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University of Notre Dame du Lac
Seal of the University of Notre Dame
Motto:	Vita, Dulcedo, Spes (Mary, our) life, sweetness, and hope
Established	1842
Type:	Private, Coeducational
Religious affiliation:	Roman Catholic, Congregation of Holy Cross
Endowment:	$6.4 billion[1]
President:	The Rev. John Jenkins, CSC
Provost:	Thomas Burish
Faculty:	780[2]
Students:	11,479
Undergraduates:	8,332[3]
Postgraduates:	3,147
Location	Notre Dame, Indiana, USA
Campus:	Suburban: 1,250 acres (510 ha)
Sports:	26 Division I NCAA teams
Colors:	Blue and Gold
Nickname:	Fighting Irish
Mascot:	Leprechaun
Website:	http://www.nd.edu/

The University of Notre Dame IPA: /ˌnoʊtɚˈdeɪm/ is a Catholic^[4] institution located in Notre Dame, an unincorporated section of St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States, immediately northeast of the city of South Bend. Notre Dame, meaning "Our Lady" in French,^[5] refers to the Virgin Mary. The original and official name of the school is the University of Notre Dame du Lac (Our Lady of the Lake). Notre Dame's campus sits on 1,250 acres (5 km²) containing two lakes and 136 buildings.

The school was founded on November 26, 1842, by a 28-year-old priest, the Reverend Edward Sorin, CSC, and six Holy Cross Brothers who were members of the Congregation of Holy Cross, founded in Le Mans, France, in 1837. Recent historical study has shown that the Potawatomi Indians, partly because of the strong faith of Leopold Pokagon, also played an integral role in the founding of Notre Dame, both before and during Sorin's presence in Northern Indiana. Originally Sorin planned to wait out the winter at the South Bend site, notorious for its fierce winter months, and the standing joke is that the Congregation is still waiting for winter to pass.^[6]

The University's Catholic character is physically manifest throughout the Notre Dame campus. The Basilica of the Sacred Heart is centrally located on campus. A statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary stands atop the Main Building's dome, there are chapels in every residence hall, and crucifixes in most classrooms on campus. 82% of the student body self-identifies as Catholic.

The Indiana General Assembly granted the school its charter on January 15, 1844, under the name University of Notre Dame du Lac. Though the word Lac is singular, the university's campus actually contains two lakes. According to legend, when Father Sorin arrived to found the school, it was November and everything was frozen. He thought there was only one lake and named the university accordingly.^[7]

The University's historic quad in Notre Dame, Indiana with the "Golden Dome" of the administration building visible, though surrounded by scaffolding for the regilding process that last occurred in 2005.

The university is located in Notre Dame, Indiana, an unincorporated community in north central Indiana just north of South Bend and about four miles (6 km) from the Michigan state line.

Notre Dame's administration building, featuring the famous golden dome topped by a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Notre Dame's campus consists of 1,250 acres just south of the Indiana Toll Road in the northern neighborhood of South Bend. Across State Route 31 to the west is Saint Mary's College, an all-women's college founded by the Sisters of the Holy Cross. 137 buildings insured at a value of 2.2 billion dollars are featured on Notre Dame's campus.^[8] Notable structures include the Golden Dome, the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, the Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes, 80,000 seat Notre Dame Stadium, 14-story Hesburgh Library with a 132-foot mural of Jesus, which is referred to as "Touchdown Jesus," the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center, the Jordan Hall of Science and the geodesic domed Stepan Center. Notre Dame also has two lakes; a nine-hole student golf course; indoor football, swimming, rock climbing and tennis facilities, and numerous basketball courts and sand volleyball courts adjacent to dorms. The University is currently embarking on a massive campaign to upgrade its facilities and improve the northern neighborhoods of South Bend.^[9]

A statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes

University government is headed by a body of twelve self-perpetuating members called "fellows." Six of the fellows must be priests of the Congregation of Holy Cross (CSC), and the remaining six fellows are laypeople. Three of the priest fellows are always the current university president, the provincial superior of the Indiana Province of the Congregation of Holy Cross, and the local superior of the congregation at Notre Dame. The chairman of the board of trustees is also always a fellow. The rest of the fellows are selected for staggered six-year terms. The fellows meet at least annually and are competent to amend the university's statutes and bylaws and to elect and remove trustees. The board of trustees is much larger than the fellows and currently numbers fifty-seven, composed mostly of laypeople. The board meets tri-annually and is responsible for electing the officers of the university as well as exercising the rest of the corporate powers of the university.

