Join the Faculty
We faculty can worry about teaching material outside of our disciplinary expertise. But this non-disciplinary course focuses on great texts and the heart of our student experience. I’ve found it to be invigorating as a faculty member and a really wonderful complement to my disciplinary work in theology.
Watch current faculty describe the Moreau First-Year Seminar
a signature part of undergraduate education at Notre Dame
The Moreau Program consists of a pair of one-credit courses required of all Notre Dame undergraduates as part of our Undergraduate Core Curriculum. The first of these courses is the Moreau First-Year Seminar (Moreau FYS). This non-disciplinary course provides incoming students the opportunity to study and practice how they can live well at Notre Dame and beyond.
In response to a mandate from the 2023 Strategic Framework, the university recently overhauled numerous aspects of the Moreau FYS including an increase in the intellectual demand of the syllabus and the expansion of our community of teachers of full-time faculty and staff from diverse schools and units.
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"The impact of teaching Moreau, in terms of who I am as an educator, makes me interrogate not only my own beliefs about what education can be, but what it should be.
-Professor April Garcia, Institute for Educational Initiatives
Joining our team of over 100 faculty will offer you fellowship with staff and faculty from diverse units on campus. The pedagogical training we provide will also expand your repertoire of methods for engaging students in lasting learning. Several university leaders including Provost John McGreevy, Dean Marcus Cole, and President Emeritus Fr. John Jenkins, C.S.C. are members of the Fall 2025 Moreau faculty cohort. We hope to continue to build a strong, diverse cohort of instructors who are passionate about the course and dedicated to fostering a positive and productive learning environment for each first-year student.
Faculty of the Moreau First-Year Seminar teach one section of FYS 10101. This one-credit seminar meets for 75 minutes once a week for the first ten weeks of the fall semester.
The syllabus (including readings and assignments — all contained within the commonplace book) is common across all sections. Faculty utilize the pre-designed course syllabus and framework to help students engage the course questions. The course is not, however, scripted, and faculty are free to execute the planned sessions and readings with great flexibility.
Each faculty member may nominate and is paired with a Moreau Peer Leader, a relatable upper-class undergraduate student who serves as instructional support and as a catalyst in building a sense of genuine community.
Inspired by Notre Dame’s Catholic mission and a sacramental vision in which God is not only present in but working through persons and creation, the course embraces a pedagogy of encounter in which such questions are best pursued in community with others. Sections of FYS 10101 are capped at ~20 students to better enable faculty to foster a sense of community both inside and outside of the classroom.
Applications for the Fall 2026 Moreau faculty cohort will open on October 6, 2025 and close on November 10, 2025. Current Moreau faculty seeking to return to the teaching cohort for fall 2026 are required to complete a portion of the application.
Apply to join the Fall 2026 Moreau faculty
We encourage all interested in applying to serve as a new member of the Moreau faculty to join the Moreau Program team for an Open House in 200 Main Building on Tuesday, October 14, from 11:00am - 12:00pm, with a brief presentation at 11:15am.
Ideal candidates demonstrate a zeal for holistic student development and have experience nurturing students’ personal and intellectual growth. Candidates must be able to inspire and facilitate small group discussions of texts from a variety of eras and fields and foster rich interactions between and among students both in the classroom and beyond. Candidates must be current Notre Dame faculty, exempt staff members with a graduate degree, or members of the Congregation of Holy Cross.
The University of Notre Dame utilizes the "interfolio" platform for faculty applications and appointments. All Notre Dame staff and faculty may "Sign in with Partner Institution" and select "University of Notre Dame" to create an interfolio account.
I was surprised by the community that took place among the faculty who teach this course. It has been such a gift to meet like-minded faculty that want to connect with students and share the traditions of Notre Dame.