University of Notre Dame has written, “If (Sorin) was to The begin at all, the head of this new University college had to be mightily con- cerned about frostbite and empty otre Dame’s founding can per- stomachs. The more elusive prob- haps best be characterized as lems of intellectual development Nan outburst of missionary would have to wait.” zeal. How else can one describe the If Notre Dame in its infancy action of Father Edward Sorin, the 28- was the child of Sorin’s vision year-old French priest of the and will, its subsequent growth Congregation of Holy Cross who - and development were the prod- with $310 cash and three log buildings ucts of large and powerful social in various stages of disrepair in the and historical forces. Just as the middle of the northern Indiana fron- University was being estab- tier - had the temerity to christen his lished, the first waves of enterprise the University of Notre European immigrants, over- Dame du Lac? whelmingly Catholic, were Notre Dame at its founding was a name in reaching America’s shores, and search of, or perhaps in anticipation of, a uni- Notre Dame’s location — though versity. The wonder is not so much what the seemingly remote — in fact put it University has become more than a century within easy reach of cities like and a half later, but that it survived at all in Chicago, Detroit and St. Louis, all those early years of beginning almost literally of which soon would have large from nothing. immigrant Catholic populations. In his book, The University of Notre Dame: A The growth of the University of Portrait of Its History and Campus, historian Notre Dame and the immigrant Thomas Schlereth of the American studies experience would be inextricably department has described the odds the linked. to become the University that its charter University was up against: “Only nine other A number of forces were at work in this claimed it was.” Catholic colleges existed when Notre Dame relationship. The American Dream was com- Zahm was not without evidence to support was founded, but that number had grown to ing into being, and with it the hope and his faith in Notre Dame’s potential. On this 51 by 1861. Presently only seven of these ante- expectation that, through hard work and edu- campus in 1899, Jerome Green, a young Notre bellum institutions still exist. One historian cation, children would enjoy greater opportu- Dame scientist, became the first American to estimates a mortality rate of approximately nities than their parents. At the same time, transmit a wireless message. At about the 80 percent among Notre Dame’s contemporary anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic sentiments same time, Albert Zahm, Father John’s younger brother, was designing the first suc- secular institutions. Yet Notre Dame survived were open and pervasive in American society, cessful helicopter and first wind tunnel and ...” creating barriers to immigrant Catholic stu- was launching the first man-carrying glider The University’s survival of those early dents. Equally strong sentiments among from the roof of a building on campus. The years is a tribute not only to the faith of Father many Catholics regarded public schools at University also had established the nation’s Sorin, but also to his pragmatism and wit. In any level as dangerous places where young first architecture, law and engineering the beginning, his institution’s only admis- people might lose their faith. For all these schools under Catholic auspices. sions requirement was the ability to pay — reasons, education — primary, secondary and The debate over Notre Dame’s future was some payment, at least, and not necessarily in higher education — became the centerpiece effectively ended in the two decades follow- currency or coin; livestock or the services of a of American Catholicism. ing the First World War. In 1919, the tradesman or some other “in-kind” payment Though it may not have seemed so at the University installed its first president to also were cheerfully accepted. Nor were time, this great historical movement of peo- have earned a Ph.D., Father James Burns, admissions limited by religious preference. ples and the creation of the American melting C.S.C., and the changes he initiated were as Father Sorin’s mission and inspiration were pot dramatically enhanced the odds of Notre thoroughly and indisputably Catholic, but dramatic as they were far-reaching. The ele- Dame’s survival. What still had to be decided, mentary, preparatory and manual labor pro- from the beginning he made it clear that however, was precisely the type of institution would-be students of any religious persuasion grams were scrapped; the University’s first Notre Dame would become. How could this board of lay advisors was established with were welcome; indeed, that Notre Dame’s stu- small Midwestern school without endowment dent body eventu- the goal of creating a $1-million endowment, and without with a national campaign conducted to ally would ranks of well-to- become over- achieve that goal; and the first annual giv- The University of Notre Dame’s institutional do alumni hope ing program for alumni was launched. With whelmingly to compete with Catholic was mission is to attain the highest standards of this impetus established, between 1919 and firmly estab- 1933 the University would erect 15 new build- more a reflection lished private of American cul- excellence in teaching, scholarship, and ings and triple the numbers of both its stu- universities and dents and its faculty. ture than of selected fields of research in a community public-supported parochialism on Also during this period, a new and utterly of learning where truth is seen to be state institu- unanticipated element was added to the the University’s tions? As in part. informed by belief and where, specifically, ethos of Notre Dame, and the University for- Sorin’s day, the ever after would be a national institution. Sorin was fact that the equally flexible the Catholic faith and intellectual That new element was, of course, the game of University pur- football. But for Notre Dame and for its when it came to tradition are celebrated and lived. sued this lofty his University’s legions of ethnic American loyalists — most, and ambitious but not all, Catholic — the cliché was true: academic offer- vision of its ings. While a classical collegiate curriculum Football was more than a game. Through its future was testimony to the faith of its leaders academic program, Notre Dame already was was established early on, so too were elemen- — leaders such as Father John Zahm, C.S.C. tary and preparatory programs as well as a part of the striving of ethnic Americans to As Schlereth describes it: earn a place in the American mainstream. manual labor school, and for several decades “Zahm … envisioned Notre Dame as poten- the collegiate program never attracted more Now, even for those who had never and would tially ‘the intellectual center of the American never attend Notre Dame, the University than a dozen students in any year. As Notre West’; an institution with large undergradu- Dame’s chronicler, Father Arthur Hope, C.S.C., became a symbol, so much so that its attrac- ate, graduate, and professional schools tion persists literally to this day. equipped with laboratories, libraries, and The national recognition football brought to research facilities. Notre Dame should strive Notre Dame was a mixed blessing at those UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME 96 Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., to Become 17th President The University Notre Dame’s Board of Trustees elected Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., as the University’s 17th president at its meeting April 30, 2004, after Rev. Edward from the one encountered by Father A. Malloy, C.S.C., announced his intention to step down as president at the Sorin on his arrival in this country. end of his current term which expires on June 30, 2005. The tangible barriers faced then by Catholic students and scholars A vice president and associate provost at Notre Dame since July 2000, have largely been removed, and Father Jenkins was elected to a five-year term beginning July 1, 2005. He is today one may find such students an associate professor of philosophy and has been a member of the Notre and scholars at Harvard and Dame faculty since 1990. Stanford and Duke, as well as at Prior to his election as vice president and associate provost, Father Jenkins, Notre Dame. American Catholics 50, had been religious superior of the Holy Cross priests and brothers at are firmly implanted in the Notre Dame for three years. As religious superior, he was a Fellow and American mainstream. Trustee of the University, but he relinquished those posts to assume his duties At the same time, the seculariza- in the provost’s office. tion of contemporary American society is an undisputed fact, and with that transformation Father Jenkins specializes in the areas of ancient philosophy, medieval phi- has come a weakening of common values, an losophy and the philosophy of religion. He is the author of “Knowledge and antipathy to belief, and a resistance to the Faith in Thomas Aquinas,” published by Cambridge University Press in 1997. very notion of underlying truths. One expres- Father Jenkins earned two degrees in philosophy from Oxford University, in 1987 and 1989. He earned his master of sion of this viewpoint is the contention that a divinity degree and licentiate in sacred theology from the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley, Calif., in 1988. Prior to Catholic university is a contradiction in entering the Congregation of Holy Cross, he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in philosophy from Notre Dame in terms, that reason and belief are somehow 1976 and 1978, respectively.