Dear OLLU Saints,
As the Board Chair shared last Friday, I will conclude my service as President of Our Lady of the Lake University on December 31. I will be on campus through October 31, and I leave with deep gratitude and confidence in OLLU’s future, because our university is much stronger today than five years ago and we have begun to tackle the challenges facing communities and higher education.
When I arrived at OLLU nearly five years back, I understood the significance of becoming our University’s 10th president and its first Latino to serve in this capacity. What I could not have understood then was how profoundly this place, its people, and the charism of Divine Providence would shape me.
I came to our university carrying a story that many of our students know well. Son of immigrants, roots in a border town, first in my family. My own educational journey began at a community college before eventually leading me to a doctoral degree and, improbably, to serving OLLU as its president.
At its core, my journey has been about changing a family’s trajectory. About the parents who sacrificed so their child could have an opportunity they did not. About the student balancing academics, the first-generation student trying to decipher a system no one in their family has navigated, and the graduate who walks across the stage knowing the diploma carries far more than the name printed on it.
Over these almost five years, we have asked much of one another. We worked towards restoring financial strength, changed several processes, challenged ourselves to become more disciplined, more accountable, more innovative, to raise our and everyone’s standard, and remain more focused on what today’s students need from us. And together, we have moved OLLU forward.
Indeed, together we strengthened undergraduate retention, and graduation rates, and philanthropic and grant funding. Together, we worked to restore financial strength while navigating extraordinary external challenges. Together we began to realign our academic portfolio around student opportunity and workforce demand. Together we modernized technology and institutional processes. Together we strengthened partnerships throughout San Antonio, South Texas, and beyond. Together we watched our student-athletes win national championships while becoming stronger students in the classroom.
All the while, we remained mission-focused as we created. The Futuro Leaders Scholars Program was a seed for first-generation students because they deserve more than access; they deserve investment, mentorship, and the expectation that they will become leaders. Lake Express is one answer to questions about the cost and value of higher education. We demonstrated that a rigorous bachelor’s degree can be reimagined around the lives and needs of today’s students. We invested in new programs, new partnerships, new technologies, new approaches to student success, and new ways of thinking about what OLLU can become. We did this knowing that not every idea works perfectly the first time. And yet, we kept moving.
And when I say we, I mean it. A president does not retain a student. A president does not teach a class, coach a team, process an application, counsel a student in crisis, raise every dollar, repair buildings, clean classrooms, or make every family feel welcomed.
People do. You did. And you do this every day.
One of the greatest gifts OLLU gave me was a deeper understanding of Providence. That commitment will forever be with me. Providence has taught me that we do not always get to see the entire road before us. Many times through our journeys we are asked instead to discern what is ours to do, to have the courage to do it, and to trust that our work becomes part of something larger than ourselves.
There is work we began that I will not be here to finish; you will. Be carriers of Providence, as we are all temporary stewards of something entrusted to us by those who came before and something we have an obligation to leave stronger for those who come next.
I leave this presidency enormously proud of what we accomplished together, but even more grateful for the people with whom I had the privilege to accomplish it.
Students: never allow where you started to determine where you are permitted to go. Your education belongs to you, but what you do with it can change generations.
Faculty and Staff: thank you for doing the difficult and deeply human work upon which our OLLU depends. Continue asking hard questions, putting students first, and having the courage to change when mission demands it.
Trustees: thank you for the time, wisdom, and care you give OLLU as volunteers. Your commitment to our students and our mission has inspired me, and I am deeply grateful.
Sisters: thank you for trusting me with something you have invested generations building. More importantly, thank you for helping me understand Providence as a way of living.
Entire Community: thank you for allowing this first-generation college student and son of immigrants the extraordinary privilege of becoming President of Our Lady of the Lake University.
There is a question I have increasingly found myself asking students, and you:
¿Qué tipo de ancestro quieres ser? (What kind of ancestor do you want to be?)
Our work is about the OLLU we are preparing for the generations who will come after us.
May they find that we were good ancestors.
With profound gratitude,
Abel A. Chávez, MBA, Ph.D.
President