A top Our Lady of the Lake official said the study is based on outdated information and doesn't reflect the campus' current reality.
Our Lady of the Lake University has grappled with declining endrollment. Credit: Michael Karlis

Abel Chávez said Friday he will resign Dec. 31 after more than four years as president of Our Lady of the Lake University.

Chávez was the 10th president of the university since OLLU opened as a two-year college for women in 1911 and the first Latino to hold the role.

“The board respects Dr. Chávez’s decision and expresses its gratitude for his service and wishes him success in his future endeavors,” Board Chairman Steve O’Donnell said in a statement. “Our priority is to ensure continuity of leadership and maintain our focus on the organization’s strategic objectives and our students.”

Although OLLU officials didn’t specify why Chávez is stepping down, the West Side institution has faced significant challenges.

Last month, the Catholic university said it hired an outside consultant to help boost enrollment numbers, which have plummeted 47% since 2015, according to the Express-News.

Last year, OLLU also eliminated 16 academic programs while launching a three-year bachelor’s degree and a “no-cost” master’s plan to help stabilize enrollment.

Such financial and enrollment pressures led Colorado State University political scientist Kyle L. Saunders, who studies trends in higher education, to label OLLU an institution under “high stress.”

That doesn’t mean the school is facing imminent closure, according to Saunders. However, he said the school is less equipped to handle economic headwinds, the growing impact of artificial intelligence, federal funding cuts and declining student interest in four-year degrees.

“High stress is a structural diagnostic,” Saunders told the Current. “What it really captures is compound pressure, places where several structural conditions are cutting in the same direction at the same time.”

OLLU officials said they will name an interim president “shortly” and plan to conduct a national search for Chávez’s replacement.

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Michael Karlis is a multimedia journalist at the San Antonio Current, whose coverage in print and on social media focuses on local and state politics. He is a graduate of American University in Washington,...