Cura Personalis: Caring for the Whole Student Employee

Abstract

College is stressful. And in addition to all the traditional pressures of higher education, student employees also have to navigate a job and the workplace, often for the very first time in their lives. The User Services Unit in the Hesburgh Libraries has embodied the ethics of care in our policies and culture by adopting the mindset of Cura Personalis (Latin for Care for the Whole Person). In this context, we think of it as care for the whole student employee: mind, body, and spirit. This poster will exhibit some of the ways in which our patron-facing Unit has embodied care in our practices with student workers, including study break events, mental health training, professional development sessions, social activities, and flex shifts. Our goal is to not only lessen the students’ overall stress, but demonstrate our support and care for their wellbeing both in and out of the library workplace.