WISHES Well-Being Initiative

The Wellbeing Improvement Survey for Higher Education Settings (WISHES) is a brief survey developed by the Actionable Network for Equitable Wellbeing (ANEW) that provides colleges and universities data that allows them to adapt and improve institutional norms, structures, and processes to enable all students to thrive and flourish. 

More information about WISHES can be found on the ANEW website.

Through the CWB, WPI first launched the WISHES survey to students in Fall 2023. The survey is now sent out to a different randomly selected quarter of the undergraduate population each term allowing us to collect data four times each academic year and analyze student wellness trends as the year progresses as well as year to year.  

The data collected via the WISHES survey is used in combination with other WPI data, including the annual Enrolled Student Survey (ESS), to identify populations of students that are disproportionally thriving less than their peers. We then collect additional information on those identified populations through student focus groups and individual interviews with WPI students, staff, and faculty to identify the reasons those students aren’t thriving as well. We use that knowledge to develop initiatives and programs that seek to change campus norms, processes, and structures to remove those barriers and improve students’ well-being.  

We acknowledge that institutional change is an iterative process that will involve continual evaluation and adjustments and not something that can be achieved once and then left alone. Our intention with the WISHES initiative is to engage in that iterative process and create meaningful and sustainable improvements in WPI student well-being.