Notre Dame Names New President
John Jenkins will serve as the Catholic university's 17th president beginning September.
The University of Notre Dame, one of the nation's largest Catholic universities, named its new president early this month.
John Jenkins, 51, will be the 17th president in the 163-year-old school, and will succeed the Rev. Edward Malloy, who led the university for 18 years.
"I think we're at a moment in Notre Dame's history where we have the potential to move ahead dramatically - it's a great university - while remaining faithful to the Catholic character of the university," said Jenkins. "I think that's the thing we have to focus on."
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Jenkins, a Notre Dame alumnus from '76, takes over at a time of "enormous growth" for the school.
Developments under Malloy included: the steady increase of student and faculty numbers, an endowment growth from $456 million in 1987 to $3 billion this year, and the addition of a fabled footbal stadium, new research laboratories, student housing and a performing arts center.
The school also progressed uner Malloy’s predecessor, the Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, who served as an advisor to popes and presidents during his 35 years of presidency. Hesburgh in 1972 became the first president to admit female students to the institution. Since then, female attendance rates rocketed to 47 percent of the overall enrollment.
"If I thought about those things, I'd get very nervous. My approach is to think one year at a time, one week at a time, even one day at a time," Jenkins said. "What do we have to do today to fulfill the mission of Notre Dame? I just don't allow myself to think a lot about those long tenures of my predecessors."
Jenkins' inauguration ceremonies are set for Sept. 22-23 on the Notre Dame, Ind.-campus.
