The average college student has to juggle a lot. What with academics, extracurricular activities and social functions -- it can be difficult to balance all those things and stay healthy at the same time.

The various health and fitness services at Butler University, which include the Health Center, the Counseling & Consultation Center and the Recreation Center and Peers Advocating Wellness for Students (PAWS); all have one thing in mind: to educate Butler students about ways to maintain a balanced and healthy lifestyle.

“We are in the business of teaching students life-long skills,” said Scott Peden, the director of recreation. “I do what I do because I’ve learned that what you learn inside the classroom is great, but it doesn’t necessarily always stick with you the rest of your life.”

The Health and Recreation Complex (HRC), which opened in August 2006, houses Butler’s health and fitness services. The 85,000 square foot complex is a cutting-edge building designed so that all of the services will be situated together and able to collaborate on different programs.

The Health Center is a facility located in the HRC staffed with six registered nurses and five doctors who rotate on certain days of the week. The Health Center provides acute health care services for students, said Vicky Rosa, the director of the Health Center.

“Students have the feeling that nothing can get them down,” Rosa said. “They tend to forget that they are not always eating the best or having the best sleeping habits.

“They are studying and not resting as well as they should, and so the wear and tear that they have on their bodies, especially around this time of the year and before winter break, tends to wear them down and they get sick.”

Rosa said the Health Center does a lot of outreach to educate the student body about health awareness. She said the Health Center provides educational services such as one-on-one counseling with students, pamphlets and programming where Health Center staff goes into classrooms to give presentations.

The Health Center has made some new developments this year and is looking into the future for more ways to increase services for students as well.

“The biggest thing this year was the opening of the Women’s and Men’s Wellness Clinic. That was a big success,” Rosa said. “Right now, I’m working on getting more doctors’ hours in the clinic and possible insurance billing, which we haven’t done in the past, to make things easier for the students.”

The Counseling & Consultation Center is located next door to the Health Center and offers therapy, consultation and outreach for students.

“I think emotional and mental health is really important because it is what helps your system function. You can’t do one without the other,” said Carol Hagans, the director of the Counseling & Consultation Center.

Hagans said a facility that offers these services is especially important for college students to have.

“When you were in high school, you leaned on your parents and you leaned on the structures there,” she said. “And it’s not like you still don’t have those resources, but now the ultimate responsibility is all on you. What that does is it escalates the stress and complexity of students’ lives.”

Hagans said there are many students on campus dealing with death or loss, eating disorders and relationship problems. The Counseling & Consultation Center is implementing more group therapy sessions to help students dealing with these issues.

She said another problem the Counseling & Consultation Center is trying to fix is the fact that many students procrastinate about facing any issues they might be experiencing.

“So, we’re trying to find a marketing message or some way to get out to students that when [an issue] first starts to be a problem, deal with it now so it won’t get worse later,” Hagans said.

Aside from developing these changes, the Counseling & Consultation Center has several goals for the future that will improve their ability to serve and educate the campus community. Hagans said although the center works with many departments across campus, they want to increase their connections.

“We want to do more and to take our staff and our expertise with college mental health and do more across campus,” she said. “We are looking for partners. One is the Center for Faith and Vocation. They do the coolest stuff. We want to be there, and we want to help.”

The Counseling & Consultation Center is not the only health service on campus that is eager to help Butler students. The Recreation Center offers a wide variety of ways that students can maintain their physical fitness. Peden said the Recreation Center provides activities which range from a high-ropes course, swim lessons and group exercise classes, to massage therapy and personal training.

Peden said fitness and recreation are important at the collegiate level because the time between the ages of 18 and 22 years is an influential period.

“That’s where all our programs and efforts go. Basically, exposing our students to all the different things that we have to offer -- things that they may not know are out there,” he said.

Peden added that the Recreation Center is the number one employer for students on campus. Kurt Olsen, a sophomore marketing major, is one of those students. He is employed as the group exercise coordinator, and he is a group exercise instructor as well.

“I like being able to help others achieve their goals,” said Olsen. “Sometimes taking classes isn’t just a physical thing, but it is emotional and mental as well.”

In addition to helping students achieve their goals, Peden said the Recreation Center attempts to educate the Butler community through outreach opportunities and activities such as Fitness 101 Workshops, which teach specific fitness lessons such as “How to Pick Good Running Shoes.”

He said since the Recreation Center is only two years old, there are many plans and goals for the future.

“About 80 percent of campus comes to the HRC on a somewhat regular basis -- like once or twice a week,” Peden said. “So that’s incredible. The next step will be talking more and more about the programs we have to offer instead of just being a facility where you come to work out.”

“We’ve got to start figuring out how to start marketing our programs so people can take advantage of them,” he said. “So that’s the next frontier. I think beyond that too we can start doing some special events in the facilities.”

Although all of the health and fitness services on campus are focused on educating students, PAWS is unique because it is a program which involves students educating other students about health issues.

These issues include stress management, alcohol responsibility, sexual assault awareness and sexual health and body image issues, said Sarah Barnes, coordinator of peer education.

“I think a lot of times the issues that PAWS is addressing are things that are uncomfortable for people to talk about. Health is a personal thing,” Barnes said. “I think it’s important to have students who are educated about these issues to go out and talk with their peers about them.”

She said PAWS is the main facilitator of the Red Cup Culture program, which educates students about alcohol. PAWS also gets involved with all the nationwide awareness weeks like National Collegiate Alcohol Awareness Week. In addition, PAWS coordinates Stress Less Week before finals.

“Anything that [the peer educators] see that pertains to college students’ health, they will develop a campaign about it, and we have a variety of resources that are available that we set out and try to make available to students,” Barnes said.

Future plans to continue peer education on Butler’s campus include a campaign to educate students about prescription drug abuse for next fall.

Barnes also said Butler’s president Bobby Fong has designated a task force to explore the possibility of joining other Indiana campuses in going smoke-free, and PAWS will be organizing a forum next fall to look into what it would mean for Butler to become smoke-free.

The health and fitness services all collaborate often with campaigns and programs to educate Butler students about health issues. For example, Rosa said the Health Center, PAWS and the College of Pharmacy worked together this year to support a campaign for awareness about Human Papillomavirus.

Barnes said the Recreation Center supports PAWS by announcing their events at group exercise classes, and the Counseling & Consultation Center helps with Stress Less Week by doing relaxation sessions.

“There is a lot of collaboration on campus, and I think that we are hoping for even more,” Barnes said.

This collaboration between the health and fitness services helps students maintain a lifestyle that is balanced in all aspects of wellness.

“If you think of things as a stool or a table, you need your physical, spiritual, emotional and overall well-being,” Hagans said. “If you yank one of those legs out, you’re not going to be functioning fully.”