IU Recreational Sports continues to spark change within campus rec

Having completed the course Recreation for Wellbeing: Elevating Our Impact, the Indiana University Recreational Sports team—which consists of approximately 50 professional staff members—is well on its way to making systemic changes that positively impact the wellbeing of IU students and, subsequently, the entirety of the IU campus.

The next step for IU RecSports was to dive deeper into how the content from the course could be translated into tangible next steps. With this goal in mind, all IU RecSports professional staff attended a July 10, 2024 Recreation for Wellbeing event led by NIRSA Director of Advocacy & Strategic Partnerships Erin O’Sullivan.

A focus on improvement science and how to navigate change during the event allowed IU RecSports professionals to engage in productive discussions regarding action plans that each staff member has put into place.

“Our participation in the NIRSA Recreation for Wellbeing course and our time with Erin O’Sullivan has equipped our team with foundational knowledge and principles that will help shape the future of our work,” says Josh Downing, Associate Director of Programs at IU RecSports. “With the IUB 2030 Strategic Plan specifically calling out wellbeing as critical to the student experience, this knowledge will help shape the direction of IU Recreational Sports’ own specific strategic plan.”

A mandate for student wellbeing and belonging

The IUB 2030 Strategic Plan focuses on inclusion, wellness, and student support as part of the Student Success and Opportunity pillar. Recreational Sports is part of the Office of Student Life, which includes 26 departments doing work that impacts involvement and belonging, care and advocacy, and health and wellbeing on IU’s campus.

Chris Arvin, Executive Director of IU RecSports, says the principles of the Recreation for Wellbeing course have inspired a set of priorities for IU RecSports to focus on over the next 18 months. “These priorities have been shaped by the IUB 2030 Strategic Plan, which calls out the importance of wellbeing and belonging as critical components of the student experience,” explains Chris.

One example includes maximizing how RecSports can be a prominent entry point to health and wellbeing opportunities on campus by leveraging the high levels of engagement RecSports already has cultivated to better connect students with other partners and resources on campus. Another example includes an “IU-ification” of RecSports spaces to help students develop a stronger sense of belonging.

Consistency and curiosity are keys

Other leaders within the Health and Well-Being pillar of the Office of Student Life also participated in a session with Erin in order to build a consistent foundation of knowledge regarding systems-level changes that allow for expanded impact. “Being able to talk the same language and align goals with our colleagues across campus is a great way to emphasize the importance of a collective approach to our work,” explains Chris.

An important recurring topic of conversation throughout the day of the Recreation for Wellbeing event was the art of being curious and how it can help teams dig deep while making changes at the systems level.

“One of the things I really valued is shifting my mindset to the system level rather than remaining fixated on the individual level,” says Chris Geary, Service Director for Student Personnel, Evaluation, and Special Projects at IU RecSports. “System level change is where it’s at for a sustained, scalable impact.”

Throughout the day, team members from each unit within RecSports completed tasks that focused on the importance of collective impact and how working as a team can help successfully incorporate the wellbeing of students into everything they do. “It’s imperative that we look at the systems and settings affecting the student experience and re-work those to ensure we’re supporting students’ wellbeing,” says Josh.

Personalized action plans

As part of the Recreation for Wellbeing course, each participant created their own action plan. During one exercise at the event, colleagues from each RecSports unit shared their action plans in small groups to bring all of the components together, share ideas, and determine which plans are feasible for immediate implementation and which plans may take more time.

For example, one of the intramural sports team members had an action plan that aims to improve tracking sheets and other frequently used documents to increase the department’s efficiency. This would allow for more time to be spent on tasks that directly impact participants and hourly staff.

The intramural sports team would also be able to spend more time developing programs and ideas that improve the participant experience and support hourly staff in their current roles while also preparing them for their next steps beyond college.

Additionally, IU RecSports will be reimagining service standards to better align with supporting health and wellbeing and to focus on the “how” of their work.

“As we talked more, the feasibility of the action plans became more real,” says Michael Hettinger, Coordinator for Club Sports at IU RecSports.

IU RecSports team members like Allison Ferguson, who serves as Outreach and Relational Service Coordinator, felt the impact of the event almost immediately: “This time together built upon NIRSA’s Recreation for Wellbeing course. Erin was impactful because we were able to individually workshop what wellness means to us through our own particular lens or role. It helped define what we as individuals can do to support student wellness and wellbeing by making both systemic and programmatic changes.”

Moving forward, IU RecSports is excited about the future of campus recreation. “This is a pivotal moment for IU and higher education to rise up and meet today’s students and their desire for more recreation and wellness opportunities in campus settings,” says Hannah Armstrong, Associate Director of Operations. “At RecSports, we want to do all that we can to support Hoosiers in their health and wellbeing journey while at IU.”

Interested in NIRSA’s Recreation for Wellbeing course?

NIRSA will open registration for a second iteration of its Recreation for Wellbeing course later in Fall 2024. This iteration will launch in February 2025.

The upcoming iteration will follow a different format and structure than the first; however, its goals remain unchanged. Participants of all career levels will gain an understanding of the foundations of wellbeing, learn why wellbeing is critical to and inherent in all areas of campus recreation, and know how to navigate the landscape of wellbeing on their campus.