University Times

The first two sessions of the Mental Wellness Book Club filled up within 10 minutes of it being publicized. Slots for the third book filled within 30 minutes. And spots in the final book discussion were filled within three hours.

Undoubtedly, this new program, funded by a Year of Healthy U grant, has been met with significant interest by faculty and staff.

In an effort to meet folks who were not able to get into the book discussions, the Mental Wellness Task Force of the University Senate’s benefits and welfare committee and LifeSolutions will host an open house on Tuesday, March 6, from noon to 2 p.m. at the University Store on Fifth. All of this season’s book club titles will be available for purchase at a discount and Tom Koloc, senior account manager at LifeSolutions, will be on-site to talk with attendees who have questions or comments about mental wellness.

“Secrets to Winning at Office Politics” (a business/self-help read about communication techniques) and “For One More Day” (a novel about grief) are the two titles for which the most people have asked to be wait-listed, said Linda Tashbook, chair of the Senate benefits and welfare committee. “We know that a lot of people want to talk about these topics and titles and we hope that they will give us another chance to talk with them by coming to this open house.”

Taskbook continued, “We have already discovered from participants in the first book discussion that faculty and staff are reading about mental wellness in part to better interact with troubled students. For that reason, the next brown bag lunch with the Mental Wellness Task Force will address that issue directly.”

And there is more book club to come: The next four books will be announced in mid-April. “We look forward to meeting 12 new people at each of the summer book discussion sessions,” Tashbook said.

For more information about the open house or the book club, contact Linda Tashbook at taskbook@pitt.edu or 412-648-1303.