Enhancement Areas
Awareness
Raise national and international awareness of Notre Dame’s academic excellence
Overview
A casual observer might well look at Notre Dame, an institution with one of the most recognizable names in American higher education, and think the idea that we need to raise awareness about the University does not make sense.
However, the Notre Dame the rest of the country knows too often only has two dimensions: Catholicism and football. To be sure, the University’s faith and athletic traditions are indispensable components of who we are and what we love and value about this place.
They don’t tell the Notre Dame story in its entirety, however.
We want to elevate the message about the University’s academic excellence; our faculty and students, whose considerable and ongoing achievements inspire us all, deserve nothing less.
With “A Legacy Expanded,” we want to elevate the message about the University’s academic excellence so that it is as prominent a part of our institutional identity as these other areas, especially in the broader academy and international contexts; our faculty and students, whose considerable and ongoing achievements inspire us all, deserve nothing less.
This charge, then, presents an opportunity for our Office of Public Affairs and Communications to enhance the support of and collaboration with the academy to better inform peers, media outlets, and thought leaders about the scholarship that is already taking place at Notre Dame. The shape such efforts can take ranges from new digital marketing strategies to our faculty participating in public forums about current events related to their fields of expertise.
We are confident that by broadening the reach of these accomplished scholars, Notre Dame’s standing in the world academic community will increase accordingly.
Strategies
- Strategy 1: Build Notre Dame’s reputation among media abroad
- Strategy 2: Strengthen Notre Dame personal contacts among national media domestically
- Strategy 3: Work with the president and provost to bring academic leaders from around the world to Notre Dame by recognizing the president of an international university each year, either with an honorary degree at commencement or through another event on campus
- Strategy 4: Work with the dean of the Keough School of Global Affairs and others to attract attention for international conferences in strategic international locations around the world
- Strategy 5: Engage in strategic paid advertising about the University in select publications that are read widely in higher education
Partner
Partner to enhance the stability and growth of our regional community
Overview
For the faculty, administrators, and staff of Notre Dame, South Bend and the other cities and towns of the Michiana region are home. These are the places where they build lives for themselves, send children to school, seek places of worship, go out on a Saturday night, volunteer, find employment opportunities for a spouse or partner. In a very real sense, the University and the community are inseparable.
This is a relationship we are fortunate to enjoy. Together, we explore how what Notre Dame faculty and students are doing in labs, libraries, and classrooms might positively impact the wider community; plan for the joint development of our campus and the surrounding areas; and pursue a whole host of initiatives critical to the functioning of a research university.
Notre Dame has an opportunity and a responsibility to attract faculty, staff, students, and visitors who can contribute to the community in a meaningful way.
The largest employer in the region, Notre Dame directly and indirectly accounts for nearly 14,000 jobs and more than $1.3 billion in economic activity annually. This includes providing services for the hundreds of thousands of guests who come to the University for football weekends and other events. In addition to on-campus offerings, we rely on local restaurants, hotels, and retail outlets to help ensure our visitors have a memorable experience and return in the future.
Accommodating visitors is important, but collaborating with key partners to maintain and attract the best talent and businesses to the area is an even more critical challenge. Among the most visible institutions in the region, Notre Dame has an opportunity and a responsibility to attract faculty, staff, students, and visitors who can contribute to the community in a meaningful way. Doing so requires that we invest in our employees and facilities in a manner that goes beyond simple job creation to enhance the local economy and quality of life.
Notre Dame must therefore continue to work with local governments, the business community, and neighborhood organizations to develop new sources of innovation, economic growth, and entrepreneurial energy, starting with University research and culminating in support for new business ventures.
Strategies
- Strategy 1: Seek an external foundation grant aimed at job creation, academic development, and brain gain for the regional community
- Strategy 2: Attract and retain business development in the region by creating a new position dedicated to coordinating the movement of existing companies to the area as well as assisting new companies to grow from idea conception to successful market entry and beyond
- Strategy 3: Provide capital to construct expanded facilities that engage the community and promote more business development (i.e., Robinson Community Learning Center, Innovation Park Phase II)
- Strategy 4: Support the accelerating demand and pace of client companies’ commercialization activities particularly in the Greenhouse Commercialization Program