President's Faculty Address
Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C., 18th President of the University of Notre Dame
October 30, 2025
Washington Hall
...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...