A Special Easter Message from UIW President Thomas M. Evans, PhD

Dear students, faculty and staff,

This week we celebrate Holy Week, when we are invited to reflect and pray on the life, death and resurrection of Jesus and the significance of God’s great sacrifice in our lives. In a message at the start of this Holy Week, Pope Francis shared that “with Jesus there is always a place for everyone.” These days leading up to Easter Sunday offer us an opportunity to consider how we are making room for others and how we are following Jesus’ commandment to love one another as He loves us.

I am always proud of how our community makes room in their hearts for others and shows God’s love in the world. Putting their education and talent into practice, our students and employees serve others. In these past months alone, community members have provided tax preparation assistance, tended to gardens and promoted care for the Earth, offered food to those in need and helped provide medical care to those without. There are countless other ways that we put the Mission into action. Indeed, expressing our care and compassion is an integral part of life at UIW.

This year, Easter falls a few short weeks from the end of the semester and our Spring Commencement. For some members of our Cardinal community, this will mark the end of one journey and the beginning of another. Some students will move on to clinical residencies at hospitals or healthcare facilities across the country. Some will cross the graduation stage marking the culmination of years of work and reaching their academic goals. Others still may prepare to embark on internships, travel or take new steps into the professional world. With the exceptional preparation and careful formation by faculty, all will be ready for successful and fulfilling futures.

No matter where the path leads, I have no doubt that you will continue to hold fast to the Mission and heed its call to lift the lives of others. I hope you all know that there is, and will always be, room in our hearts and in our community for you.

In our Catholic faith, the Easter season spans 50 days, encompassing these final weeks of our academic year. I pray that we spend them all in keeping with the spirit of Easter and the hope that it brings us. May we make a place in our hearts for everyone – inside and outside of our community – and continue, as Jesus commanded in his final days, to love one another as He so loves us.

I wish you and your families a very blessed Easter.

Praised be the Incarnate Word!

Sincerely,
Thomas M. Evans, PhD
President