Dedicated students, distinguished colleagues and dear friends,

Happy Friday!

This week’s leadership team meeting included a presentation on a topic at the top of every university administrator’s list: student mental health. The title alone is enough to elevate concern and make you wish for easy solutions. There are none!

Any effort to address this persistent human condition of increasing importance must be of a multidimensional, multimodal nature and reinforced as a collective institutional priority. Fortunately, our Student Health and Well-Beingprofessionals here at S&T reported significant progress with results to show. Their approach, a vibrant mix of classic and contemporary methods, brings together the entire community to “advance holistic well-being by aligning efforts and embedding well-being into campus systems and culture.” Our mental health team, composed of students, faculty and staff, is united by their sense of purpose and love of helping others.

An important takeaway from the presentation for me was the impact that our new campus environment has had on improving the outlook and the overall “mood” of our students. Although not explicitly stated, our new beautiful facilities and gathering places, the presence of new cultural and creative artwork across the campus, and the emphasis on the aesthetics of the university environment have highlighted the finer dimensions of campus life.

Many of the emotional hurdles our current students face are not necessarily individual challenges. Loneliness, anxiety and lack of meaningful connections are mainly sociological in nature and symptoms of a screen-facing communication lifestyle, challenging competition, and individual isolation. All are indicative of a decline in interpersonal and in-person shared experiences.

To help create a culture of community and belonging, a major effort is underway on our campus to enhance and highlight campus art and artistic expression that is commensurate with our mission, values and our broader community resources. Thanks to the efforts of our newly formed Campus Arts Committee, we will participate in and cooperate with our ever-expanding palette of existing rich artistic and cultural organizations, including the historic Lyric Live Theater, Fine Linen Theatre, Ozark Actors Theatre, Missouri Arts Council, Missouri Humanities and Rolla Public House, to name a few. We will create a virtual museum and enhance our websites to include a unified calendar of arts events at S&T and in our Rolla community.

Our annual student photography exhibition, community summer musical program, tech-meets-art ecosystem and our enhanced Campus Performing Arts Series programs are far more than just cherished outlets for campus and community performers. They are valuable resources for community connections, team-building and emotional anchoring for all of us, from performers to participants to broader audiences. Our focus on campus art and community is strategically designed to enhance our students’ emotional well-being. We will harvest the power of art to uplift and enrich their individual lives and to inspire and unify our broader university community.

The health and well-being presentation this week was a reminder that at a time when college students, in fact all of us, face unprecedented emotional, ideological and sociological challenges, extracurricular artistic expression, visual or performative, plays a pivotal role in helping our students and our broader campus community process transient but difficult emotions.

I, for one, am delighted to note our gradual but impressive transition from a purely utilitarian campus of buildings, sidewalks and parking lots into an environment of learning that emphasizes not only rigorous academics, but also fosters creativity, emotional expression and meaningful connections.

Warmly,

-Mo.
 
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Mohammad Dehghani, PhD
Chancellor
mo@mst.edu | 573-341-4116

206 Parker Hall, 300 West 13th Street, Rolla, MO 65409-0910
chancellor.mst.edu