Enduring Commitments

Our administrative units are critical to the fulfillment of the University’s educational mission, providing the operational expertise that allows us to meet and often exceed the day-to-day needs of students, faculty, and visitors while growing and protecting the rich array of physical and financial assets Notre Dame is privileged to possess.

Several principles have proven integral to our pursuit of Goal IV and will remain in place as we move forward.

• Our first and most fundamental operational charge is to protect the safety of our students, faculty, staff, and visitors. All of us at Notre Dame assume responsibility for creating an environment that prioritizes the physical and emotional well-being of members of our community. We will continue to closely monitor institutional areas of risk and prepare diligently for the possibility of campus emergencies.
• The University’s longstanding policies of prudent fiscal management have been instrumental in successfully weathering the last several years of financial turmoil. Achieving stellar performance in our endowment is an ongoing priority that requires investment in talent, thoughtful consideration of the national and international markets, and appropriate approaches to risk.
• As campus evolves due to new construction, particularly to accommodate our growing research enterprise, we will follow a master planning philosophy that preserves the integrity, beauty, and heritage of our built and natural landscapes.
• Supporting meaningful professional development opportunities for Notre Dame administrators and staff is an important component of both our success as an institution and our obligation as a responsible employer.
• Just as we seek to attract outstanding students and faculty, we also want to be an employer of choice for talented professionals, an aspiration that can only be realized if our staff are of diverse backgrounds and experiences. Our efforts to hire women, individuals from underrepresented minorities, and people from other countries will therefore continue to be enhanced, and we will place renewed emphasis on internal retention and promotion.
• Recent investments have strengthened our ability to undertake process improvement efforts—such as offering training in the analytical and methodological approaches that mirror industry best practices—and we expect these initiatives to yield further gains in efficiency.
• Consistent with our Catholic mission, we have founded an Office of Sustainability and adopted goals to reduce our carbon footprint by 50 percent (from 2005 levels) by 2030 and to increase the University’s landfill diversion rate to 50 percent of total waste by 2016 (67 percent by 2030).