Beyond Multiple Choice Questions: A Student Community Storybank to Evaluate a University’s State of Well-Being

Abstract Information: The Office for Health Promotion Strategy at the University of Southern California (USC) has administered the Student Well-being Index Survey (SWIS) over the last 5 years to evaluate the student population’s state of well-being. SWIS serves as a quantitative tool for shared metrics of a university-wide coalition known as the USC Well-being Collective committed to strengthening a culture driven by well-being. SWIS tracks well-being via eight population-level key performance indicators (KPIs) annually. Along with SWIS, the Student Well-Being Storybank was piloted this year offering students the opportunity to share stories about two of the eight KPIs, flourishing and belonging at USC. SWIS results indicate that about half of the student population experiences flourishing (49.6%; 95% Confidence Interval: 48.4-50.8%) and less than half of the population experiences a sense of belonging at USC (43.8%; 95% Confidence Interval: 42.6-45.1%). Students contributed to the Storybank with unique insights and reflections that provided context for this data. Though literature, campus leaders, and SWIS may have a definition of flourishing and belonging, the Storybank collected community narratives illustrating how students define and experience this at USC. The Storybank solicited stories where students did and didn’t experience flourishing and a sense of belonging. The prompt inquired about socio-ecological factors at play and also asked students to describe how they would like to be represented when sharing their stories (e.g., first generation, queer, STEM student). Launching a storybank concurrently with a quantitative survey, facilitated qualitative data collection and may allow for timely dissemination back to the community. Student stories presented with SWIS survey results during dissemination reinforces that there are humans with nuanced experiences behind the numbers and build the audience’s trust around the data. Pairing student narratives along with SWIS numbers, better contextualizes findings that inform decision makers at USC.