UW-Green Bay launches Exercise is Medicine-On Campus Initiative
Research suggests that regular physical activity can be a great supplement to treatment for many physical and mental health conditions, including mild to moderate symptoms of anxiety and depression.
UW-Green Bay’s Professor Joanna Morrissey’s goal is to encourage the campus community to be more active through the Exercise is Medicine-On Campus (EiM-OC) initiative. This initiative sponsored through the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) has students be part of a leadership team and create physical activity-related events as well as provide health education and promotion to the UW-Green Bay campus. With more than 150 universities participating in this initiative, Morrisseyand her team will be able to help promote physical activity as an integral part of campus culture.
The EiM-OC program will be providing physical activity events and resources to students, faculty and staff to encourage the UWGB community to prioritize their physical wellness while on campus. “We want to dispel the myth that activity must be hard and intense and rather promote more movement throughout their day on campus as a faculty or staff member, or as a student,” Morrissey says. With three major programmatic efforts, UW-Green Bay faculty members and graduate students along with Morrissey will facilitate creative ways to promote physical activity and education.
EiM-OC will offer a Lunch n Learn series for faculty and staff (offered both virtually and asynchronous), a monthly physical activity event open to all students, and will participate in the ACSM’s EiM-OC Mascot Challenge video. Each year, the ACSM offers a $1000 Mascot Challenge, and this year’s theme is “Reunited in Movement”. Three UW-Green Bay Sports, Exercise, and Performance Psychology graduate students will oversee the creation of the video and enter the contest.
Though the initiative has just launched, there are big plans for the future including a potential research opportunity in the next semester. Professor Morrissey is new to the campus and wants to take the time to build relationships so that she is able to better serve the community. She hopes to have the EiM-OC conduct a study that will look into the mental health benefits of regular physical activity and provide specific exercise course offerings for students and faculty and staff.
Those who are interested in learning more about EiM-OC can follow them on social media (Instagram: uwgb_eim). Faculty and staff can read about upcoming events and activities in the Log and events will also be posted to the Master Calendar. There is also a UW-Green Bay EiM-OC webpage that has educational information related to physical activity and upcoming events will be posted to the webpage as well.
Story by Marketing and University Communication intern, Soundarya Ritzman
