Just a few years after a major expansion and renovations, Transylvania University’s Campus Center is not only a showpiece among the school’s buildings, but it also provides good jobs for students — even during the summer.
In fact, it recently received a Top Local Workplace award from its Homebase scheduling platform for creating an environment where employees “feel valued and connected.”
That’s a major focus of Campus Center manager Ryan Benjamin. “I want to get to know them personally,” he said. “They know I care, so they’re going to care about their work.”
Over summer break, the building is relatively quiet except for basketball campers coming and going from the dining hall and meetings of external groups like the national Phi Gamma Delta Leadership Institute.
Benjamin is using this time to plan programming, and there’s the little improvements like building shelves or tidying up a closet to get ready for the onrush of fall term.
“It’s just a lot of things you really don’t think of during the school year,” said Alex Perry ’27, one of four student building managers.
Perry, who recently returned from studying in Argentina, said she’s inspired by the welcoming atmosphere Benjamin has fostered in the Campus Center and wants to help provide that to everyone who visits the building.
She also noted how she’s learning leadership skills working in partnership with her boss. “He’s really great with helping us feel we can take on tasks on our own with the knowledge that he provides, but if he were to step away we could completely handle it.”
Benjamin wants them to feel personally invested. “I tell the students all the time this is your building more than it is my building, so take ownership,” he said.
During the school year, the managers work alongside a total of around 20 work-study students who help with jobs like event setup and staffing the info desk and game room.
Benjamin also mentioned how he’s seen students like rising senior manager Jack Thomas go from just trying to figure out where things are when they first arrive to knowing the ins and outs of the Campus Center operation — to the point where they can come up with and implement initiatives they think will be a good fit for students. “You see that leadership growth just kind of naturally happening.”
The good workplace karma may be part of the reason for the new building’s increasing popularity since it came online during the pandemic. Benjamin, who runs regular reports of usage, said, “Every semester, we’ve seen an increase in events — whether it’s student org events or external events.”
