Student Well-being on a Live-Learn Campus:
A COVID-Era Study
The first study from a Live-Learn Laboratory coalition that brings academy, industry, and non-profits together to explore how architecture may promote health, well-being, social connection, and environmental health.
RESEARCH TEAM
Upali Nanda, PhD, Lakshmi Chilukuri, PhD, Elinor Oren, Evie Guo, Renae Mantooth, PhD
DESIGN TEAM
Thom Greving, Matthew Smith
Funds
UC San Diego & HKS, Inc.
Scroll to the bottom of the page to download the full report.
what is the aim
Declining mental health and isolation are top concerns for the health and well-being of college students. As UC San Diego students moved from dated residence halls to a fully mixed-use integrated living and learning neighborhood, in the middle of the COVID pandemic, a coalition was formed that tested the impact of the move on students’ physical, mental, social, and environmental health. The aim was to investigate if design can, indeed, contribute to improved health and well-being.
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT
To hold design decisions accountable, it is important to link design strategies to metrics that matter for student health and well-being, and test whether our design hypothesis hold true. The New Sixth College is a living lab that uses architecture to augment positive behaviors and outcomes and integrates that understanding into current academics and future capital planning.
WHAT DID WE DO | HOW DID WE DO IT
This study employed a mixed methods pre-post research design and utilized focus groups, surveys, and behavior mapping. Data were collected one year apart, before and after students moved to NTPLLN to assess health and wellbeing, social connection, and environmental health.
WHAT DID WE FIND
Students who reported higher satisfaction with their environment tended to report higher satisfaction with mental well-being measures. We found an 8.2% reduction in student self-reported depression, 11% increase in satisfaction with healthy food amenities, 8.4% increase in satisfaction with transportation, 12.85% increase in satisfaction with campus social spaces, and finally 27.96% increase in satisfaction with residential spaces.
what is next
These outcomes can be further enhanced if we can now engage the student and faculty community by truly using the campus as a live-learn lab, where constant exploration and experimentation are the norm to investigate all facets of student life.