The university president is responsible for the overall administration of the university and is ultimately responsible for the hiring of faculty and staff. The president must always be a priest and a member of the Indiana Province of the Congregation of Holy Cross. The Rev. John Jenkins, CSC, DPhil, is the 17th and current president of the university. He is an associate professor in the department of Philosophy. He succeeded the Rev. Edward Malloy, CSC, PhD on July 1, 2005.

The university Provost at the University of Notre Dame has responsibility, under the President, for the administration, coordination and development of all of the academic activities and functions of the University. The office has existed since 1970 and has been occupied by four persons: Rev. James Tunstead Burtchaell, C.S.C., 1970-1977; Dr. Timothy O'Meara, 1978-1996, Dr. Nathan Hatch, 1996-2005; and currently, Dr. Thomas Burish.^[10].

The University's Coat of Arms

The University of Notre Dame is ranked #19 in U.S. News & World Report's America's Best Colleges 2008.

According to the Bylaws and Academic Articles of the university, the university faculty are grouped into colleges, schools, institutes, and the library system.

Established as the university's first and only college in 1842, the College of Arts and Letters is the largest of the four faculty colleges. Housing eighteen departments in the fine arts, the humanities, and the social sciences, the college awards the Bachelor of Arts and the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in over fifty majors or concentrations. The university's first academic curriculum was modeled after the Jesuit Ratio Studiorum from Saint Louis University.^{[citation needed]} According to the university website, undergraduate studies in the college offer students "a contemporary version of the traditional liberal arts education." The college also offers graduate studies in most of its departments, typically leading to the PhD, as well as a professional Master of Divinity program.

The science faculty of the university serves as the College of Science. The university first awarded Bachelor of Science degrees in 1865. Today, the College of Science offers curricula leading to the Bachelor of Science, Master of Science, and PhD degrees in the departments of Biological Sciences, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Mathematics, and Physics. The College is housed in the recently-completed $70 million-dollar Jordan Hall of Science. According to university statistics, its science preprofessional program (i.e., pre-med program) has one of the highest acceptance rates to medical school of any university in the United States.^[11]

The College of Engineering was established as a distinct unit of the University in 1920, although a program in civil engineering was first offered in 1873. The engineering faculty is now organized into the departments of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering; Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering; Civil Engineering and Geological Sciences; Computer Science and Engineering; and Electrical Engineering; and has curricula leading to Bachelor, Master, and PhD degrees in all those disciplines as well as Environmental Sciences. The College is housed in Fitzpatrick Hall.

Established in 1921, the Mendoza College of Business consists of the university's business faculty. It offers the Bachelor of Business Administration degree with concentrations in Accountancy; Finance and Business Economics; Management; Marketing; and Management Information Systems; and was recently ranked 7th in the country out of business schools for undergraduates by Business Week. The college also offers professional studies leading to the Master of Business Administration and Master of Science in Accounting degrees and is ranked among the Top Tier MBA schools in the United States by US News and Business Week 2004 rankings. The Mendoza College of Business also offers an extensive executive education program.

Notre Dame Law School is the body of law scholars at the university. Notre Dame was the first Catholic university in the United States to have a law program^[12], which was started in 1869 and has consistently ranked among the top 25 law schools in the nation over the past decade according to US News and World Report.^[13] Its national program is designed to equip students to practice law in any US jurisdiction. The Law School grants the professional Juris Doctor degree as well as the graduate Master of Laws and Doctor of Juridical Science degrees.

