President Morris reflects on the power and possibility of St. Lawrence's well-being initiative, SLU Thrives.
In 2020, just before the world shut down, I taught a course called Determinants of Well-Being. It was my first time teaching the class, and I spent months preparing—reading widely, studying emerging research, and creating an immersive learning experience for my students. I had no idea at the time how transformative that semester would be, or how deeply it would shape my leadership today. During those months, I began what has now become a grounding meditation practice. I doubled down on spending time in nature.
I learned to be more present, more reflective, and more intentional in how I moved through each day. What began as a teaching responsibility quickly became a personal evolution—one that opened my eyes to how central well-being is to learning, growth, and community. The insights I gained through teaching this course would become profoundly important in the years that followed. When the pandemic upended our world, it also accelerated changes already underway for young adults: increased loneliness, rising anxiety, disrupted learning, and a generation growing up in an always-connected digital environment. At St. Lawrence, we knew we needed to respond with both compassion and strategy. Through our partnership with the JED Foundation, we conducted a thorough review of our policies, supports, and campus culture, and we emerged with a renewed commitment to holistic student well-being.
The culmination of that work is this year’s launch of SLU Thrives. Grounded in seven dimensions of well-being, SLU Thrives provides a shared framework that equips students with the knowledge, skills, and habits they need to understand and steward their own well-being. In many ways, it reframes something essential: that the ability to care for oneself, build healthy relationships, navigate complexity, and live with purpose is central to what it means to be well-educated.
This is, in fact, the heart of a liberal arts education. We have always believed that students should leave St. Lawrence not only with expertise in a discipline, but with the tools to build meaningful lives—lives defined by curiosity, resilience, connection, and responsibility. SLU Thrives makes this expectation explicit. We are teaching students to recognize the practices and choices that sustain them, to reflect on who they are becoming, and to understand well-being as a lifelong skill rather than a momentary condition. Our work is reinforced by our results on the national Healthy Minds Study, showing significant gains in student confidence and campus culture. Perceptions that the administration listens to concerns around health and wellness have climbed to 84% from 55%, and the number of students who feel St. Lawrence prioritizes mental and emotional well-being has jumped to 84% from 49%. Just as importantly, 90% of students report that our campus encourages open dialogue about mental health, and 93% know where to go for support. Together, these findings tell a powerful story: when we invest in well-being, students feel seen, supported, and positioned to succeed.
SLU Thrives builds on St. Lawrence’s longstanding strengths, including our #11 ranking for most accessible faculty, state-of-the-art recreation facilities, and our #1 Alumni Network, which powers a Center for Career Excellence recognized nationally for helping students connect purpose and possibility. New initiatives, such as placing Thrive Mentors in every first-year residence hall, ensure students have peer guides who help them adjust, build community, and explore all seven dimensions of well-being throughout their first year.
For our alumni community who know firsthand the transformational power of a St. Lawrence education, SLU Thrives represents both a continuation and an evolution of the experience you cherished. So much of what you remember fondly—friendships, faculty mentorship, the confidence to step into the world—was grounded in well-being, even if we didn’t call it that at the time. This work is already making a difference. Princeton Review now ranks St. Lawrence #5 for student support and counseling services and #15 for happiest students, a reflection not only of our programs, but of a community that genuinely values the flourishing of every individual. Looking back, I am grateful for everything I learned while preparing for and teaching that course back in 2020—for the lesson that well-being is foundational to learning, leadership, and a purposeful life. Looking forward, I am proud that St. Lawrence is embracing that truth so boldly. SLU Thrives ensures that generations of students will continue to grow, discover, and flourish during their time on campus and well into the future.
