President's Faculty Address
October 30, 2025
Washington Hall
Click here to watch a recording of the Faculty Address .
Introduction
Thank you, John, for that introduction. Thank you all for being here. It’s good to be together with so many colleagues and friends.
People often ask me if there is anything that has surprised me since taking on the presidency. My standard answer is, while I am learning all the time, I have grown to expect the unexpected. It actually takes a great deal to surprise me.
Even so, the pace and degree of disruption in higher education over the past year has been astonishing.
We’ve seen a flood of policy changes, at every level of government—be that reductions in federal research grants and financial aid, or the increase in the endowment tax; changes to immigration policy or the dismantling of DEI programs.
We cannot help but sense this is an important inflection point for higher education in the United States.
Indeed, to borrow a phrase from Pope Francis, “We are living in not just an era of change, but a change of era.”
I am proud that, amidst the turmoil, this community has risen to the occasion—adapting to a new environment, and resolutely navigating change.
I am grateful for your sacrifice and continued stewardship as we have implemented a staff hiring freeze, reduced budgets by 2.5 percent, and paused new construction.
It is true that hard moments can bring forth a new level of certainty—about our values and what matters. Fortunately, at Notre Dame, even in times of great uncertainty, we have the gift of clarity.
Our mission grounds us in the Catholic intellectual tradition. It anchors us in times of disruption. It opens us to new ideas and one another in pursuit of the truth. And, most urgently, it calls us to be a courageous, committed force for good in the world.
As John mentioned, over the past several weeks, I’ve been hosting a series of informal lunches with faculty across the different colleges and schools, and I have deeply appreciated these conversations. I have been incredibly inspired by your commitment to what matters most; to advancing research, pivoting as necessary, and working together to build a community where all can flourish.
And through my conversations with many of you, at and beyond these lunches, I have come to know well the anxieties and concerns related to the current landscape and its impact on you and your students.
Acknowledging the complexity of the issues we face, I will do my best to address as many of your concerns as I can in my remarks. I will also be available at the reception to answer questions. And please know you are always welcome to write to me. I will get back to you.
Last year, in my inaugural address, I outlined ways we would advance our mission and Strategic Framework, from increasing access and affordability, to improving our departments, to deepening our relationships in the region and around the world.
Little more than a year later, the world and landscape of higher education look quite different, so I’d like to take this time to reflect on where we’ve been able to make progress, and where there is still work to do.
Today, I’ll focus on three key areas:
Finally, I’d like to share some opportunities I see for Notre Dame to lead in the years ahead.
Research and Scholarship
Let me begin with research and scholarship, where we have made tremendous strides in recent years, and where the challenges are both apparent and deeply felt.
For many years, we have worked hard to be a stronger research institution.
Our faculty’s achievements—your achievements—have earned us not merely recognition, such as membership in the AAU, but the responsibility to embrace our distinctiveness and lead.
As we strive to become an ever-greater engine of insight, innovation, and impact, we have resolved, as articulated in our Strategic Framework, to build on our strengths, and to do more to “think as an institution.”
Already, our university-wide strategic research initiatives are helping us work together across disciplines to address the world’s most pressing problems. Equally and importantly, we are making great strides with regard to the college and school strategic plans.
We are fortunate in this time of upheaval to be able to attract great academic leaders to Notre Dame. They are drawn to our mission and helping us move the needle on the most urgent issues of our time.
In the past two years, we have made 40 senior faculty hires—and we can all be proud of the great colleagues we have welcomed to Notre Dame, in addition to the outstanding junior faculty members who have joined us. Beyond faculty, we have recruited a growing number of post-docs who advance research and help us to build a more vibrant scholarly community. And we’ve continued to boost support for graduate students, from increased stipends to extending health insurance to our doctoral students’ spouses and dependents.
I know many of you are concerned about what might lie ahead. Our graduate students are so important to our efforts. We must always do our best to ensure they have what they need to flourish.
Let me be clear: Know that as a University, myself and the other executive officers, our deans, and our senior leaders, are committed to supporting your work, whether in responding to evolving federal guidelines or exploring alternative sources of funding and support.
And we are committed to continuing to support our international students, staff, and scholars who are essential to fulfilling our mission as a global, Catholic, research university.
While we have avoided some of the more dramatic budget cuts we have seen among our peers, we must continue to be excellent stewards of our shared resources. The uncertain environment requires that we work more closely together and make the most of the resources available—whether that’s by identifying cost savings, eliminating activities that are no longer necessary, or embracing innovations.