The architecture faculty of the university is organized into the School of Architecture. Courses in architecture were taught at the university as early as 1869, with the School of Architecture offering formal instruction in architecture since 1898. Today, the school offers a five-year undergraduate program leading to the Bachelor of Architecture degree. The program is accredited by the National Architecture Accrediting Board and the curriculum conforms to NAAB requirements for the professional degree in architecture. The school also offers graduate studies leading to the Master of Architecture

Many of the faculty of the university participate in one or more of the university's 84 interdisciplinary research institutes and centers. Notable institutes are the Medieval Institute, the Kroc Institute for International Peace studies and the Center for Social Concerns^[14][15].

Theodore Hesburgh Library, with mural depicting "Jesus the Teacher", popularly known as "Touchdown Jesus"

The library faculty of the university are divided into two groups: the University Library system and the Kresge Law Library. The University Library system is the major group of libraries on campus. Its main building is the fourteen-story Theodore M. Hesburgh Library, but it also includes branch libraries for Architecture, Chemistry & Physics, Engineering, the Life Sciences, and Mathematics as well as information centers in the Mendoza College of Business and the Kellogg/Kroc Institute for Peace Studies, and a slide library in O'Shaughnessy Hall. The library system holds 3 million volumes and 2.5 million microform units and subscribes to 22,600 serial publications. The Kresge Law Library, which is the library of the Law School, currently holds 324,000 volumes and 294,000 microform units and subscribes 6,200 serial publications.

According to the university's academic code, students are classified as either undergraduate students, graduate students, or two kinds of professional students: law students or graduate business students. Each group has its own separate student government organization. The administration of the college or school in which a student has a primary course of study serves as his or her academic administrators. There are two exceptions to this rule: first year undergraduate students, whose administration is the First Year of Studies program, and graduate students, whose administration is the Graduate School.

The First Year of Studies program was established in 1962 and is the program to which all incoming first-year students are admitted. Students do not declare a major during this time. Through the structure of the curriculum, the First Year of Studies responds to the uncertainty regarding the choice of college and major that many first-year students experience. The first-year curriculum also accommodates the academic needs of students who have already committed to a specific academic program. The program includes academic advising and a Learning Resource Center, which provides time management, collaborative learning, and learning strategy tutorials as well as subject tutoring. The middle fifty percent of admitted freshman students score between a 31 and 34 on the ACT.^[16]

Founded in 1918, the Graduate School is a body whose administrators coordinate master and doctoral studies in the colleges of the university and the School of Architecture. They approve the graduate programs proposed by the academic departments of the colleges and ultimately admit graduate students to studies and confer graduate degrees. The academic departments, though, provide academic and research advising for the students, do most of the admission decision making, and ultimately certify to the Graduate School the readiness of the student for the granting of graduate degrees.

Notre Dame's Catholic character is manifested through weekly celebrations of the Holy Mass at the Basilica, in any of the campus dormitories, or at other various sites across campus. Most residence halls have either a priest, brother, or sister as its rector, who helps lead the religious life for that dorm. Students perform most of the liturgical stations, including lectoring, Eucharistic ministry, and music ministry. Further evidence of the Catholic character spans the campus, with the statue of Mary crowning the Dome, the Basilica, the Grotto, the "Word of Life" mural on the Hesburgh Library, and numerous other sacred statues and areas. In addition, most classrooms display a crucifix.

Notre Dame students have the opportunity to attend any one of several retreats throughout their school career, particularly the Notre Dame Encounter.

Notre Dame can house up to 6,200 students on campus and undergraduate students live in 27 single-sex residence halls, each with its own distinct subculture as well as its own chapel inside. Undergraduates studying to enter seminary may also live in the Old College residence. Notre Dame, like many other Catholic and Christian schools, enforces a visitation policy (known as parietals) on those students who live in dormitories, specifying times when members of the opposite sex are allowed to visit. However, every residence hall except Stanford Hall has 24-hour social space in which parietals are not enforced. These social spaces are usually located in the basement of the residence hall and include TV lounges and kitchen areas. The dorms are located on five quads: North Quad, South Quad, West Quad, Mod Quad, and God Quad. According to the Office of Residence Life and Housing (known as ResLife), 80% of undergraduates live on campus, including about half of the senior class.^[17]

