ISU faculty and staff lost a resource after the Employee Wellness Program was terminated this past summer. Vice President for Business and Finance Warren Madden said the program was created after several groups on campus suggested the idea. A program review last spring showed that approximately 2,700 of ISU’s 6,500 employees used the program over the three-year trial period, Madden said. Denise Vrchota, former Faculty Senate president, also said few faculty used the program. “Many people used the wellness program, but very few faculty members used it,” said Vrchota, adjunct assistant professor of journalism and mass communication. Based on the use of the program and financial information, Madden said he made a recommendation to former ISU President Martin Jischke to terminate the program. “I think the decision was primarily driven by the cost and if this was worth over $100,000 of university resources,” Madden said. “We found that we were reaching non-faculty groups more effectively on campus than the faculty.” Vrchota said the wellness program consisted of three components: individual fitness tests, program coordinator outreach and guest speakers. Vrchota said she was one of 571 ISU employees who participated in the individual fitness assessments, which consisted of comprehensive questions regarding substance abuse, weight, diet and stress. She said the program also provided a health plan and a follow-up program to monitor progress. While Vrchota said she did not take part in some of the other program components, she thought the faculty took advantage of them. “My understanding was they were very well-attended events,” she said. Madden said while the decision to stop the program eliminated the coordinator position and central support of the Employee Wellness Program, employees can still take part in health and fitness activities through other departments on campus. He said some of these resources include the Health and Human Services’ exercise clinics, the Family and Consumer Science Extension’s dietary and nutrition programs and the Wellness Center’s smoking cessation programs. Madden said there is also a possibility of combining the ISU employee fitness program with part of the Student Health Center, but added that he has “not been able to explore that in any detail.” Vrchota said combining the wellness program with the Student Health Center is not as easy as it may sound since the Health Center is funded by student fees. “I’m not ready to say that [the Wellness Program] has been discontinued; we’re just thinking about other ways to continue the program,” Vrchota said. “You need to be careful when you’re using student fees.”