The wellness policy should aim for a "short-term campus impact," but also go beyond that by having UB lead the way in establishing standards for a statewide wellness policy, committee chair Maureen Jameson told members of the Faculty Senate Executive Committee at the group's March 18 meeting.

The committee also proposed creating a Wellness Council that would function more broadly than the Wellness Council that serves the student-focused Living Well Center.

In presenting the committee's report for 1997-98 to the FSEC, Jameson, associate professor of modern languages and literatures, said that the growing emphasis in the health-care field on preventive medicine has prompted many large organizations to focus on strengthening and maintaining the health of their personnel, rather than providing "an ever-widening array of cures from which to choose."

She cited past efforts on campus to promote wellness, including the Faculty-Staff Fitness Initiative organized by retired Personnel Services employee Rosalyn Wilkinson, and the Faculty-Staff Fitness Center in Alumni Arena, funded jointly by the Provost's Office and three campus unions.

Enactment of a campus wellness policy has several potential benefits, Jameson said, including improvement in individual health, improvement in the collective health of the institution - "whose members may be expected to perform better with less interference from illness and stress" - and a greater "sense of community built around shared activity, rather than shared spectatorship, among students, staff and faculty."

She offered several suggestions that might become part of a wellness policy, including expanded access to recreational facilities, inclusion of wellness offerings as part of employee benefits packages, installation of exercise equipment in campus buildings, development of indoor and outdoor walking circuits and expansion of nutritional offerings at campus dining facilities.

She said one of the concerns that arose in the committee was that it was not widely publicized that faculty and staff, with proper identification, may use most recreational facilities from 7-8 a.m. and noon to 1 p.m. weekdays without charge.

Jameson also expressed concern that faculty and staff who buy a recreation pass are not given a discount. "There's no particular emphasis on getting faculty and staff to join," she said, noting that the Buffalo Athletic Club circulates flyers in Alumni Arena offering a discount to UB faculty and staff.

Whether or not the BAC actually does give a discount, "Rhetorically, it comes across at least as an effort to encourage the faculty to join the BAC. I think perhaps here there is a little more we could do."

Even though the fee for a recreation pass is cheaper than membership in the BAC, "It would be, I think, symbolically a very good gesture for the university to think about making some sort of discount available to faculty and staff," she said, adding that alumni receive a discount and faculty and staff "fall under the category of the general public."

Ed Michael, assistant athletic director for recreation and intramurals, told committee members that the tradition to allow faculty and staff free use of the recreation facilities for two hours a day was made years ago when the recreation program was located in Clark Hall and "did not have much to offer the faculty and staff of this university." It continued when the program moved to expanded facilities in Alumni Arena in the 1980s because "we did not want to take anything away from people that were used to getting it from us," he said.

This "freebie" is not publicized, he said, "because...I thought it would be inappropriate to do so. I thought that this would just serve to polarize the faculty and staff of this university from the students. When it comes to paying for service, as a group we (faculty and staff) are probably in a better position to pay than our students."

Michael added he is open to change on the issue "if change is possible." But with a flat budget, he was unsure how the unit could give faculty and staff "a break" and still meet its budget. The unit generates between $25,000-$30,000 a year from recreation-permit fees paid by faculty and staff, he added.

He also noted that up until two years ago, members of the general public who wanted to purchase a recreation permit had to join the Alumni Association to do so. But faculty and staff were spared that cost, a savings of about $50, he said.

He reminded senators that Recreation and Intramural Services does operate a faculty-staff wellness program that includes such things as the maintenance program offered at 7 a.m., special weight-training programs, special aerobics programs, master's swim club and health screenings through UB Fit.

"We take the mandate seriously and we're trying to provide programming," Michael said.

He said he agreed that a university should have a policy statement regarding wellness for faculty and staff. But greater access through reduced fees will only come through the unions and the administration, "and the precedent has been set for both of them," he said.