There are no Greek sorority/fraternity societies on campus; many students continue in the same residence hall for all four years. This dorm loyalty coupled with the nature of Notre Dame students makes for some very fierce interhall rivalries. Each dorm has a signature charity fund-raiser, hosts a fall and spring dance and produces a campus wide student activity (ex. the Keenan Revue, Dillon Pep Rally, A Carroll Christmas, Fisher Regatta). Furthermore, Notre Dame is one of only two universities to offer full contact, full pads, intramural football (the other is the United States Military Academy). It also hosts the largest intramural boxing tournament for both men and women (which is used as a fundraiser for Holy Cross missions). A prevalent campuswide sports obsession, the interhall football program as a prime example, often contributes to a perception of Notre Dame students as "jocks." This sports obsession led to a Sports Illustrated ranking that named Notre Dame the #2 "Jock School" in the country in 1997.^[18] In more recent years, however, the student body has grown more and more diverse and the student body continues to participate in a wide array of activities outside of athletics^[19].

• The University of Notre Dame is tied for 19^th in the 2007 U.S. News and World Report "National Universities" ranking for undergraduate studies.^[20]
• Notre Dame's Department of chemistry and biochemistry is ranked in the top 20 for total peer reviewed research funding given to American Universities by the National Science Foundation for chemical research^[21]
• Notre Dame's Nuclear Structure Laboratory is the longest-running nuclear astrophysics lab in existence.^{[citation needed]}
• Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business is ranked 7^th Nationally for undergraduates.^[22]
• Notre Dame's undergraduate School of Architecture is ranked 12^th nationally by ARCHITECT Magazine.^[23]
• Notre Dame's Law School is tied for 28^th (with Boston College and the University of Washington) in the 2007 U.S. News and World Report rankings for "America's Best Graduate Schools 2007".^[13] Founded in 1869, the Notre Dame Law School is the oldest Catholic law school in the United States.
• MCOB's Master's Program in Accountancy is ranked 4^th by the industry-affiliated Public Accounting Report.^[24]
• Notre Dame's graduate program in philosophy is ranked 13th Nationally.^[25]
• The University of Notre Dame is the highest ranked Catholic-affiliated National University for Undergraduate Studies in the U.S. News survey.

• Notre Dame's endowment has grown to approximately $6.5 billion as of the 2007 fiscal year, making it likely that Notre Dame's will be the 14^th or 15^th largest educational endowment in the country.^[26]
• According to Forbes Magazine, the University of Notre Dame Fighting Irish, worth $101 million in 2007, is the most valuable team in college football. ^[27]

• Notre Dame was ranked 13^th nationally by Washington Monthly as an engine of social mobility that fosters "scientific and humanistic research" and promotes an "ethic of service to country."^[28]
• Hispanic Magazine ranks Notre Dame ninth on its list of the top 25 colleges for Latinos.
• Princeton Review 2008 edition of the Best 366 Colleges ranks University of Notre Dame as number 4 for schools in which “Alternative Lifestyles [are] Not an Alternative.” ^[29]
• Notre Dame reserves 21 to 24 percent of admissions spots for legacy (children of alumni) students.^[30]
• Princeton Review 2007 edition of the 361 Best Colleges ranks Notre Dame as number 1 on its lists of colleges at which "Everyone Plays Intramural Sports" and "Students Pack the Stadiums" ^[31][32]
• In 2005, Notre Dame was recognized as a top school in U.S. News & World Report for “outstanding” programs in writing, study abroad, first year of studies and service learning.^[33]
• Notre Dame was also named to the "25 New Ivies" list in 2006 by Kaplan/Newsweek, which includes "colleges whose first-rate academic programs, combined with a population boom in top students, have fueled their rise in stature and favor among the nation's top students, administrators and faculty -- edging them to a competitive status rivaling the Ivy League."^[34]
• A Princeton Review survey of parents that asked “What ‘dream college’ would you most like to see your child attend were prospects of acceptance or cost not issues?” indicates that Notre Dame is the fifth most desirable university in the U.S., ahead of MIT, Northwestern, Yale, and Catholic rivals Boston College and Georgetown.^[35]
• Notre Dame's student magazine, Scholastic, has claim to being the oldest continuous collegiate publication in the United States.^[36]
• During the 1976 United States Bicentennial the University of Notre Dame Band was honored as a "Landmark of American Music" by the National Music Council, the Indiana Music Educators Association and Exxon Corporation. It is the oldest university band in continuous existence in the United States.^[37]
• The Notre Dame Council #1477 of the Knights of Columbus is the oldest and largest college council of the Knights.^{[citation needed]} The Notre Dame Knights are renowned for the steak sandwich concession stand which they hold on campus before each home football game. During the 2006 season, the steak sales raised $61,000 for various charitable causes.

