Campus Wellness Center introduces new sex education seminar for Orientation

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The Wellness Center has existed on Pacific University’s campus for several years, helping a multitude of students overcome and cope with the stress and hardships of life.

With the new year quickly approaching, the Wellness Center once again opens its doors to students and plans ahead for a year of increased presence and participation on campus.

The Wellness Center, located inside Clark 124, is a safe and confidential area where people can go to speak with a trained professional and receive help and advice.

“The areas we really try to focus on at the Wellness Center are sexual violence prevention, healthy relationship promotion, harm reduction of drugs and alcohol, promotion of positive body image, and stress management,” Campus Wellness Coordinator Kathleen Converse said. “Those are the big issues on college campuses right now that really impede students abilities to have a good experience.”

The Wellness Center, which is available to students with or without appointments, has maintained a strong presence on campus.

The Wellness Center has stayed connected with students through its monthly newsletters, which highlights and focuses on different themes each month through their peer and professionally led workshops and through the annual “WELLYS” video contest where students submit films they made to promote consent and bystander awareness.

The Wellness Center office is also open to students and includes a resource library with material and information on stress management and healthy relationships.

They also have an area called the Oasis Room where students can rent the space for personal thirty-minute intervals, relax in a massaging chair and or unwind with aromatherapy.

Converse, who came to Pacific last July, says she is ready for the coming year and excited to start building and expanding the program after having spent most of this summer laying out a three year plan and setting goals she hopes to accomplish.

One new addition the Wellness Center is excited to be adding to their program and schedule this year is the peer education program called Let’s Talk about Sex and Pizza.

This program will be upperclassmen educating incoming freshman about safe sex and consent.

“Let’s Talk about Sex and Pizza, which is required for all incoming freshman to attend, will be peer led discussion where students can think and talk about healthy sexuality, their expectations in college, how to get consent and how to be a brave bystander,” Converse said. “All of which are key pieces to maintaining a healthy community.”

Converse is also looking forward to the start of a new brave bystander program that she hopes will unite the students together to create a more safe and fun environment on campus.

“We are starting an initiative called Boxer be Brave,” Converse said. “If you see something that doesn’t look right or hear someone saying something that makes another person feel uncomfortable, or see someone who has had too much to drink,

we want people to step in and help people out and be on the look out to really help our community.”

Converse is looking forward to the coming year and is excited to be adding new initiatives to the program.

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