The University of the Incarnate Word is partnering with three other Catholic universities to grow its system of national and international offerings by connecting degree offerings and more, the institution announced Monday.
“There’s an apostolic letter from Pope Leo that came out about a month ago in which he talks about Catholic institutions being like stars within the universe of education and they should be more like constellations in working together,” UIW President Thomas Evans said in an interview ahead of the announcement.
In the spirit of turning stars into constellations, Evans welcomed presidents Glena Temple, of Dominican University in Chicago, Susan Burns of University of Mount Saint Vincent in New York, and Gilberto Marxuach Torrós of Universidad del Sagrado Corazón in San Juan, Puerto Rico, to San Antonio to announce the collaboration on Monday.
The four presidents signed a charter agreement to form a partnership called CHARISM, which stands for Catholic Higher Education Alliance of Rising Institutions in Service and Mission.
“Charism is considered like the gift from God to a congregation of sort for their whole mission and orientation,” Evans said. “So these four institutions have very similar charisms and very similar missions.”
Under the new agreement effective Monday, students will be able to seamlessly transfer to any of these institutions if they want to pursue a degree specialty or practice in a different city, take online courses across the system or study away to gain experience in another city.
“Our sector needs to adapt to meet the changing landscape and the changing needs of our students,” said Temple, of Dominican University, at the signing ceremony. “As Catholic institutions with similar origin stories, values and priorities, we believe we can better serve our students and communities by collaborating, innovating, and growing together.”
The work to arrive at the agreement started about a year ago, Evans said, when the four presidents began meeting at conferences for Catholic colleges and universities.
All four institutions are mission-driven Catholic, Hispanic-serving and minority-serving, also founded by women and seeking to expand their bilingual opportunities, Evans said, making this partnership ideal for growth.
Together the four institutions serve more than 20,000 students, which will now be connected as a system of institutions.
“By joining our strengths we are opening new pathway programs, extending our reach across the country and the world,” Burns of Mount St. Vincent said. “I believe strongly that Charism will serve as a national model, demonstrating how institutions with shared values and complimentary strengths can unite to broaden access.”
The four presidents worked together to figure out how to align their strengths — for example, several have health care sector offerings that complimented each other. And how to also rely on each other to navigate their challenges.
Evans called the agreement a groundbreaking opportunity that will lead the universities to stronger future offerings, like faculty collaboration and combined research.
“[We are] looking at things like joint degree programs, double degree programs, study away, different kinds of mission trips, pre-professional programming,” Evans said. “It’s a really long list of things that we are embarking on.”
The institutions received a grant from the nonprofit SeaChange’s Transformational Partnerships Fund for higher education, to help launch the alliance, and also utilized a Hispanic Serving Institution grant received by Dominican University. But the overall investment to connect the offerings across this network is not yet available, Evans said.
Now that the initial agreement is signed, the institutions can sign individual agreements for programs such as study away, Evans said, which could become available as early as spring 2026.
Soon students in different career paths might be able to find a specialty in one of these partner campuses and transfer to complete part of their degree at the desired institution, Evans said. Degree plans will be developed utilizing the specialties of the partnering universities.
UIW already has a system of international campuses for their students with standalone campuses in México City, Irapuato, México, and Strasbourg, France. This will be another opportunity for students from all four U.S. institutions to expand their knowledge, Evans said, and practice their skills in another city or country.
At Universidad del Sagrado Corazón in San Juan, president Marxuach Torrós said at least 85% of the student population is from Puerto Rico. There, all classes are taught in Spanish as they aim to produce fully-bilingual professionals.
The university’s new strategic plan calls for fully-bilingual instruction, he said, which will benefit from having sister institutions with course offerings in both languages.
“Imagine doing that intentionally, so that it’s not in certain professions but all academic disciplines,” Torrós said. “Imagine some time in the future all of the students in the system having the opportunity to develop as bilingual professionals.”
