The 2025–26 Maroon Folder
Wellbeing Begins with WE
Dear Colleagues:
As we begin a new academic year, we warmly welcome you back to campus. Your presence, energy, and commitment are foundational to the wellbeing of our community. Faculty and staff are not only educators and researchers—you are connectors, mentors, and culture-shapers. The perspectives and care you bring help create a campus where everyone can thrive.
Over the past decade, the Maroon Folder has become a trusted guide for connecting students with critical support services. More recently, our attention has turned “upriver”—to the broader systems and settings that shape our sense of community. In times when isolation and disconnection feel common, we can ask: What agency do we have in building a stronger, more connected UMass? And might caring for one another, in large and small ways, be a truly revolutionary act?
This year’s Maroon Folder insert highlights simple strategies for fostering belonging—both for students and for ourselves. Research underscores the profound impact of micro-connections—those brief, genuine interactions with acquaintances or even strangers—on mental health and wellbeing. A 2024 UNC Chapel Hill study found that such interactions significantly reduce loneliness and boost emotional wellbeing. As psychologist Greg Walton reminds us in Ordinary Magic, even tiny moments of connection can spark upward spirals of belonging, confidence, and achievement.
By engaging in these small but meaningful acts—checking in, sharing a laugh, offering encouragement—we help counter the depersonalization of digital life. Faculty and staff play a vital role in modeling empathy, fostering in-person community, and ensuring that students feel seen and valued.
We invite you to lean into these moments of connection this year. Whether in the classroom, the hallway, or during office hours, your presence and care matter. Together, we can create the conditions for wellbeing—not just for our students, but for ourselves and for one another.
Thank you for all that you do. Here’s to a year of connection, care, and collective strength.
Elizabeth Cracco, Ph.D.
Assistant Vice Chancellor of Campus Life and Wellbeing
Patricia Cardoso-Erase
Interim Dean of Students