Our Guiding Principles
Healthy living is a choice and a lifestyle, but unless you’re in a supportive environment, it can be challenging. In 2013, UCLA Chancellor Gene Block announced the Semel Healthy Campus Initiative (HCI), a vision of Jane and Terry Semel and supported by them. As a result of Semel HCI’s success in fostering a culture of physical, emotional and social wellbeing, Chancellor Block announced on May 9th, 2018, the establishment of the Semel HCI Center at UCLA.
Vision
To make UCLA the healthiest community to work, learn, and thrive and to inspire others both locally and beyond.
Mission
Semel HCI aims to build a culture of health as the foundation for a resilient, equitable, and thriving community for over 85,000 students, faculty, staff at UCLA and inspire others.
Strategy
Semel HCI acts as a spark plug and home for health-related innovation on campus, helping bridge diverse departments and stakeholders, and leverage the strengths of individuals and institutions on and off campus. Its seven thematic subcommittees work to create academic, experiential and structural approaches to living well through curricula, programming, communication and branding, research, operations and service. In doing so, Semel HCI aims to reduce health inequities, in turn building a more socially just community. The initiative draws on UCLA’s world-renowned research and teaching to find new and innovative ways to promote living well on campus, and to share that work with other communities. Through this strategy, Semel HCI makes the healthy choice the easy choice, by enhancing access to information and opportunities and by working to meet individuals where they are at.
Core Values
The Semel Healthy Campus Initiative Center at UCLA continues to innovate towards building a culture of physical, mental, and social well-being on UCLA’s campus. Identifying and mobilizing the strengths and assets of the UCLA community is one of the key ingredients in building a culture of well-being from the inside out. Aligned with UCLA’s True Bruin Values, we are guided by our core values:
- Foster health and well-being – Create an environment that fosters health and well-being and maximizes human and planetary health by illuminating the interdependence of human and environmental systems and advancing holistic solutions
- Encourage responsibility – Educate individuals and communities about the impact of their actions and empower them to make positive change
- Celebrate diversity – Foster an inclusive environment that prioritizes empathy and embraces differences in values and approaches to health and well-being
- Strive for equity – Identify health disparities and generate solutions for equitable access to health resources and a healthful environment
- Be integrative – Drive empathetic change by integrating approaches across disciplines, departments, and stakeholders, and take an integrated approach to mind and body well-being