Background: After completing construction of the new campus in 2020, the university wanted to showcase the facility and hold an event to bring the community together. University leadership invited the Info Commons (library) to develop and sponsor an open house, which would also demonstrate the University’s health and wellness values. With the assistance of a university-wide planning team, the open house was planned to be a week of activities aimed at highlighting the important of health literacy and awareness of health resources in the community. Campus and community partners were invited to join the event, targeted to students, faculty, and staff.
Description: The planning committee sought support from the Faculty Affairs group, which provided a popular snow cone station. The Student Affairs group came out in support of the event with a sponsored corn hole game. A week of events took place during Health Literacy Month (October 2021), following mid-term exams. The Info Commons hosted de-stressing activities such as coloring pages, crossword puzzles, and a Kahoot-style health trivia event. The main attraction was a Vendor and Resource Fair, which was held outdoors and featured staff from the local county public health office and a library vendor representative. Open house attendees took part in the “Plain Pledge,” a social media campaign focused on making health information more understandable by using plain language. Attendees also had the opportunity to win small prizes by answering questions about COVID-19 and spinning a prize wheel.
Conclusion: The open house was well received by the campus community. About 50-100 faculty, staff, and student attended the week of events. One important lesson learned was timing: exam week schedules had shifted, preventing some students from attending. Following the event, a survey was sent to the university community to ask about their experience. Of 20 responses, several attendees commented that they would attend the Vendor and Resource Fair in the future and would like to see it expanded over several days. Info Commons staff presented a post-event report to stakeholders. The Info Commons and planning team will come together again to host another open house event in the spring 2022.
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