On May 9, the final class of students will graduate from Siena Heights University. This commencement marks the end of an institution that, since 1919, has strengthened Lenawee County in countless ways.

The loss to our community is hard to measure, and mitigating the impact of this closure is a task that will demand much of community leaders over the next few years. But at this moment, we will put those concerns on hold and pause to reflect on the university’s lasting legacy.

At a time when our public dialogue too often acts as if the sole purpose of an education is to teach people skills for a job, Siena Heights understood something important: that skills learned without a sense of purpose are empty, and that a sense of purpose must be guided by principles and rooted in a desire to do good. This understanding led to the university’s oft-repeated credo of helping students become not just competent, but purposeful and ethical as well.

It’s a philosophy that prepared students to not just exist in the world, but to change it for the better. 

And it’s not hard to see the effect on Adrian and Lenawee County. Take a look at the organizations that provide critical services to our residents or work to improve quality of life in our community, and it’s striking how many of them have faculty, staff or graduates of Siena Heights in key leadership positions.

Though the university is closing, its impact will live on through the thousands and thousands of students who graduated from Siena Heights and went out into the world, steeped in the uplifting values of the Adrian Dominican Sisters and filled with not just their intellectual rigor, but their passion for justice and doing the right thing.

We mentioned the university’s focus on helping people become more competent, purposeful and ethical, but if you’ve spent much time on campus, there’s another phrase you’ve probably heard. It’s a quote from St. Catherine of Siena, from whom the university took its name: “Be who God meant you to be, and you will set the world on fire.”

Despite the sadness of this moment — the regrets and the wishes that things could have been different — we should also feel hope. Not just hope, but confidence that the legacy of Siena Heights University will live on through its graduates and everyone else it touched, who will keep lighting those fires for many years to come.