President's Welcome

Writing to his religious superior in France in 1842, Notre Dame’s founder, the Rev. Edward Sorin, C.S.C., predicted that “This college will be one of the most powerful means of doing good in this country…”

Father Sorin obviously had a powerful vision and a profound faith, for at that moment Notre Dame was all of one small brick building next to St. Mary’s Lake. His “college” has grown a bit over the last 165 years–in physical size, in numbers of students and faculty, in academic reputation and renown. The only thing that hasn’t grown is Notre Dame’s ambition. It remains as it was in the beginning: boundless and committed to being “one of the most powerful means of doing good in this country.”

Notre Dame in 2007 is one of America’s premier institutions of higher education. Members of our faculty do pioneering research in life sciences, aeronautics, psychology, and dozens of other fields. Scientific discoveries and social initiatives by Notre Dame faculty members and alumni help shape every aspect of our modern economic and political lives. And our students, who are among the brightest in American society, distinguish themselves in academics, athletics and service to the needy, whether next door or half a world away.

What gives purpose and direction to our intellectual endeavors and our academic life is our commitment as a Catholic university to a view of human life as grounded in love of God and of neighbor. That is why service–in the community, the nation and the world–is both preached and practiced vigorously at Notre Dame.

We are delighted you have come to visit us on this Web site. We hope you will come and visit the Notre Dame campus and see what has become of Father Sorin’s dream.