Rhode Island

I was feeling sorta blue after the last review, so I spent some time looking for an outlier that could provide some positivity (more around the wellbeing side of this analysis) – say hello to the University of Rhode Island.

The department is listed under Athletics and their awesome staff do all get listed in the staff listing – and as usual in these Learfield sites, the whole department is listed under Inside Athletics - which of course devalues the unique proposition that the department offers. The varsity website also calls out Club Sports separately, which in my opinion dilutes the brand of Campus Recreation (or is it Recreation Services? More on that later). I get why they do it, but it still feels there needs to be a better way.

When you click on the Recreation Services link it takes to you to the university’s generic Campus Life page. While I don’t like that as a link when you would think it would take you to recreation – it might be good to the actual campus recreation page (which I like quite a bit) – it is a good/great page from the University perspective as an introduction to student life. But aaagh, here is an inconsistency that speaks to a lack of alignment – on the Varsity site the department is referred to as Recreation Services, but the department website is Campus Recreation. That’s a bummer.

I do LOVE how URI has embraced the simplicity of happiness – on the Campus Life page it says “A happy life—and that includes a happy student life—requires a balance of work and play…” and the Campus Rec page says “We want you to feel happy, stay active, and find a healthy place where you belong." Of course, I’m a bit biased because our vision at Portland State was “A healthy, happy, engaged Portland State community” which I loved for its simplicity, its resilience, and its future-orientation. To me, it's a great signal to students.

The Campus Rec blog does a nice job doing some cross-campus collaboration with their article on Campus Mental Health Resources. They mention multiple resources on campus and include their own building, the Anna Fascitelli Fitness and Wellness Center – which includes its own Wellness Resource Center.

Speaking of that Center – it is front and center in their Health and Wellness page! Yes! Bingo! 100%! How else do I say it? They do a fantastic job linking in recreation to the health and wellness story – proving it can be done simply. The more time I spent on their site, the more I appreciated how simple, yet powerfully, they described their services and their values. Kudos to you URI!

So it’s a bit of a mixed bag. Regarding the website relationship between Athletic and Rec it is more of the same – buried and in this case even misnamed, hurting its ranking.

But, in terms of the university recognizing that recreation is a powerful tool for student wellbeing – mental and physical – it is one of the better ones out there so far.

In the overall ranking the placement of Rec in regard to athletics is 7th out of 9.

In terms of the university capitalizing on recreation as a tool to solve the health problems on campus, they debut at 3rd out of 9.

So here is where things stand for Rec represented by Athletics:

1. Claremont McKenna

2. Colgate

3. Oakland

4. Boston College

5. St Thomas

6. Penn

7. Rhode Island – the wrong department name really hurts.

8. Vanderbilt

9. New Mexico

Here are the rankings for Campus Recreation represented in Student Wellbeing, There’s a big reorder now that we are getting some more data:

1. Claremont McKenna

2. Oakland

3. Rhode Island

4. St Thomas

5. Colgate

6. Boston College

7. Penn

8. Vanderbilt

9. New Mexico

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