I know this requires sacrifices from all of us. I truly appreciate your continued collaboration and stewardship as we chart the path forward.
At the national level, we will continue to advocate on behalf of Notre Dame and higher education to advance the research so critical to the wellbeing of our country and our world. And we will do so in partnership with other institutions and organizations, such as the AAU. Because of our bipartisan credibility, we believe this is a conversation that Notre Dame can help lead.
Teaching and Learning
In addition to research and scholarship, we’re also invested in improving our teaching and learning.
Among other things, we resolved to offer an education that is grounded but not bounded by disciplines, encourage undergraduate research, and help our students become leaders ready to take on the challenges we face in the world today. Here at Notre Dame Dame, we set out to offer an unsurpassed holistic undergraduate education that integrats both the life of the mind and matters of the heart.
And we have made progress in a number of ways.
One example is the Moreau First-Year Seminar. As you may know, this year, all of our first-year students are taking the newly reimagined version of this seminar, and I am grateful to all 125 members of the faculty who have been teaching it. Seeing so many of our first-year students with their commonplace books around campus—engaging big questions with one another—is inspiring and reflective of the community of learning we strive to be.
Meanwhile, to increase opportunities for undergraduate research, the College of Science and the College of Engineering are piloting STRAND (Student Research @ Notre Dame). This is a central web-based location connecting students with research projects, using a clear and equitable platform. If all goes well, we hope to see it expanded to other colleges and schools as well.
We’ve also implemented a new four-year advising structure, made possible by the collaboration of deans and more than 100 faculty and staff. We’re hopeful this structure will create greater consistency for our students and the conditions for deeper conversations and richer relationships over their time here, and perhaps long after.
In all these ways, we are enhancing what makes a Notre Dame education distinct and valuable.
Among the challenges and opportunities facing us, and higher education at large, are urgent questions about AI. And I’ve heard many of these questions from you, including requests for more resources and direction.
To support your research and teaching, we’re developing and offering a suite of resources.
- For instance, ND Learning’s new Lab for AI in Teaching and Learning now offers AI coaching for faculty, in addition to its “Teaching Well with AI Academy” program.
- We just announced a free, on-demand, introductory AI course for students. It is also open to interested faculty and staff.
- ND Learning, the Office of Academic Standards, and Office of Information Technology will continue to partner in responding to the evolving challenges and opportunities in AI for teaching and learning.
Here especially, but in all that we do, we welcome your comments and recommendations. No one is better placed than you to speak on the evolving challenges and opportunities AI presents.
As a Catholic university, I envision Notre Dame as a leader in this conversation. We must do all that we can to keep human beings and human dignity at the center of the discussion.
Both the Institute for Ethics and The Common Good and the Lucy Family Institute for Data & Society have hosted conferences in recent weeks. These conferences have brought leaders in various fields to campus to explore these topics. Together they offer examples of how Notre Dame can be a convener, and bring people together around the most important issues of the day.
Building Community
Building a community conducive to the bridge building we are called to remains a high priority.
Last year, I announced Pathways, an initiative that made the University loan-free and need-blind for all undergrads admitted to Notre Dame.
We are grateful to our generous benefactors and all those responsible for the superb financial stewardship over many years that has made this historic investment possible.
Pathways began with two mission-driven goals:
- to make Notre Dame more accessible and affordable for lower and middle-income families and
- more reflective of the diversity of the Catholic community in and beyond the United States.
So how are we doing?
In its first year, Pathways is helping us to achieve them both.
- After a 6% decline in students from middle-income families over the past 10 years, we have seen a 3% increase in students from middle-income families, making up half that distance in just one year. And it has been heartening to receive many letters from parents about how Pathways made their child’s journey to Notre Dame possible.
- We’ve also seen a 13% increase in Catholic applications.
- And this year’s international class is not only more socioeconomically diverse, but more globally representative than in years past.
Here I’d like to take a moment to acknowledge our colleagues in ND Global and the Enrollment Division who worked tirelessly to welcome and support our international students, both undergraduates and graduate students. We are enriched by these and all of our extra-ordinary students.
Against this backdrop, our efforts to promote an ever-greater sense of belonging and inclusion among members of the Notre Dame community remain paramount. Only then will our students fully benefit from the rich exchange of ideas and experiences and gifts on this campus, and broaden their understanding to become the bridge-builders our country and world need.
We all know that many institutions of higher education are struggling with DEI programs going from favored and even required, to being out of favor and under scrutiny. That’s why our own efforts in promoting belonging are drawn from and informed by the richness of Catholic Social Teaching. The principles of that teaching call us to respect the dignity of every person, promote a just society where every person can flourish, and live in solidarity, particularly with the most vulnerable.
