To: Vytautas Malesh

From: English Group (Dazmonique Carr, Zeinab Mcheik, Brett Newell,

Fahad Khan)
Date: 13 November 2015
Subject: Two-Component Project Plan Memo

Introduction:
Everyday millions of higher education students and staff are faced with
the adversities of education. One side has to administer the education while
the other side has to learn and comprehend. Students, faculty and staff all
experience the same problems because we are all adults, regardless of the
stage of adulthood. While pursuing their degrees, students face many
stressful obstacles that may make their journey more difficult. These
obstacles often lead to health issues. More commonly all stress issues are
both mental and physical. Furthermore, as an adult, drugs are more
accessible. Adults often contemplate suicide, gain or lose weight frequently,
etc. In higher education, students endure said stressors in order to obtain
success. The question is what initiative Wayne State University is taking to
help assist and prevent these controllable health issues for all of their faculty,
students, and staff.
Audiences:
Our audience will consist of three groups of people. We are targeting
the Wayne State Health Department. They will serve as our primary audience
as they will serves as the administrators of change. Our secondary audience
would be the students and staff on campus. They are the individuals that will
live in the constructed healthier environment for. Lastly, Professor Malesh
will be the third and final audience as he will review the proposal made and
grade it as a requirement for his course.
Purpose
Campus health and wellness is an issue that is important for anyone
who attends or works for the university. There has been a significant increase
in obesity and chronic diseases for teens and early adults (Sparling, 2007).

Vytautas Malesh

13 November 2015

Mental health issues like depression and anxiety have become more
prevalent on college campuses over the last decade (American Psychological
Association [APA], 2015). College is a time when students gain
independence and learn effective life, career skills and furthermore
opportunity to pursue said careers. The university should show commitment
to the wellness of the students and faculty, which is the body it is composed
of.
Although Wayne State University provides services through the
campus health center and provides an area for students to be physically active
through the Mort Harris Recreation Center and Matthaei Athletic Center, the
university should continue to explore directly effective ways to make the
campus healthier.
This paper would explore possible ways that the university could
expand initiatives to promote better campus health and wellness. This may be
as simple as increasing awareness and exposure to already existing programs,
but may also focus on issues like promoting healthy diets, expanding exercise
and physical activity initiatives. This would look at proactive ways to
decrease student stress and anxiety, and could reach to even delve into
ergonomics and operational planning at the university.
Primary Research
First, we will survey the WSU Health Department to see current efforts
to improve campus health. Secondly, we will survey the student body. We
will conduct a survey of approx. 50 students and 50 staff members of WSU
campus, all of diverse backgrounds. This research will attempt to get a
general estimation of the stressors along with how they minimize their stress.
We will survey both smokers in addition to nonsmokers.
Then we will conduct a survey of the WSU CAPS regarding the
stressors that their patients encounter on a daily basis. This will help us get a
broader understanding of common stressors, as well as tells us how they deal
with their stress, by seeking external help.
Secondary Research
As we summarize and paraphrase external sources by professional
organizations, we will secondary research of many types. More specifically,

Vytautas Malesh

13 November 2015

The American Psychological Association and the Center for Disease Control
will be source that will provide reliable information and statistics on the
general prevalence of health issues such as obesity and depression on a
college campus. Meta-analyses could provide insights that are capable of
being expanded past the scope of any one specific study. Scholarly articles
such as one by Kirsch et al. (2014) provide an overview of past data and
ideas that the University could take into consideration.
Collaborative Section
Our group consists of four students, Fahad Khan, Zeinab Mcheik, and
Dazmonique Carr & Brett Newell. Daz has been nominated as our team
leader; no further titles have been named. There is a shared responsibility
with the campus research and surveying of this project.
Team member duties: Each team member was given selected tasks for
the Project Plan Memo. Zeinab wrote the introduction and audiences.
Fahad took the responsibility to write the primary research and
collaborative section. Brett wrote the purpose and secondary research.
Daz wrote the timetable and proofread the Project Plan Memo before
submission.
Technology Use: For better communication, we used email and an app
called GroupMe that simulates text messages for quicker response
than email. Furthermore, we will use other sites to construct our
surveys and forms.

Vytautas Malesh

13 November 2015

Timetable
Dates

Work to be completed

November 13 16

Draft Surveys.

November 15

Submit Project Plan Memo

November 1522

Conduct Wayne State University surveys,

interviews, and pass out motivational and
informational flyers.

November 13 24

Research campus health improvement efforts.

November 2930

Combine research into final project version.

November 30- December 4 Proofread and edit final project version.

December 6

Submit Final draft of Two-Component Report

Conclusions
While no college campus is perfect, we believe that there are improvements
to be made at Wayne State University of Detroit, MI. While receiving and
administering higher education many stressors are triggered. Furthermore,
adapting to recent changes to smoking policy on campus, students, faculty,
and staff will not become healthier overnight. With our efforts, we plan to
decrease obesity, increase mental and physical wellbeing, while conducting
surveys and interviewing the university.
For further questions and/or concerns, our group leader Dazmonique Carr
may be contacted via email at FH2612@wayne.edu.

Vytautas Malesh

13 November 2015

Appendix A: List of Resource Citation/Links

Sparling, P. B. (2007). Obesity on campus. Preventing Chronic Disease

[serial online]. Retrieved from
http://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2007/jul/06_0142.htm

American Psychological Association. (n.d.). The State of Mental

Health on College Campuses: A Growing Crisis. Retrieved from
http://www.apa.org/about/gr/education/news/2011/collegecampuses.aspx

Kirsch, D.J., Pinder-Amaker, S.L., Morse, C. Ellison, M. L., Doerfler,

L.A., Riba. M. B. (2014) Population-Based Initiatives in College
Mental Health: Students Helping Students to Overcome Obstacles.
Current Psychiatry Reports, 16,1-8. doi:10.1007/s11920-014-0525-1

Chris Woolston. College Smokers. Smoking and Tobacco Cessation

Health Library. (March 2015)
http://consumer.healthday.com/encyclopedia/smoking-and-tobaccocessation-36/smoking-cessation-news-628/college-smokers645338.html

http://www.livestrong.com/article/90146-disadvantages-smoking/

http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/reports/preventing-youthtobacco-use/factsheet.html