Each night as we sleep, our brain manufactures visual episodes of events that can often and only be described as surreal. As we dream, we witness people, places and moments we know could never be. But every now and then, something witnessed in deep sleep or even fanciful escapism actually becomes reality.
Being named as president of a school that bears the name of one’s hometown, leading the school that both built the foundation for a career as it reenforced lifelong values might be such a dream. For Denver’s Regis University President Salvador Aceves, the dream became reality.
Aceves, will leave the 148-year-old Regis University and pride of north Denver to officially become the 29th President of the University of San Francisco and its first Latino Chief Executive. He will assume his new position in August. But, said Aceves, his departure to lead his alma mater will be emotional. Saying goodbye is never easy, especially for a thoughtful and gentle man like Aceves. “What makes this place so special,” he said, “is its people.”They care, Aceves said, and they show it in their love for the Institution that has been a steadying fixture in a constantly evolving north Denver neighborhood.
Aceves has been part of the Regis tapestry since 2014 when he took the position of senior vice president and chief financial officer. In January 2023, he was named President of Regis. He is the first Latino to hold the position.
Aceves’ academic odyssey also includes three years as the associate vice president at New York City’s Fordham University, another Jesuit institution. From undergraduate to university pinnacle, the Jesuit imprimatur has marked his journey.
Aceves spent his early years in San Francisco’s Mission District, a community where immigrants like him and his parents, Salvador and Beatrice, first planted roots.
He and a sister were educated in Catholic schools and, he often adds, ‘it was in the fifth grade’ when he first met the girl who would become his wife. He and wife, Carol, will soon celebrate 40 years of marriage.
Aceves graduated from USF with an accounting degree in 1983. He also taught accounting at the school and later served as associate dean for graduate programs, associate dean for academic affairs and vice provost of academic affairs. He knows the school, it knows him and now he is coming home.
While he has been away, Aceves said the Jesuit DNA that courses through his veins, has kept him connected to the 170- year-old school he will soon be leading. Having served in different roles at USF, along with having forged life-long friendships and connections with faculty and countless students, homecoming, he said, will be a celebration.
“I would say our history, our foundations as a Jesuit-Catholic institution are committed to the formative education of our students,” the soon-to-be USF President said. The Jesuits, he said, train students to “go into the world and lead a life of purpose and meaning.” The training has served as a blueprint for his life and career.
Jesuits, more formally known as the Society of Jesus, were founded in 1540 by Saint Ignatius of Loyola. Their mission is education, missionary work and social justice.
There are 27 Jesuit colleges and universities spread across the United States. Among them are Boston College, Creighton University, Georgetown University and Xavier University. Georgetown, located in Washington, D.C., is the oldest Jesuit college. It was founded in 1789.
USF has consistently been ranked among the top universities in the West. Its alumni shine in the arts, athletics education, entertainment, government, philanthropy and science. Some of its best known alumni include Hall of Fame basketball icon Bill Russell, former California Governor Pat Brown, the late NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle and current San Francisco Mayor London Breed. Enrollment at the liberal arts university is slightly under 6,000 students with 66 percent of enrollment students of color.
While returning to the university and his hometown was not a burning desire for Aceves who had found a warm and nurturing home at Regis, the idea of returning home had always flickered. “San Francisco has always had a pretty special place in my heart,” he acknowledged. When the school’s top job opened up, the idea suddenly became more than a dream.
Aceves familiarity with his alma mater, having served in different roles at USF along with having friendships and connections with the school, suddenly transformed a long germinating seed into something more than a sky-reaching sprout. “There was at least some initial outreach,” he said. “It organically developed into ideas and conversations.” But beyond actually taking a new position, there was another element to this professional equation.
If he were to be named a candidate or actually be selected as president, he added, there would be a chance to see “our several little ones” (nieces and nephews) as they grew. The circle of family would become complete.
As this circle closes and a new one begins to open in the Golden State, Aceves says he emotionally returns to the words told to him by his high school Christian Brothers teachers. “They strongly encouraged me to go on to the University,” he remembered. “They will create a path for you.”
For more than four decades that advice has served as ‘North Star’ wisdom for this soon-to-be president of his alma mater. He is going home, as the song says, to his ‘city by the bay.’
