Message to the USC Community
From: Michael W. Quick, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs
January 16, 2018
Wellness and the promotion of mental, physical, and emotional health are longstanding priorities of the faculty, staff, and student communities at USC. As a way of proactively addressing wellness on campus, we launched Mindful USC four years ago as a secular, university-wide initiative focused on positive health outcomes and learning experiences for our campus community, especially in terms of stress reduction, workplace happiness, emotional intelligence, and creative expression.
We offer free courses on mindfulness for students, faculty, and staff, and since its inception, more than 4,000 members of our university community have taken a Mindful USC course. The overwhelming majority of participants report significant improvements in terms of addressing stress and anxiety, and in developing more meaningful interpersonal relationships.
This semester, we are pleased to offer two sessions of the popular courses Mindfulness Lab, Mindfulness Lab II, Mindful Writing, Mindfulness in Daily Life, and Mindful Self-Compassion. The first session starts on January 22nd and the second session begins on March 18th.
If you are interested in taking a free mindfulness course on campus, please visit the Mindful USC website as enrollment is open now.
We are also pleased to announce the release of our new free Mindful USC app, which provides guided meditations and much more.
And if you are an online student, or if you are unable to attend a course in person, please visit our online, on-demand course offerings.
USC is an inspiring place to teach and learn, but amid the constant whirlwind of activity and information, it can be challenging to feel fully present in our lives and in our work. Mindfulness practices help us to be aware of ourselves in ways that increase attentiveness in the classroom, deepen the quality of teaching and learning, encourage creativity and innovation, and improve our ability to collaborate effectively.
Over the last several years, Mindful USC has emerged as a national model for mindfulness in higher education, and we are grateful and encouraged that so many members of our university community have availed themselves of this important campus resource. For more information about Mindful USC, please contact us at mindful@usc.edu.