Notre Dame elects new University President
Notre Dame’s Board of Trustees has elected a new University President, board chair Jack Brennan announced in an email to the Notre Dame community Monday. The board elected Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C. to replace Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., who announced in October that he will step down after the 2023-24 academic year.
Dowd will take over for Jenkins on July 1, 2024.
“On behalf of the Board, allow me to express how excited we are that Fr. Dowd has accepted our invitation to serve as president,” Brennan said. “We are confident that he will be a worthy successor to Fr. Jenkins, who leads the University with courage, wisdom and vision, and has done so for nearly two decades.
“We thank Fr. Jenkins for his extraordinary leadership and look forward to celebrating him when his term as president ends on July 1.”
Fr. Dowd’s election was the result of a “multi-year succession planning process,” Brennan said. The Michigan City, Ind. native is a 1987 Notre Dame graduate with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and economics.
Now a member of Fr. Jenkins’ President’s Leadership Council. Fr. Dowd also serves on Notre Dame’s Board of Fellows and Board of Trustees. He spent 18 months in East Africa after graduating Notre Dame as part of Moreau Seminary, where he, according to the email, explored his vocation to the priesthood.
Fr. Dowd earned his PhD from UCLA in political science in 2003, and one year later, he started teaching at Notre Dame.
His research, according to the email, “focuses on how Christian and Islamic religious communities affect support for democratic institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa.”
“This is a historic and exciting day for Notre Dame,” Brennan said. “I want to thank the Board for their dedication and hard work in identifying the next great president of the University, and to congratulate Fr. Dowd most heartily on his election. Through the intercession of Mary, Our Patroness, we ask for God’s blessing on Fr. Dowd and on Fr. Jenkins, and all who lead Our Lady’s University.”
Fr. Dowd will be the university’s 18th president.
Fr. Jenkins announced he would step down as University President on Oct. 13. He has served as such since 2005. Among other accomplishments, the university credits Jenkins with getting Notre Dame admitted into the Association of American Universities (AAU) and allowing students to attend school in person during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Notre Dame is and has been incredibly blessed by Father Jenkins’ courageous and visionary leadership,” Brennan said when Fr. Jenkins announced he would step down. “Together with the remarkable leadership team he has assembled, he has devoted himself to advancing the University and its mission, fulfilling the promise he made when he was inaugurated — to work collaboratively to build a great Catholic university for the 21st century.”
Shortly before Fr. Dowd is sworn in, Notre Dame will also swap athletics directors. Pete Bevacqua will replace Jack Swarbrick early in 2024.
