Message to the USC Community
From: Michael Quick, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs; Varun Soni, Vice Provost of Campus Wellness and Crisis Intervention
January 22, 2019
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. As a way of proactively creating a culture of wellbeing on campus, we launched Mindful USC six years ago as a secular, university-wide initiative focused on positive health outcomes and learning experiences for our university community, especially in terms of stress reduction, workplace happiness, emotional intelligence, and artistic expression. Indeed, research studies have shown that 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.
Accordingly, Mindful USC offers free courses for students, faculty, and staff, and since its inception, more than 5,000 members of our university community have taken such a course on campus. 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, Mindful Creativity, Mindful Writing, Mindful Parenting, Mindful Listening, and Mindful Self-Compassion. We are also pleased two offer two new wellbeing courses: Click! (cultivating healthy friendships and relationships) and Sleep (developing healthy sleeping habits and perspectives). The first session starts on January 28th and the second session begins on March 18th.
If you are interested in taking any of these free courses on campus, please visit the Mindful USC website as enrollment is open now. If you are an online student, or if you are unable to attend a course in person, please visit our free online, on-demand course offerings. And we encourage everyone to download our free Mindful USC app, which offers guided meditations and other resources.
For more information about Mindful USC, please contact mindful@usc.edu.
Cc: Wanda Austin
Academic Senate
Academic Deans
President’s Cabinet
Provost’s Cabinet