‘Touching lives’ is a frequent image, concept and action plan in the life, thinking and day to day living of Dr Stephen Mavely. While conceptualizing and then actively realizing the dream of establishing Assam Don Bosco University, the primary focus was and continues to be to put in place an ambiance and a holding environment for both the faculty and students of the University. This vision has resulted in the creation of a psychological space that is both safe and uncomfortable for the entire University community – a supportive environment to grow and blossom while engaged in the necessarily uncomfortable process of educating and being educated that is tinged with the joys, and the agonies of disruptive creativity. This is the culture of the University that is uniquely our own, that energises us in all that we do, and knits us together into one educative community. Look around our campus, look into our classrooms and research labs, look at the easy camaraderie that exists between our staff, students and faculty that cuts across all distinctions here at the campus… THAT is what we call Don Bosco’s system of education!

This ambiance, taken together with our multi-pronged social commitment programmes involving every member of the faculty and students, results in moulding the typical Don Bosco university graduate who, because they work ceaselessly at being intellectually competent, morally upright, spiritually inspired and socially committed, are bound to leave footprints wherever they go! The impact of this visionary leadership is seen in the merging of thousands of individual stories (My Story) into a common story (Our Story) of a University truly touching lives and transforming those lives and the lives of those they come into contact with.

The unique opportunity of developing a University from scratch presents one with a whole host of challenges and insights, each one of those turning into marvelous opportunities to learn. Here are some of them:

1. The absolute need to have a Concept Paper that lays out the broad vision and objectives. When finding yourself standing at an important crossroad and musing aloud which road to take, it is a call to ponder on fundamental questions, like ‘why are you doing this?’, or ‘where are you heading?’. Every obstacle, especially the intractable ones, presented an opportunity to recheck the signboards on our road; and that signboard is the concept paper.

2. The overarching purpose of a University is to be primarily a centre for culture, knowledge, research, Intellectual ferment, for critical thinking and analysis of whatever shapes and impacts human life, that influences thinking, planning, and policy making on vital aspects of social life: religion, culture, society, politics, governance, education, health care. Such an understanding of the role of a University empowers its faculty and staff to enunciate clear personal and institutional views on these vital matters and to engage in dialogue across the board.

3. The crying need to have a clear ‘Graduate Profile’ for the University: whom are you sending out into the world of work and community? The answer to this from Don Bosco University is a document that describes a typical ‘Don Bosco University Graduate’ – our graduates are provided the right type of ambiance and experiences to become dependable and truly human leaders with a strong sense of commitment to the poor, the disadvantaged and the needy.

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