How Notre Dame’s Catholic identity impacts the world with Fr. John Jenkins
Join Notre Dame President Emeritus Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., and Lou Nanni '84, '88 M.A., Vice President for University Relations, as they discuss Notre Dame joining the American Association of Universities (AAU), the strategic framework plan set for 2033 by the University’s leadership, how Notre Dame is ensuring its education remains accessible to all students, and more.
Experience the Episode
Monday, July 22, 2024 12:00 pm
Join Notre Dame President Emeritus Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., and Lou Nanni ’84, ’88 M.A., Vice President for University Relations, as they discuss Notre Dame joining the American Association of Universities (AAU), the strategic framework plan set for 2033 by the University’s leadership, how Notre Dame is ensuring its education remains accessible to all students, and more.
This episode was originally released on October 23, 2023. To explore more, please visit their website.
Meet the Speaker: President Emeritus Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C.
Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., is the President Emeritus of the University of Notre Dame.
Elected in 2005 as the University of Notre Dame’s 17th president, Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., served four terms in his position before stepping down in May 2024.
As president, he devoted himself to fostering the University’s unique place in academia, the Church, the United States, and the world.
Father Jenkins has been committed to combining teaching and research excellence with a cultivation of the deeper purposes of Catholic higher education. While pursuing academic distinction, he brought renewed emphasis to Notre Dame’s distinctive mission, rooted in the tradition of the Congregation of Holy Cross, the University’s founding community, to educate the whole person—mind, body, and spirit—to do good in the world.
These commitments were made manifest in the University’s dedication to excellence in undergraduate education in the classroom and beyond, while simultaneously building a reputation as a preeminent global research institution—all in the context of Notre Dame’s Catholic identity. In his inaugural address in 2005, Father Jenkins articulated the vision that Notre Dame would be “one of the preeminent research institutions in the world, a center for learning whose intellectual and religious traditions converge to make it a healing, unifying, enlightening force for a world deeply in need.”
In 2023, under Father Jenkins’ leadership, the University was invited to join the Association of American Universities, a consortium of the nation’s leading public and private research universities, making it the only religiously-affiliated university in the nation to be so honored. In 2022, the University attracted more than $281 million in external research funding and is among the fastest-growing research universities in the U.S.
Recognizing the high cost of education, the University has dramatically increased financial aid over the past 15 years, meeting 100% of demonstrated financial need for every student. The University provides more than $200 million in aid for undergraduates, a number which doubled in the past decade, with 60% of all students receiving aid.
In his final decade as president, Notre Dame, in partnership with local civic and industry leaders, played a leading role in a regional strategy that has secured over $130 million in grants for economic development activities, leading to unprecedented investments in research facilities, workforce development programs, new transit connections, cultural amenities, and housing in the region.
Within the University and beyond, Father Jenkins called for civil discourse— grounded in the Christian view of others as equally made in the image of God—as a way to find common ground rather than demonize those with different opinions. In a speech at Emory University in 2011, he said, “If we choose to attack our opponents before we have taken the time to understand them, if we prefer denunciations to genuine dialogue, if we seek political victory rather than constructive compromise … we will not be able to find solutions to the problems before us.”
A philosopher trained in theology and a member of Notre Dame’s Department of Philosophy since 1990, Father Jenkins earned undergraduate and advanced degrees from Notre Dame, a doctorate of philosophy from Oxford University, and a master of divinity and licentiate in sacred theology from the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley.
Meet the Moderator: Lou Nanni '84, '88 M.A.
Louis M. Nanni is the vice president for University Relations at the University of Notre Dame. In this role he oversees the University’s efforts in development, advisory councils, and the Notre Dame Alumni Association.
Prior to joining Notre Dame in 1999, Mr. Nanni had served for eight years as executive director of the Center for the Homeless in South Bend, Ind., establishing the center as a national model in addressing the complex issues involved in homelessness. As a leading authority on those issues, he addressed Congress during its debate of welfare reform measures and led training sessions for thousands of community service workers across North America, all the while continuing to form close personal relationships with the center’s guests.
Mr. Nanni was graduated from Notre Dame in 1984 with a bachelor’s degree in government and the Program of Liberal Studies. For two years following graduation he served as a lay missioner working in a Santiago, Chile, shantytown as part of the Holy Cross Associates program sponsored by Notre Dame’s founding religious order, the Congregation of Holy Cross. He then entered Notre Dame’s pioneering international peace studies program, earning a master’s degree in 1988.
Mr. Nanni became director of the world mission office of the Catholic Diocese of Orlando, Fla., in 1988 and worked extensively in the Dominican Republic on issues of pastoral support and economic development. He was elected to Notre Dame’s Board of Trustees as a three-year, young alumni member in 1990.
Mr. Nanni and his wife, Carmen, a 1993 Notre Dame graduate, were presented one of three national exemplar awards by Notre Dame as part of a special University observance in May 1997. He previously served on the advisory council for Notre Dame’s Institute for Church Life and in 1994 received the Notre Dame Alumni Association’s Dr. Thomas Dooley Award for Humanitarian Service.
The Nannis have five children, Isabela, Louis, Katia, Gabriel, and Sofia.