Beginning in February 2026, the Student Senate’s Student Health & Wellness Commission (SHW) will send out a monthly newsletter. The newsletter will be sent out through email and will cover various topics each month related to overall health and wellness. 

According to current SHW intern Lauren Elmergreen, the newsletter began as a passion project. Elmergreen, a fifth-year biology and American Sign Language student, said she wanted to create a reliable healthcare resource for UW-Eau Claire students. 

“I know there’s a lot of misinformation when it comes to healthcare,” Elmergreen said. “So for me, that was something I cared about — clarity out there for students, especially if maybe they don’t know where to look for information like that.”

The newsletter will also be a way for students to learn about other resources on campus, Elmergreen said. Student Health Services and Counseling Services will be some of the resources involved. 

Elmergreen said she thinks tying in other on-campus services could help the newsletter reach students more easily. 

Rachel Schulte, SHW director and third-year social work and criminal justice student, worked with Elmergreen on the planning and implementation of the newsletter.  

“I’m primarily acting as a resource in helping her out where she needs it,” Schulte said. “(I’m) helping her come up with topic ideas and kind of guiding her to different sources … different information that she might need for it.” 

Given the vast amount of information on healthcare and wellness topics on the internet today, Schulte said she wanted this newsletter to be a reliable, accessible and informative resource for all students. Rather than having to discern if a resource is reliable, students can just refer to the newsletter. 

“I want the student body to be able to have an outlet where they can know that they’re getting accurate information and where they know that this is a reliable source,” Schulte said. “They don’t have to pick through to see, oh, is this true or is this false.”

According to Schulte, the newsletter was introduced to the senate, passed and implemented into the operating policies for SHW. 

Since the newsletter is now part of SHW’s operating policies, Schulte and Elmergeen said they hope it will be a recurring initiative sent to students in the coming years. 

Similar newsletters have been sent out in past years, but this will be the first one sent out through SHW, according to Schulte. 

Since February is Eating Disorder Awareness Month, Elmergreen said the first newsletter will cover topics and provide resources related to eating disorders. Schulte said because February is during Valentine’s Day, the newsletter that month will focus on self-love and self-care. 

The newsletter will be sent out during the first week of each new month, according to Elmergreen.

“I thought it was really important to find a way to get information easily out to students,” Elmergreen said. “My goal was to find (an) easy way to reach out to students with information to ease the clarity of everything that’s going on.”

Hirata can be reached at [email protected]u.