Terrific Tuesday, Wonderful Wednesday, Fantastic Future!
One of my favorite things about serving as president of the Board of Trustees for ACUI has been the opportunity to visit student unions across the United States. Full disclosure: I visited student unions before I was president, and I will definitely continue to do so, but I happened to get a chance to visit some awesome student centers during my term, including the University of South Carolina Russell House, University of California–San Diego University Center, University of New Mexico Student Union, University of Kentucky Gatton Student Center, and the University of Vermont Davis Center. All these spaces were clearly much-loved and impactful sources of student engagement and community. But hands down, one of the most impactful visits for me was one that ACUI Chief Executive Officer John Taylor and I took to Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky. It was there that I learned to appreciate the power of the mindset.
Founded in 1780 and situated in the heart of Lexington, Transylvania University is the oldest university in the state and the first institution to be founded west of the Allegheny mountains. Ryan Benjamin, the associate dean of student life and director of the campus center and event services at Transylvania, hosted John and me for lunch and a tour of the W.T. Young Campus Center, a nicely maintained multipurpose community center containing the primary dining on campus, comfortable lounges and meetings spaces, as well as the campus recreation center.
During our tour, we encountered a Transy staff person who was polishing a grand piano in a warm, sunlit student lounge. Seeing Ryan approach with John and me, this gentleman paused his work, smiled warmly, and greeted us, saying, “I hope you all are having a wonderful Wednesday!” Ryan introduced us to “Mr. Michael,” a member of the Young Campus Center operations team and longtime fixture of the Transylvania University community who was known for the positive relationships he forged across campus and his authentic and infectious positivity. Standing together in the Campus Center lounge, feeling the energetic buzz of student traffic and engagement around us, watching students and others greet and engage Mr. Michael and Ryan, John and I were struck by the powerful source of community and belonging represented by the Young Campus Center.
Ryan noted that an important source of their community could be attributed to the mindset role modeled by Mr. Michael and his capacity to help students and others feel seen. “You can always count on Mr. Michael to greet a student by name or wish someone a “Wonderful Wednesday,’ or a “Terrific Tuesday,” observed Ryan as we continued our tour. Ryan explained that Mr. Michael’s compassion and mindset are authentic and infectious. Mr. Michael exhibited a mindset that very clearly shaped how he engages in his role as a community builder—and subsequently positively impacted those around him.
The concept of mindset is increasingly recognized as a powerful tool for individual and community well-being. While the concepts of faith, intent, and gratitude have existed in philosophy and theology for thousands of years, the field of psychology began exploring the power of mindset in the 19th century. William James believed the human sensory experience was continuous and could be directed by an individual to shape the reality they experience. While James did not directly reference “mindset,” he noted that “human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives.”
A more recent and widely embraced reference to mindset was advanced by Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck, whose research in the late 20th century on mindsets helped her to frame the valuable theory of fixed or growth mindsets. Fixed mindsets suggest skills or intelligence are stable and innate while a growth mindset attributes achievement to hard work and intelligence malleability. Both cases suggest a mental concept, or mindset, can result in powerful physical and intellectual development.
More recently, researchers have begun to link mindset to significant physiological effects, such as improved ability to overcome cancer diagnosis or actual changes in appetite based on mindset concerning satisfaction and healthy eating. One 2007 study found that hotel cleaning staff exhibited improved health benefits when they recognized the positive impact of the physical exertion of their work changing sheets and cleaning guest rooms. Their mindset literally reframed their physical reality.
Yet another Stanford psychologist, Alia Crum, is doing valuable and cutting-edge research on the connections between individual mindset and biologically consequential results. According to Crum, mindset provides “a mental frame or lens that selectively organizes and encodes information, thereby orienting an individual toward a unique way of understanding an experience and guiding one toward corresponding actions and responses.” Crum’s work portrays that one’s mindset, or framework for understanding experience, has downstream effects on “judgment, evaluation, and behavior.” For example, an aging person whose mindset assumes that mental deterioration is inevitable may be less likely to take preventative measures to invest in maintenance, growth, and vitality. Crum also suggests that mindsets are not fixed but that individuals have agency in choosing the lens, or mindset, through which they encounter the world. Individuals can literally elect to experience some aspects of life differently. During our visit to Transylvania University, it was clear to John and me that mindset can be consequential to community and belonging as well.
Mindset research is related to the study of the placebo effect and can also be loosely compared to the philosophical concept of intent or the theological concept of faith. It shouldn’t be confused with ignoring problems or challenges—but rather reframing and emboldening how to understand and tackle them. Likewise, mindset should not be mistaken for the trendy idea of manifesting. Employing a mindset does not mean immersing yourself in the quantum realm, reprogramming the matrix, or entering an alternative timeline. Being intentional about your mindset is a concrete and valuable tool, which, as Stanford psychologist Jacob Towery suggests, “If you are willing to learn the technology of changing your mindset and defeating your distorted thoughts, you can have significantly more happiness.”
My term as president of the ACUI Board of Trustees hasn’t only consisted of visits to student unions. Like many people, I have spent a lot of 2025 fretting about the future of higher education and student unions. Cascading threats have faced higher education since the freaking pandemic, including the great resignation, declining trust in the academy, the enrollment cliff, and now the attacks by the federal government. There are many genuine challenges facing higher education that can cause student union administration much rumination and pessimism.
But, as my term draws to a close and I reflect on what I have learned, I can’t help but find myself remembering the power of mindset to defend against the threats and ruminations. There is evidence that we really need it as a survey of student union administrators conducted in February 2025 found that while 90% of respondents believe the mission of the student union is more important than ever, 49% were not optimistic about the future of our vocation.
So, I wonder if our association can emulate Transylvania University’s Mr. Michael and welcome a “terrific 2026” or a “fantastic future?” I mean, our vision for our ACUI is that we will advance campus community to positively change the world. What if our vocation approached the challenges facing higher education and association management with a mindset that helps reframe obstacles as opportunities? What if we viewed the polarization and divisive rhetoric which has enveloped public discourse as an opportunity for unions to foster civil debate and discourse on campus? What if we responded to the epidemic of loneliness as an enormous growth in the demand for the community and engagement that unions advance? What if we responded to the emergence of AI as a call for more lessons in how to be human? What if we intentionally shift our vocational mindset to view the changing landscape we are navigating as risk with opportunity rather than threats?
Reflecting on the significant positive impact resulting from the mindset of Mr. Michael at Transylvania University, I certainly hope, and will work, to equip the student union vocation to embrace a positive mindset.
