Healthy Campus Initiative offers grants to student groups
Healthy Campus Initiative Funding
$2.5 million
Amount given by the Semels, long-time benefactors of the university, to fund the initiative
$1,500
Amount issued to select student groups who contribute to the initiative
25-35
Number of student groups that will be selected.
SOURCE: Michael Goldstein, assistant vice provost and head of the health initiative
By Lawrence Han
Oct. 25, 2012 12:46 a.m.
Student groups have begun applying for a new grant that will fund projects encouraging healthy lifestyles at UCLA.
The grant is being offered by the Healthy Campus Initiative, which was created by Chancellor Gene Block and his advisers last year as a way to make health and wellness more prominent on campus, said Michael Goldstein, assistant vice provost and head of the health initiative.
The initiative’s long-term goals include providing a wider variety of healthy food and exercise options on campus, taking into account health effects when making administrative decisions, and creating an overall sense of health consciousness in the UCLA community, said Goldstein, who was appointed in January to run the operation.
The chancellor also created a steering committee ““ headed by the executive vice chancellor ““ to monitor the overall progress of the initiative.
A $2.5 million donation by Terry and Jane Semel, long-time benefactors of the university and namesakes of the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA, is funding the initiative.
Goldstein is working with other university officials to implement a campuswide ban on smoking, expand gardens on campus, make stairways more accessible and well-furnished and create outdoor exercise areas, among other measures.
It may take months, however, before any of these measures are put into action. So far, officials have mostly been talking to people, conducting meetings and assessing what issues need to be addressed for the Healthy Campus Initiative, Goldstein said.
“It’s a multiyear effort, and this is going to expand more and more every year until the whole campus is involved,” Goldstein said.
The new grant is the first project undertaken by the Healthy Campus Initiative to ensure that students are involved in promoting healthy choices.
Goldstein said he does not know how popular the grant will be among student groups, but has allocated funding for at least 25 student groups to be endowed up to $1,500 each, to be received the first week of winter quarter. The project deadline is set for the end of spring quarter.
To receive funding, projects must appear to make a positive impact on health, Goldstein said.
Student groups can submit an application, available by an emailed request to the initiative officials, with their proposal for a health change they want to make on campus and their method for evaluating their project’s success, Goldstein said.
The initiative will choose applicants based on the potential success of the proposal, he said.
The UCLA Student Food Collective, a group that plans to open a cooperative grocery store to make healthy food more accessible and cost-friendly on campus, is among one of the applicants.
Students working in the co-op can help make managerial decisions, such as deciding what produce to sell.
“We hope to respect the diversity of food on campus by letting students from all over campus be able to participate,” said Shaydanay Urbani, a fourth-year environmental studies student and project director of the collective.
Funding from the health initiative will only cover a fraction of the expenses for funding the grocery store, Urbani said.
She added that the group plans to apply for another grant with The Green Initiative Fund, which supports environmentally friendly projects on campus.
Hermanos Unidos, a predominantly Latino student group, is also applying for the healthy initiative grant and has several projects ideas if it receives the money.
One idea is to host a janitor appreciation dinner on campus, where topics on healthy living and eating will be discussed, said Miguel Liera, a fourth-year Chicano studies student and external social chair of the group.
Members of the group also hope to discuss diabetes prevention and treatment options on UCLAradio.com, Liera said.
“We feel that living healthy is an important aspect that is not really focused on in college,” Liera said. “We want to let the community know that many healthy options exist.”
The grant will be offered for five years, though Goldstein said it may be extended depending on how well it is received.
The deadline to submit applications for this year is Nov. 2.
