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Amy Gutmann president@UPENN.EDU
A Message to the Penn Community
April 24, 2018 at 12:44 PM
ALL-UNDERGRADS-EMAIL@LISTS.UPENN.EDU

A Message to the Penn Community
from
Amy Gutmann, President
Wendell Pritche7, Provost
Valarie Swain-Cade McCoullum, Vice Provost for University Life

 
 
This year, we have seen a vibrantly energized culture of wellness at Penn. In October, we held a
Campus ConversaIon to discuss how we can best take care of ourselves and others. We followed
this ConversaIon in November by launching a Campaign for Wellness and announcing increased
staffing and an operaIonal review at Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS). Since that
Ime, we have conInued to advance wellness at Penn through such iniIaIves as a new Wellness
at Penn website, a second Campus ConversaIon about wellness, and a huge increase in
parIcipaIon in our invaluable Take Your Professor to Lunch program.
 
We are wriIng to update you on our next steps to advance the wellness of the Penn community.
First, we have established a new posiIon of Chief Wellness Officer. This campus leader will be
responsible for furthering all aspects of wellness at Penn, including the combined oversight of
CAPS, the Student Health Service, and the Office of Alcohol and Other Drug Program IniIaIves,
which will together be called Student Wellness Services. The search for the person to fill this new
posiIon will be separate from the search for a new ExecuIve Director of CAPS, and we expect to
complete both searches during the fall semester.
 
Second, as a result of the CAPS operaIonal review, we will introduce an integrated set of
improvements to student wellness services, including the services offered by CAPS. The overall
goal of these measures will be to create faster access to care, for more students, across a wider
range of opIons. We will aim to increase capacity at CAPS; decrease the Ime between a first
CAPS consultaIon and a first counseling appointment; be7er disInguish short-term care, longterm care, and other kinds of wellness care; expand the use of phone, video, and app-based
technologies that can be accessed anywhere, at any Ime; and expand the availability of texIng to
find addiIonal means of support for students in crisis.
 
Provost Pritche7 will oversee implementaIon of these improvements, in collaboraIon with Vice
Provost McCoullum and other partners across the University, to ensure a unified and
comprehensive approach to wellness at Penn.
 
We are grateful to the disInguished campus leaders who conducted this review of CAPS: Dr. Jody
Foster, Chair, Department of Psychiatry, Pennsylvania Hospital; Thomas Gakis, Chief OperaIng
Officer, Department of Medicine; Monica Heuer, Director of Change Management, Penn
Medicine; Beth Johnston, ExecuIve Director, Clinical PracIces; Dr. Caryn Lerman, Vice Dean of
PSOM and John H. Glick Professor of Psychiatry; Roy Rosin, Chief InnovaIon Officer, Penn
Medicine; and Maureen Rush, Vice President for Public Safety. We are equally indebted to the
exemplary service of CAPS ExecuIve Director Bill Alexander, who has dedicated himself for
almost two decades to providing outstanding care for our Penn students and their families.

 almost two decades to providing outstanding care for our Penn students and their families.
 
We thank everyone in our community for helping us to sustain the most healthy and supporIve
campus environment, one in which every member of our community can thrive. We look forward
to updaIng you again in the fall about our conInuing efforts to advance wellness at Penn.
 
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