At South Texas College of Law in Houston, students began classes on Aug. 24. But a few weeks earlier, on Aug 3, the school’s new president and dean, Donald Guter, took the helm of Houston’s oldest law school, which has 1,291 students enrolled, 354 of whom started classes last week.

At South Texas, Guter will lead a private law school that opened its doors in 1923 and has some 12,000 living alumni, including Texas Supreme Court Justice David Medina.