Healthy Campus Network: To make UC the healthiest place to work, learn and live.

The Healthy Campus Network (HCN) is a University of California systemwide initiative that promotes innovative reforms in all dimensions of health and well-being “to make UC the healthiest place to work, learn and live.” Supported by President Napolitano and GFI funding, the HCN aligns with GFI’s goals by engaging each UC location to address the need for a strong, sustainable campus-coordinating infrastructure. HCN is founded on a vision that, to fundamentally change our health environment, campus communities must invest in a host of small changes that add up to meaningful shifts, thus producing a lasting culture of health.

Healthy Campus Network Model

The HCN is a robust network of diverse coalitions across all 10 UC campuses working together to promote individual campus and systemwide changes to advance a culture of health and well-being. The HCN model draws on lessons learned from GFI, UCLA’s Healthy Campus Initiative, UCSF’s removal of sugar-sweetened beverages and the UC Smoke/Tobacco Free Policy implementation framework to maximize the GFI’s value and further UC’s mission of teaching, research and service. GFI’s HCN is unique in its inclusive approach toward the whole campus community — students, staff and faculty — who together conceive of, launch and study innovations that are occurring across UC to infuse health into everyday operations, business practices and academic and work life, creating a health-promoting university.

The key to the Healthy Campus Network is the coordinating infrastructure that emanates from the chancellor’s office, creating a strong, but flexible enough network to meet the differing demands each campus faces when addressing health and well-being for students, staff and faculty. The HCN systemwide co-chairs have connected campuses across the system to mobilize and support efforts for building implementation plans and providing resources to help guide local HCN committees in analyzing their location's assets, needs and sharing strategies for engagement. Ultimately, HCN can provide the momentum to influence social norms so that culture, environment and living well become integral to academic success at the University of California while aligning with the state of California’s Let’s Get Healthy California initiative.

Healthy Campus Network's Guiding Principles

1. The initiative is nimble in design to respond to each UC campus and health system's priorities.
2. The campus leadership emanates from the chancellor/CEO’s office.
3. Strengths and assets of the UC student, staff and faculty community are identified and leveraged to build upon for each campus.
4. The approach is inclusive with regular communication across campus and systemwide, and aligns with each campus’ strategic plan and vision as guided by the UC mission of research, education and public service.

Healthy Campus Network's Leadership

The Healthy Campus Network is led by systemwide co-chairs, Dr. Wendy Slusser (UCLA), Sanna Alas (UCLA), Dr. Laura Schmidt (UCSF) and Julie Chobdee (UC Riverside) who have collaborated with systemwide campus leads to develop the HCN framework. The HCN Campus leads include: