2 min read December 2022 — Abel Chávez, the president of Our Lady of the Lake University, a private, faith-based university in San Antonio, discussed communicating the value proposition of higher education to first-generation students, how the student experience has shifted in the past few years and what his priorities are going forward for the university in an interview with Invest:.
What highlights and milestones did the university experience in the past year?
I’ve been in this position since July, but over the past year, moving on from the pandemic and truly maintaining the pedagogical practices we brought on during has been a focus. We adopted practices in the classroom during the pandemic that helped us grow, scale and elevate our academic portfolio. As we close out our previous $55 million capital campaign, I’ve been looking ahead at a vision of transformation — the transformation of our university and campus to position us for the next 127 years. I’m looking at the physical and IT infrastructure of the university to elevate us. Also, additional and further innovation to the direction of the City of San Antonio and our region is vital. In many conversations with local public officials, I am keenly listening to how our university can be a pipeline for where the City and region is going in terms of economic development and community needs. Those are by far the top items I have been focusing on.
What opportunities are available to the higher education sector in San Antonio?
Being a pipeline of talent and resources for the local community is a top benefit of being a higher education institution in San Antonio and beyond. It’s about aligning our product and services to broader economic needs of the community. For us, we have three campuses: San Antonio, Houston and the Rio Grande Valley. Each of our campuses serves a different role in these regions. At our Rio Grande Valley campus, we are six minutes away from the U.S./Mexico border, serving communities on both sides. Examining and understanding the academic programs we offer across three markets is important to ensure we’re aligning with broader workforce needs. That is key No. 1 for us. Secondly, I believe every institution of higher learning has to continue to adapt to the new student and their changing needs. We expect a certain level of service from any and every product we purchase or consume, and our industry is no different. We have to continue our keen focus on what our students are asking for. In San Antonio, that could mean fertile ground for the ripening of a number of institutions of higher education. We have to be even more focused in ensuring we are serving our students.
What are students looking for in a higher education experience?
Customer service is a key element. In other words, if I have a question about my coursework at 10 pm after working, taking my child to soccer practice and cooking dinner, I want that question answered at a moment’s notice. Secondly, time and cost to complete a credential are paramount. We have to continue to drive toward innovative models that reduce or enhance the time of completion. Thirdly, the State of Texas and our strategic plan for higher education clearly states “high-value credential.” We know the direction of the trajectory of our city and region, and I believe that is a fairly good signal of what “high value” means.
How are student demographics shifting?
In Texas specifically, it is projected that through the year 2035, the graduation rate from high school will increase by 6%. There will be 6% more high school graduates in about 10 years than what there are today, and that is not the case across the U.S. in other parts of the country, it’s actually declining. In Texas, the matriculation rate of a student going from high school to college or university is 50%. Nationally, that same matriculation rate is nearly 70%. As a percentage, we have more high school graduates in Texas versus nationally, but less of our students are matriculating into college here. There is so much to unpack here when it comes to a demographic shift.
The next layer is that if we take matriculation and peel layers by race and ethnicity, our brown and Black students are matriculating below 50%. We have to find ways to provide access to those students to higher education and ensure we are doing absolutely everything within our control to get them to completion. In Texas alone, there are an estimated 2.5 million former students with some college and no degree. It does our society zero good if we don’t provide that access and complete a degree.
What are the biggest challenges the university is facing, and how does that relate to what the sector at large is experiencing?
Just like any of us with our mobile phone plan, we could switch to a different carrier at a moment’s notice. There is a low cost to access and zero cost to switch. Higher education is a little similar. If I attend a particular university, I could switch to another university that suits my interests at the moment quite easily with minimal costs. That is a challenge. We have to maintain a keen understanding and pulse of what our students need. A freshman student has a very different need than our junior or senior students. Our masters students have different needs than those in undergraduate. How do we operationalize and systematize that so that we’re collecting and analyzing that data in real time to optimize our services to all of our students? Furthermore, if you pull back additional layers, whether a student is taking classes in-person or remote, is first-generation or not and other factors play a role as well. The concept is still the same: we have to build the right system to best serve our students.
As a private, faith-based institution, our sticker price of attendance is higher than that of our public partners, and for our first-generation students, that can be a shock. We have to bring family members in on the conversation with students and show them the ecosystem of scholarships and financial aid making a private education affordable to them. We have to continue to communicate the value of a private, higher education. We have a committed faculty to ensure our students receive a quality education from Our Lady of the Lake University who will elevate and meet the students where they are to ensure students are getting a rigorous education. It’s all about how we communicate that.
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