Evaluation of R’Healthy Campus
R’Healthy Campus is a transformative initiative at UC Riverside grounded in the Okanagan Charter to infuse health, equity, and well-being into every facet of campus life. UC Riverside is among the first institutions in the UC system to adopt this whole-campus approach—redefining health promotion as a shared institutional responsibility across students, staff, faculty, and leadership.
The Evaluation of R’Healthy Campus is an HWS-led research initiative that uses participatory and equity-centered evaluation methods to understand how the Charter’s principles are operationalized across UCR. This project is not only about assessment—it’s about strategic learning. Findings from this evaluation will directly inform programmatic decisions, strategic planning, and UCR’s broader contribution to the global dialogue on health-promoting universities.
UCR Healthy Campus Inventory Assessment Report 2025
PURPOSE
- Evaluate how the R'Healthy Campus initiative transforms institutional policies, environments, and practices related to health and well-being.
- Identify opportunities to embed health equity, sustainability, and inclusivity into the daily operations of UC Riverside.
- Provide actionable, evidence-based recommendations to advance UCR’s status as a health-promoting university.
CHALLENGE
Health promotion in higher education often remains siloed, fragmented, or under-resourced. Even with strong leadership buy-in, whole-campus transformation faces systemic hurdles:
- No unified metrics or consistent tracking of well-being indicators across units.
- Disparities in access and outcomes for marginalized student and employee groups.
- Limited visibility of campus-wide efforts beyond student-facing offices.
Initial campus assessments revealed uneven adoption of R’Healthy Campus values and a need for more coordinated, equity-informed infrastructure.
SOLUTION
This multi-year evaluation study uses a participatory, equity-centered approach to:
- Map current health-promoting efforts across academic and administrative units.
- Establish a campus-wide dashboard of well-being indicators tied to the Okanagan Charter.
- Center student, staff, and faculty voices through mixed-methods research (surveys, focus groups, unit consultations).
- Align findings with the HWS Strategic Plan to support data-informed planning.
IMPACT
Since the evaluation launched in 2024, the R’Healthy Campus initiative has:
- Partnered with 9 campus units to document well-being-aligned practices and policies.
- Established baseline indicators for campus climate, sense of belonging, and access to resources.
- Trained HWS data stewards and collaborators to support unit-level health integration.
- Created the first cross-divisional evaluation framework to measure long-term institutional health culture.
WHY THIS PROJECT MATTERS
- Health Equity: The initiative ensures that all students, faculty, and staff—especially those from underserved communities—benefit from a supportive environment.
- Strategic Alignment: This work strengthens the integration of health into UCR’s core functions, academic mission, and strategic goals.
- National Relevance: UCR is contributing to the emerging field of health-promoting universities in the U.S., using data and evaluation as a model for others.
WHAT WE ARE DOING
- Research: Conducting surveys, focus groups, and department scans to track well-being integration across campus.
- Partnerships: Working with student affairs, HR, faculty, and leadership to align unit goals with R’Healthy Campus principles.
- Innovation: Developing tools and dashboards to make health equity data accessible and actionable for every unit.