The work of making sure all our students feel included and at home at Notre Dame is deeply rooted in our Catholic mission, which is not subject to fad or fashion, secular discourse, or political ideology. And that allows us to remain steadfast and focused.
We also know that being a community of learning means we must continue to be a place where we can engage different ideas and perspectives. We have long welcomed a wide range of viewpoints here at Notre Dame. We have a tradition of respectful debate and dialogue across differences.
I’m proud of the work we’ve done to host academic events to take on challenging topics, including the Israel-Palestine Series last year. And thanks to the Democracy Initiative’s hard work, we welcomed two governors who have dedicated themselves to disagreeing better, Governor Spencer Cox, Republican of Utah, and Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, Democrat of New Mexico.
These are just a few examples, but this kind of civil dialogue across differences has never been more important. Notre Dame must continue to be a place where we encourage debate, transcend divisions, and model the respectful, rigorous discourse we hope to see.
Of course, the community we build does not end on this campus. We recognize that we share a future with South Bend and the broader region.
We will continue to partner in ways that promote the economic vitality and the flourishing of people throughout our shared community. This past summer, we dedicated the Link pathway, effectively a bridge between campus and downtown South Bend, emphasizing our proximity and deepening our physical connection.
Another example is the progress we’re making on the Downtown South Bend Tech and Talent District, the most ambitious effort in Notre Dame’s history in the region. It is a concerted effort to catalyze the broader revitalization in the heart of our region that flows directly from our research and educational strengths.
While these local efforts are very important, we must deepen and enhance our global engagement.
I was reminded of this over the summer, when I traveled to Japan as part of a “Pilgrimage of Peace” to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And more recently, when Pope Leo XIV dedicated the Borgo Laudato Si’ near Rome, as an international educational and research center on sustainability, with Notre Dame as a lead university partner.
Our goals, progress, and challenges in research and scholarship, as well as teaching and learning, do not exist in a silo. In order to address the great challenges we face in this world, Notre Dame must continue to foster connection between people and ideas across borders and boundaries of all kinds.
We must sustain and deepen our partnerships around the world, and push ourselves to become an even more global institution.
Seizing Opportunities and Leading
In all these areas, I’m proud of the progress we have made.
And I believe we are well-situated, as an institution, to seize the opportunities available during this change of eras.
Because of our outstanding financial stewardship, we can invest in, and hire, faculty who are attracted to the unique mission of Notre Dame, and who will help us achieve our goals to build an ever more vibrant scholarly community, one that is always striving to push the frontiers of knowledge and develop new insights.
Because of the bipartisan credibility we’ve built, and our reputation for integrity and moral leadership, we are able to partner with our peer institutions and policymakers to shape the future relationship between research universities and the Federal Government, and help define this new era in ways that transcend political division.
To be clear: We will do all in our power to ensure this new relationship is respectful of academic freedom, supports research based on scientific merit, prioritizes the role research plays in our collective flourishing, and guarantees institutional autonomy. These are values which are and must always be non-negotiable. We will never compromise our capacity to conduct the work of this University according to our Catholic mission, which has guided us since our founding.
Cultivating Hope
Allow me to close with a brief reflection on our shared vocation as scholars and researchers. As John mentioned, a few weeks ago, I spoke with the first-year class at Notre Dame stadium as part of the first-year Moreau course. I chose to talk about hope.
As I told the students, in moments where hope is difficult, more often than not, it takes someone else to help us see light where we might only see darkness. And for our students and colleagues, more often than not, that someone else is you.
As our faculty, you are foundational to the University’s mission: We believe no group is as important to the reputation of the University, or more central to its accomplishments.
Through your research and scholarship, you are seekers of truth, pushing the bounds of your fields and finding new knowledge to share.
And through your teaching and mentoring of our undergraduate and graduate students, you inspire them to pursue the truth as well, encouraging them to go deeper to explore important questions, and giving them the skills to think critically about the world around us.
Every day, you take on important questions and challenges, and help our students do the same.
And as we look ahead, I ask you to continue to be agents of hope. Helping our students see the world as it is, in all its pain and struggle, as well as all its beauty and wonder. Encouraging them to visualize how the world may become better. And together with them, cooperating with God’s grace to bring about that better world we envision. That’s how we will be the Notre Dame needs.
Be assured of my deep gratitude for all that you do. Be assured of my prayers for you, your families, and all those dear to you.
God bless you all. And God bless Notre Dame.
Watch the Address