“It’s a great day to be a Cardinal.”
That phrase became a staple of the University’s vernacular due, in part, to the efforts of Merry Jo (“MJ”) Brandimore, the dean of students and associate provost for Student Affairs.
The expression and its sentiments will be sustained through the spirited and passionate campus climate Brandimore has worked to cultivate during her 33 years at SVSU, which will come to an end in August. University President Donald Bachand on Friday, Feb. 26, announced Brandimore will retire at that time.
Associate Dean for Student Life and Leadership Programs Bryan Crainer remembers Brandimore as the first person he met at SVSU as a student.
The summer before his freshman year, Crainer came to campus for a group interview for a position in Residential Life, of which Brandimore was the director. He was chosen for the position and continued to serve Residential Life in a number of different capacities for the next three years.
One year after Crainer graduated, Brandimore hired him as a resident director; he spent four years in that position, and then, after a few years in the department of Enrollment Management, he took his current role in Student Life under Brandimore’s leadership.
“I have made every attempt to model my leadership style after MJ,” he says. “She leads with passion, she is willing to get on the front lines and work with her people, she motivates, she challenges and she has very high expectations, but she does it all from a place of love.”
Marketing sophomore Pedro Marin met Brandimore at a freshman program intended to get new students acclimated to the University.
One of the events, Marin remembers, involved getting to know faculty and staff members. There, he began a conversation with Brandimore.
“You could really tell how passionate she was about the University and the students,” he says. “I was [later] recommended to apply for a position in her office and I … was awarded it. Once I was hired as her intern, I began to see her every day and it was amazing to see her impact at SVSU.”
Bachand has also seen Brandimore’s influence, albeit for longer than Marin has. Bachand and Brandimore began working closely together when he joined the administration 19 years ago.
“She was at the forefront of our transition from primarily a commuter school with 400 dorm students to a university with almost 3,000 residents on campus,” he says. “She led the development of the broad range of extracurricular programming available to students today.”
“She has advocated for all students who need support or have special needs,” he adds. “MJ has demonstrated that you can effectively lead by example while being kind and approachable.”
Crainer was also present to witness Brandimore’s transformation of SVSU.
“We were a campus of only a few hundred residents when she arrived. Student Life consisted of only a few programs and student groups,” he says. “Simply put, the culture was more representative of a community college and a public university, and she had a lot to do with changing that.
MJ realized, however, that she couldn’t make the transformation happen by herself,” Crainer adds. “It was her leadership and motivation that led to students and staff members ‘buying in’ and getting excited about seeing a change take place.”
Bethany Thrun, a nursing graduate and SICU registered nurse at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, says Brandimore became one of her mentors as they together worked on University initiatives throughout the years.
“MJ constantly treats everyone like they are the most important person in the world,” she says. “MJ taught and exemplified to the SVSU community that if you want to make a difference, you can.”
Thrun says that some of her favorite memories of Brandimore were ones where she wore her red cowboy boots, but that the most meaningful was when she took her out to lunch after being elected to homecoming court in 2014.
“She told me that I make it a great day to be a Cardinal,” she says. “After wiping the tears from my eyes, my heart cried out to her that it was her passion, enthusiasm and sincere attentiveness to us Cardinals that makes SVSU so great. She did what all of us leaders aspire to do: create a legacy of leaders helping leaders help leaders.”
Tyler Bradley, a graphic design graduate and residence director and graduate student at Murray State University in Murray, Kentucky, remembers Brandimore’s willingness to “drop whatever she was doing and give us an opportunity to listen.”
Her open door policy is something Bradley was grateful for, as he was able to get her perspective on issues related to his involvement in Residence Housing Association (RHA) and Program Board.
“At SVSU, (“It’s a great day to be a Cardinal!”) is more than true, it’s a reality,” Bradley says. “Cardinal pride, especially mine, has come a lot from leaders above showing their pride, like MJ.”
“Merry Jo is what it means to be a Cardinal,” Marin adds. “Her kind heart and generosity are contagious at this University, and her passion has inspired many students, including myself, to be the best we can be.”mine, has come a lot from leaders above showing their pride, like MJ.”