The interlocking ND is the logo for the university's athletic teams.

Main article: Notre Dame Fighting Irish

Notre Dame athletic teams are known as the "Fighting Irish." The University is a member of the Big East Conference in all sports except football, which remains independent, lacrosse (Great West), and ice hockey where they belong to the CCHA. Previously, and especially during the Knute Rockne football era, Notre Dame had several unofficial nicknames—among them the "Rovers" and the "Ramblers," because of those teams' propensity to travel the nation to play its football contests, such as at the University of Southern California, long before such national travel became the collegiate norm. Later, Notre Dame was also, again unofficially, known as the "Terriers," after the Irish breed of the dog, and for some years, an Irish Terrier would be found on the ND football sidelines. The fight song for the Fighting Irish is the Notre Dame Victory March, penned by brothers Michael and John Shea in the 1900s.

Notre Dame's nickname is inherited from Irish immigrant soldiers who fought in the Civil War with New York City's Irish Brigade, recollected among other places in the poetry of Joyce Kilmer who served with one of the Irish Brigade regiments during World War I. Though the Irish regiments and Kilmer were well-known, particularly in the urban ethnic community, during the era between the Civil War and World War II, Notre Dame's claim to the nickname is justified since its third president was a famous Irish Brigade chaplain whose ministrations at Gettysburg are commemorated in the "Absolution Under Fire," part of Notre Dame's permanent art collection.

The most generally accepted explanation is that the press coined the nickname as a characterization of Notre Dame teams in the 1920s as a result of preexisting Irish stereotypes, the widely reported events of 1924, and the grit, determination, and tenacity of Coach Knute Rockne's football teams of the era. Although Notre Dame alumnus Francis Wallace popularized it in his New York Daily News columns in the 1920s with respect to the university, as early as the Civil War, Father Corby and the Irish Brigade of the Union Army had been dubbed "The Fighting Irish."^[38]

The Fighting Irish have won 11 consensus national championships and produced seven Heisman Trophy winners. Some notable football greats are Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana, Hall of Fame and Heisman Trophy winning running back Paul Hornung, as well as future Hall of Famers such as wide receiver Tim Brown (the last member of the Fighting Irish to win the Heisman Trophy) and running back Jerome Bettis. The Fighting Irish have been coached by notable figures, such as Knute Rockne, Frank Leahy, Ara Parseghian, and Lou Holtz. Notre Dame is tied with USC and Ohio State for the most number of Heisman Trophy Winners, each school with seven. ^[39]

The Irish Women's Soccer program as also won two national championships in 1995 and 2004. Also the fencing program won national championships in 2003 and 2005.

There are two seminaries located on the campus of Notre Dame, both run by the Congregation of Holy Cross. Old College is the undergraduate Holy Cross seminary program located in the original university building constructed by Fr. Sorin, CSC in 1843. Moreau Seminary is the graduate theological seminary of the Congregation of Holy Cross located just across St. Joseph Lake on Notre Dame's Campus.

• List of University of Notre Dame alumni
• Notre Dame Victory March
• Notre Dame, Our Mother

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Category:University of Notre Dame

• http://www.nd.edu — Official university site
• http://und.cstv.com — Official Notre Dame athletics site
• University of Notre Dame Online

• University of Notre Dame is at coordinates 41°42′11″N 86°14′20″W / 41.702995, -86.238972Coordinates: 41°42′11″N 86°14′20″W / 41.702995, -86.238972