P&S Council will fill 24 vacancies in March election

Senior vice president for student affairs Toyia Younger shared an overview of Cyclone Support with members of the Professional and Scientific (P&S) Council at the group's Feb. 5 meeting. She called it a "comprehensive, all-campus approach to better serve students by connecting them to services that will enhance their success."

The program started in 2021 in response to student concerns about the safety of returning to campus following the COVID-19 pandemic and their struggle to find support services that had existed on campus for years. Student mental health emerged as a greater issue than it had been pre-pandemic.

Cyclone Support began as a "one-stop-shop" website that listed all the available student resources in one place. Younger said Iowa State's participation (2021, 2023, 2025) in the National College Health Assessment has provided data about ISU students on their physical, mental and financial health.

All campus units -- not just student affairs staff -- can play a role in supporting students, she said. She invited council members to volunteer in any capacity.

In addition to the website, major pieces of Cyclone Support are:

• Training about Cyclone Support for faculty and staff in Workday, including how to refer students to services.
• Cyclone Support Central, a physical space (140 Parks Library) for hosting events and programming. It includes trained peers to support students who visit the space.
• Navigate portal, available on a computer or cellphone, that faculty, staff and students use to refer and connect students to assistance.
• Faculty/staff committees that address programming, assessment, promotion/marketing and training/education.

Cyclone Support: 2025 data points

• 450: Faculty and staff completed online training
• 608: Students visited Cyclone Support Central during Cy's Finals Frenzy
• 3,939: Students attended programs
• 6,485: Student check-ins at Cyclone Support Central
• 28,446: Visits to the Cyclone Support website

Other council items

In other council business, committee chairpersons shared these updates:

• Nominations are being accepted through March 6 to fill spring vacancies on the council. Terms will expire for 24 council seats in all of the university's four divisions: 17 in academic affairs, three each in student affairs and the president's division, and one in operations and finance. P&S staff may self-nominate or nominate a colleague; see the "elections" section on the council's governance committee website. To encourage nominations, members of the council's governance committee will produce its next podcast at the professional development conference to shine a light on the benefits to serving on council. The election will be held March 10-14, when division-specific ballots created in Microsoft Forms will be distributed.
• At their March 5 meeting, council members will vote on a president-elect and secretary-treasurer for the year that begins in July. Officers must be elected members of the council. The president-elect serves in the subsequent years as council president and past president, respectively. The secretary-treasurer serves a one-year term and can be re-elected.
• Registration reached 350 for the P&S professional development conference on Feb. 26, and organizers have started a waiting list.
• Three teams and 17 individuals will receive their P&S CYtation Awards during a March 24 ceremony, after which the award recipients' narratives will be shared more broadly. The CYtation awards annually recognize P&S staff members who "go above and beyond their normal responsibilities, do something extraordinarily well or act in such a way as to make a very real difference in the institution."
• Members of the council's compensation and benefits committee are working on its annual compensation and benefits report for university senior leaders, with a March 15 deadline approaching.
• The council's community relations and advocacy committee is hosting a tour at Ames National Laboratory on Thursday, April 23 (1-2:30 p.m.). Interested P&S staff should register by March 4.

The next council meeting is Thursday, March 5 (2:10 p.m., 4250 Student Innovation Center and via MS Teams).