External Engagement

Engage in external collaborations that extend and deepen Notre Dame’s impact

Goal V: Engage in external collaborations that extend and deepen Notre Dame’s impact

Context

With Notre Dame continuing to develop in extraordinary ways, and as our faculty and students push us to ever-increasing heights of academic achievement, we must attend to the University’s reputation with a diligence befitting their performance. That is why even as we reap considerable rewards by virtue of our Catholic character and our location in a smaller, collaborative community, we are simultaneously called to ensure the world beyond our Indiana campus has not only an awareness but also an accurate understanding of who we are and the scholarship we pursue.

This intensifies the need to reach out energetically to partners in the academy, government, and industry. One way to do so is by leveraging the presence we have with Notre Dame offices and facilities in or near cities with international profiles, including Beijing, Chicago, Jerusalem, London, Rome, and Washington, D.C. Over time, we must transform Notre Dame into a global university, an intellectual leader on the world stage buoyed by the global presence of the Catholic Church and the Congregation of Holy Cross.

We also need to expand our collaboration at home, investing our time and resources with partners in South Bend and the Michiana region to support the area’s economic growth, both for the sake of the region itself and its role in making Notre Dame a leading place to teach, learn, research, and work.

Finally, we need to support the outstanding efforts of Notre Dame clubs working to nurture the close bonds within the Notre Dame family. These groups organize a wide circle of very devoted alumni and friends, whose commitment to come together, spend time and resources on their shared causes, and play a role in the success of their university is a defining aspect of Notre Dame.

Our drive to collaborate more widely in the world ultimately comes down to our mission as a Catholic university: to use our knowledge and discovery to help serve God and neighbor—and the term “neighbor,” in this age, does not only mean someone who lives nearby. To reach the full expression of our mission, Notre Dame must do its utmost to touch as many lives in as many places as possible.