DePaulia
The
2017 Pacemaker Award Winner/Best Weekly College Newspaper-SPJ
Volume #102 | Issue #21 | April 9, 2018 | depauliaonline.com
Forward thinker
JOSH LEFF | THE DEPAULIA DePaul’s 12th president, A. Gabriel Esteban, sits at the desk in his Loop offices to get some work done. The first lay president of the university, Esteban makes plans for the future of DePaul.
Esteban has plan for enrollment, endowment; hope for athletics By Jonathan Ballew, Benjamin Conboy & Shane René News Editor, Managing Editor & Sports Editor
For the first time in its 119-year history, DePaul University has a president who is not a Vincentian priest. President A. Gabriel Esteban, 55, brings a fresh vision to the university after the resignation of Rev. Dennis Holtschneider, C.M. last fall. Esteban represents a shifting focus for the university, transitioning from a traditionally faith-based ethos in the wake of concerns about the university’s long-term viability and competitiveness. The DePaulia’s Editorial Board sat down with Esteban in his Loop offices on Wednesday, March 30 to talk about his plans for the future of the university. Esteban is a quiet, soft-spoken man. He moves slowly but deliberately and chooses his words carefully. Being the first lay president has presented some unique challenges, but overall, he says he’s adjusting well. Of the 9 Catholic universities in Illinois, none of them are led by members of the clergy. In the early days of his time at DePaul, he says he’s caught people starting to address him as “Father.” “To some degree, there’s a bigger campuswide transition that has to occur,” he said. “They’re used to seeing a priest, a Vincentian.” He lives near the Lincoln Park campus with his wife, Josephine, where he has relocated from New Jersey. He said he and his wife used to vacation in Chicago, so the transition has been easy. In the summer, he and Josephine stroll the Sheffield Neighbors neighborhood in the evenings.
“But not as late as some of you (students). By 9 o’clock it’s bedtime for me,” he said. With a recent uptick in crime in the Lincoln Park area, specifically armed robberies and carjackings, he says the university is looking at trying to find new ways to make students safer. He said there is a possibility that they will look at increasing Public Safety foot patrols, or possibly increasing the numbers of cameras on campus. “The only thing about cameras: they are only there after the fact.” Esteban assumed power in September 2017, at a time when DePaul is at an existential crossroads. Enrollment has been declining while tuition costs continue to rise. But he says he is determined to correct the path that the university is currently set on. Esteban, formerly the president of Big East competitor Seton Hall University for six years (he was also the first lay president there in the 25 years preceding him), he helped the university overcome a lot of problems not unlike the ones that DePaul is currently facing. At Seton Hall, he helped the men’s basketball team become March Madness regulars, as well as growing enrollment and endowment numbers. Growing up in the Philippines, he developed an affinity for comic books and superheroes. Comic books were pricey there, so Esteban and his friends used to have to hang out near U.S. air bases so they could try and trade with the kids who lived there. In keeping with his roots as a fan of pop culture, his desk in Lincoln Park houses a collection of action figures Alongside his
See ESTEBAN, page 5