Thomas Evans lived in a dorm like any student for his first three weeks at the helm of the University of the Incarnate Word, waiting for his new home north of campus to be ready and his wife to drive down from Montana with their two sons and two dogs.

During his stay at Watson Lofts Residence Hall, the university’s 10th president had much to consider and even more to prepare for.

Evans had just spent five years as president of Carroll College, a small Catholic school in Helena, Montana. Now he was responsible for overseeing UIW, a sprawling and complex institution that, besides its main campus in San Antonio, includes graduate schools, a new medical school and international campuses and study centers.

Taking stock of his new responsibilities, he said, has been akin to “drinking from the fire hose.”

Moreover, Evans faces the challenge of establishing himself at a university that for three decades was run — and reinvented — by one president, Lou Agnese. Late last year, Agnese was removed from office and subsequently retired. He was named president emeritus in December.

“I do feel like I have very big shoes to fill,” said Evans, 46. “But I’m grateful that they’re big shoes.”

Despite the pressures, moving to San Antonio was a welcome homecoming for Evans, who spent his early childhood in Amarillo. His mother taught French and English language learner classes at Amarillo College, where her students were largely refugees from Southeast Asia. Evans absorbed the language and academics sitting in on the classes, and also listened attentively when his father, a Russian translator for the Air Force who became a Fulbright scholar, told stories of his international travels.

By the time Evans was in high school, his family had moved to Austin. As a sophomore at St. Stephen’s Episcopal School, he spent more than a year in Osaka, Japan through a study abroad program, living with a family that spoke no English and immersing himself in the culture. The experience inspired him to major in Japanese at Georgetown University, with a minor in theology, spending more time in Japan, at Keio University in Tokyo. He obtained his master’s in Asian studies from the University of Texas at Austin, where he also would earn a doctorate.

Evans’ early interest in studying abroad might have informed his priorities as an educator and administrator. When he joined the staff of St. Edward’s University in Austin in 1995, he worked his way up from admissions counselor responsible for the San Antonio area to direct its graduate admissions and center for academic progress. He became the university’s dean for graduate and adult services, then the associate vice president of global services.

In that role, Evans was responsible for building the foundation of a host of new international studies programs. He began extensive travels abroad, visiting with educational institutions in Bahrain, France, the United Kingdom, China, Japan and in South America. The work was grueling. Evans estimated that at one point he spent 60 percent of his time outside the United States. On some nights, he and St. Edward’s president, George Martin, would go to bed at 3 a.m., four hours before they were expected to meet with their hosts.

Martin credited Evans with the strong partnerships the university now has in Japan, Latin America and Europe.

Evans said he grew to appreciate the ambiguity and uncertainty of being on unfamiliar terrain, something he believes students need to experience.

“Students today, when they graduate, we may be preparing them for jobs that don’t yet exist,” he said.

After 16 years, Evans left St. Edward’s for the presidency at Carroll, a college with an enrollment of just under 1,500 students. There he led a $45 million fundraising campaign that enabled extensive renovations of existing buildings on campus and the addition of a new apartment building, chapel and student activities center.

It was a period of rapid growth, Evans said, not unlike the transformation UIW has undergone.

Jim Hardwick, vice president of student life at Carroll, said he was struck by the importance Evans placed on making himself accessible to students and engaging with alumni and the broader Helena community. Evans often opened his home to students and alumni for dinners, and he made an effort to meet with city leaders and businesses, Hardwick said.

Evans also brought a level of humanity to his role that is rare among college presidents, Hardwick said, recalling a meeting between Evans and the grieving parents of a diabetic student who had caught the flu and died in a residence hall. He said he was struck by the compassion Evans showed, listening and affirming how their son would be missed.

“He walked the parents through their own grief to help them understand that we as a college grieved with them, as well as for them,” Hardwick said.

Evans said the University of the Incarnate Word combines many things that are personally important to him — a Catholic mission, an emphasis on international programming and a main campus in his home state. He plans to familiarize himself with the university community but his travel schedule also is packed until Thanksgiving, he said.

“It’s really a dream institution for me,” Evans said.

His biggest priorities are threefold: reemphasize the university’s core mission of service, strengthen the school’s various academic disciplines and extend the university’s international reach.

Evans said he wants to find ways for the university to partner with institutions across the city, offering the School of Osteopathic Medicine’s partnership with Southside Independent School District as an example. By spring, Evans wants to initiate a strategic vision. The hope, he said, is to meet the needs of UIW’s core San Antonio campus while also affirming the university’s global reach.

“It really is a balancing act,” he said.

On Thursday, Evans spent the day helping incoming freshmen get settled in advance of the first day of classes this week. Dressed in a red polo shirt, he walked under arches of balloons to greet students in the university’s new student center, which has its grand opening set for Monday — weather permitting.

He helped load towers of belongings into large red carts, which he then navigated up an elevator to the upper floors of the Agnese-Sosa Living Learning Center, the dorm named after his predecessor.

Earlier in the morning, Evans spent time checking in students who were as new to the university as he was. He asked where they were from, if they had met their roommates yet, what they planned to study.

“Where’s home for you?” Evans asked one young woman.

“McAllen, Texas,” she replied.

“Now, it’s here,” Evans said.

lcaruba@express-news.net