Message from the President

- Dr. Ileana Rodríguez

Dr. Carlos Albizu’s motto “Más allá del saber, llega el amor” (Love Reaches beyond Knowledge) has been CAU’s central theme and most treasured value.  For over forty years, this message of love has been repeated in official events as well as in various forums.

However, it is my responsibility, as the Third President of this University, to invite you to reflect on the true meaning of these words and their impact as a transforming force, as we put them into practice.

Everything we have learned can be found in the books written by great thinkers and professionals who devoted their lives to sharing their knowledge.  This knowledge can be acquired and transmitted to others.  However, true knowledge is the one you have been able to take deep into your heart and make it your code of life.  The greatest impact we can make on others is through putting into practice what we express in words.  We can have a lot of knowledge on a given subject and be able to talk about it, but this intellectual knowledge can only become alive when we apply it.  Otherwise, these abstract words will not soar.

This is why our performance, wherever we find ourselves, must be guided by the tools which we have developed inside ourselves to do good to others.  Only then will love flourish, like the seeds our hearts have planted along the road.  Love is not acquired with knowledge, but through the good actions we have carried out unselfishly and by putting aside our personal interests.  This love we offer transcends into a more powerful feeling.

I did not have the honor of personally knowing Dr. Carlos Albizu, but I have learned about him through many of you.  I have learned about his joy for life, his vision and the love he infused into his dreams.  The essence of his words has reached our hearts with the same intensity with which they were originally expressed by Dr. Albizu.  In this way, we perpetuate his motto and his legacy, which give us a better sense of direction, not only to us, but to our teachings and those we serve.