CSU Pueblo Becomes Fourth Colorado Institution to Adopt International Wellness Charter

President Rhonda Epper signed the Okanagan Charter, formalizing a campus-wide commitment to health that reaches students, staff, faculty and the environment.

PUEBLO, Colo. — Students filed into the Occhiato Student Center at lunchtime, moving past tables for campus support services like Residence Life, the Student Leadership, Involvement, Career & Engagement office (SLICE) and the recreation center. Some grabbed swag along the way. Others found seats at the round tables to eat food from Elior, the campus dining partner, while the heat outside pushed everyone toward the shade indoors.

By early afternoon, President Epper and her full cabinet stood together to adopt the Okanagan Charter, an international framework that commits universities to building health and wellbeing into campus life beyond campus health services. CSU Pueblo becomes the fourth institution in Colorado to sign it, following CU Boulder, Colorado College and the University of Denver.

Vice President of Student Affairs Marie Humphrey opened the ceremony.

“It is my honor to sign this charter on behalf of CSU Pueblo,” Epper said, thanking Humphrey and Wellbeing Initiatives Program Coordinator Precious Molina for the work that led to the signing.

“This charter gives us a framework for something we already believe in: that a student’s wellbeing shapes everything, from their grades to their sense of belonging and even whether they will make it to graduation. Signing it means Student Affairs is living its mission, which is deeply rooted in enhancing the continuous development and care for the whole person. We’re building wellbeing and health promotion into how this university operates,” Humphrey said.

Her division already operates these charter-backed services: the campus health clinic, counseling services and the student recreation center, all funded through the student wellness fee.

The charter traces back further than most people in the room realized. Precious Molina, who coordinates wellbeing initiatives inside the Division of Student Affairs, walked the crowd through its origin before the signing began. Molina traced the movement back to the 1970s, when health promotion first took root on university campuses. The framework for the charter was created outside the United States in 2015 at a university in Okanagan, British Columbia, building on decades of work in the field.

The charter rests on two commitments. Institutions agree to embed health into every part of campus culture, not just wellness offices, and to lead health promotion beyond their own gates, in partnership with local communities and global institutions. Molina summed up the philosophy behind both: “Their major slogan is people, place, planet, because that’s what they believe in. Together we create harmony to have a better life and wellbeing.”

That commitment extends to the physical campus itself. Wellbeing initiatives tied to the charter include planting native flora across campus grounds, aligning the university’s landscaping with the charter’s environmental goals. The commitment also reaches beyond students. It covers everyone who works, teaches or studies at CSU Pueblo, not students alone.

Only a handful of institutions across the country have adopted the charter since it launched in 2015, and even fewer in Colorado, Molina told the crowd.

Signing the charter came from the top down. Molina told students the push originated with the CSU System Board of Governors, which asked all three CSU campuses, Pueblo, Fort Collins and Global, to prioritize student mental health. The Okanagan Charter is one of six progress indicators tied to that broader initiative. “Today is one of many,” Molina said. More wellbeing initiatives are expected to roll out on campus in the coming years.

Nancy Nunez, a sophomore majoring in criminology, staffed one of the tables lining the student center. She said she already relies on campus wellness services and welcomes the university making that commitment official. Nunez expects the charter to matter most for incoming freshmen who have not yet found their way around campus. They might not know about the garden yet, or the Labyrinth, an ancient symbol used for contemplation and self-discovery. They might not know the campus offers acupuncture therapy every Tuesday, or that quiet rooms exist for anyone who needs a break during the day. She said she learned about most of these resources from other students, not from the university itself. She keeps fidget toys from the wellness center on hand to help her concentrate.

After the cabinet signed, the ceremony moved to a dedicated wall inside the OSC, modeled after the campus’s first-generation student pillar. Students signed in dark blue. Staff signed in light blue. Faculty signed in red, the same color scheme the university uses elsewhere on campus. Molina invited the room to add their own names to the wall, alongside the cabinet’s.

“You guys are making history,” Molina told the crowd before the room emptied out toward the signing wall. “Give yourself a round of applause.”

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