers, Washtenaw County's food bank. Registration information will be available on the Rackham website.
  • Join us on February 28 for the Spring Break breakfast event at Rackham Graduate School from 8:30am-11am. Take a moment from your studying to enjoy a relaxing breakfast with your friends. More details and registration information are available at: http://www.rackham.umich.edu/StudentInfo/Calendar/Winter/month2.html
  • Rackham will be hosting Stress Down Days in March and April, to help you think about ways to reduce day-to-day stress in your life. Each Stress Down Day will feature activities to help you beat the winter blues. More information about these events will be forthcoming on the Rackham website.
  • The student advisory board is organizing walking and jogging groups for those who would like peer support to get more active. We will also have trail maps available on our website in the coming weeks.

I hope your semester is going well. We hope to see you at our upcoming events and activities!

Sincerely,

Janet A. Weiss

Dean, Rackham Graduate School and Vice Provost for Academic Affairs

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December 2006

Dear Students,

We have progress to report on Rackham's Health and Wellness Initiative.

We recently convened a student advisory board to help plan future programs for the Health and Wellness Initiative. This group represents nine schools and colleges. If you are interested in learning more or would like to participate in future meetings, please contact Natalie Bartolacci at .

The Michigan Healthy Community Initiative (MHCI) was launched by President Mary Sue Coleman to promote the health and well-being of the U-M community. One of its major activities is Active U, a web-based tracking program to promote physical activity among the U-M community. In its first year, Active U was open to faculty and staff only. For 2007, it will also be open to graduate and professional school students. Registration begins in January 8 and the program will run from February 6 - April 3. To learn more about the program, please visit http://www.umich.edu/~hraa/mhealthy/index.html.

On January 29, 2007, Rackham will be holding a health and fitness fair for graduate and professional school students. We will be offering health and fitness screenings, onsite registration for Active U, a workshop on nutrition topics, and other exciting health and wellness-related activities. More information about the event will be forthcoming. I hope you take the opportunity to participate in this free event to learn more about how to take care of your health.

We have developed a new issue of GradConnect, a newsletter dedicated to connecting you to resources on campus to help you both personally and professionally. In this issue, we have contributions from University Health Service (UHS), Knowledge Navigation Center, University Center for the Child and the Family (UCCF), The Career Center, University Center for the Development of Language and Literacy (UCLL), the Psychological Clinic, and MFit. It is available at http://www.rackham.umich.edu/StudentInfo/hwi/gc.html. You may wish to bookmark this site to refer back to when you have questions about resources on campus.

There are many resources available to you on our campus. I hope you will reach out to them when you need assistance. Good luck with the remainder of your semester!

Sincerely,

Janet A. Weiss

Dean, Rackham Graduate School and Vice Provost for Academic Affairs

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October 2006

Dear Students,

Welcome to the University of Michigan! Whether this is your first semester at the University or you are a seasoned graduate student, it is sure to be an exciting and challenging year ahead.

I'm writing to tell you about Rackham's Health and Wellness Initiative. Juvenal's famous dictum, "Mens sana in corpore sano" (i.e., a healthy mind in a healthy body) reminds us that outstanding academic success often rests on the energy and resilience of good health. Although there are many ways for you to obtain support for a healthy life on our campus, the size and complexity of the University can make these resources difficult to identify and locate. To help bring resources closer to you, the Rackham Graduate School has introduced a Health and Wellness Initiative for graduate and professional school students.

This past winter, we began a mental health awareness campaign. The goals of this campaign were to raise awareness of mental health issues on our campus, to reduce the stigma attached to mental illness, and to educate students about available mental health resources. You may have seen our "got stress?" brochure, which guides students to mental health resources in our community. We maintain our dedication to mental health issues in our programming this academic year. Our planned activities include a mental health screening event on October 5, and several workshops on stress management and the imposter syndrome.

The first major project for the campaign was a survey to gather feedback from graduate students about health and wellness topics, developed in collaboration with several student affairs units on campus. We invited 5,000 graduate and professional school students to participate in the survey in February, 2006. We received over 1,000 responses to the survey from students representing all schools and colleges. The results from the survey have assisted us in planning activities and programs for the 2006-2007 academic year. We noticed considerable interest and concern about nutrition and physical activity topics, and we have tailored our programming this year to address these issues.

A new project for this year is GradConnect, a newsletter to connect you to resources on campus to help you both personally and professionally. This publication will be distributed electronically four times per academic year and will highlight resources for mental health, physical health, academic and career issues, and other health-related information. The first issue of GradConnect is available on Rackham's website by visiting the following link: http://www.rackham.umich.edu/StudentInfo/hwi/gc.html. I invite you to take a moment to review the information; you may be surprised to learn how much is available to you on our campus.

We will continue working closely with graduate and professional school students to develop student-focused programming for the coming years of the Health and Wellness Initiative. If you are interested in joining a student advisory board for the Initiative, please contact Natalie Bartolacci at .

To learn more about the Health and Wellness Initiative, please visit http://www.rackham.umich.edu/StudentInfo/hwi/index.html.

I wish you the best of luck for a successful academic year!

Sincerely,

Janet A. Weiss

Dean, Rackham Graduate School and Vice Provost for Academic Affairs

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