“This college cannot fail to succeed. Before long, it will develop on a large scale. It will be one of the most powerful means for good in this country.” —Rev. Edward Sorin, C.S.C., University founder
When the University of Notre Dame’s 15th president, Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., ascended to the office in 1952, it was a routine affair.
Rev. John J. Cavanaugh, C.S.C., Father Hesburgh’s immediate predecessor, reached into the pocket of his cassock and handed Father Hesburgh the key to the office. “He said, ‘There’s still a few letters to be answered and you have to address the meeting of the Christian Family Movement tonight,’” Father Hesburgh recounted to a reporter in 1987, upon the occasion of his successor, Rev. Edward A. “Monk” Malloy, C.S.C., taking office.
Turning to leave, Father Cavanaugh is said to have added, “I’m going to New York.”
At the time, leading Notre Dame was a religious assignment, passed from one Congregation of Holy Cross priest to the next with little fanfare.
It likely mattered too that, with few exceptions, the 14 presidents before Father Hesburgh, for various reasons including canon law, served an average of about six years—and some as few as two, three, or four years.
In fact, the University had five presidents during one 16-year period in the 1800s, including Rev. William Corby, C.S.C., twice—from 1866 to 1872 and, again, from 1877 to 1881.
Rev. Thomas Blantz, C.S.C., professor emeritus of history and author of The University of Notre Dame: A History, said that during the first 50 years of the University, its founder, Rev. Edward F. Sorin, C.S.C., would appoint the presidents. Father Sorin himself served as president from 1842 to 1865 and, after that, as provincial superior or superior general of the Congregation until his death in 1893.
For many decades after that, the job fell to Father Sorin’s successors as provincial superior.
That changed in 1967, following the University’s transference of governance from the Congregation of Holy Cross to a predominantly lay board.
Henceforth, the president would continue to be a Holy Cross priest. No longer, however, would he be appointed by the provincial superior. The provincial superior would have a say in the matter, but the board, and the board alone, would have the final decision.
The effect of this change in terms of the transition from one president to the next was not immediate. Father Hesburgh, 15 years into his presidency at the time, would go on to serve another 20 years, becoming the University’s longest-serving leader and a renowned figure for his work in education, human rights, the Church, and world affairs in the process.
But in 1987, with Father Malloy set to succeed Father Hesburgh as the first board-appointed president, the question of how to mark the occasion arose.
“We were a different university in ’87 than we were in ’52,” Father Blantz said of the atmosphere at the time. “Father Hesburgh, his goal had been to make this a really great university, up there on the same level with the Ivy League. And inaugurating a president is part of that; it’s part and parcel of being a major university.”
“It was just taken for granted when I was elected that we’d have an inauguration because that’s what universities did,” Father Malloy said during a recent interview at his office in DeBartolo Hall, while sitting balanced on the back legs of a wooden chair. “It was a chance for Notre Dame to celebrate internally. It was a chance for me to indicate some of my priorities. It was an opportunity for the higher education community in general to come and get a better feel for Notre Dame.”
And so it was that on April 2, 1987, University Provost Timothy O’Meara announced a special committee to plan the formal inauguration of Father Malloy—the first such event of its kind in the University’s then-145-year history.
In pursuing its work, the committee, with O’Meara as chair, borrowed from existing symbols and traditions and invented others, resulting in a distinctly Catholic, distinctly Notre Dame affair, full of pomp, circumstance, and, of course, faith.
Gifts and guests
The event, which took place on September 23, 1987, began with a morning Mass in the South Dome of the Joyce Center (now the Purcell Pavilion) with Rev. Thomas C. Oddo, C.S.C., president of the University of Portland, presiding. The service included 135 priests. More than 30 were needed just to deliver Communion, according to reporting in the South Bend Tribune at the time. The congregation filled about two-thirds of the basketball arena.
Following lunch for 1,600 in the North Dome of the Joyce Center, some 800 faculty, students, and guests, including presidents and academic officers from Harvard, Yale, and elsewhere, moved in procession around the library quad in order according to academic tradition—chief marshals followed by delegates from other universities in order of their founding year, delegates from foundations, University marshals, student leaders, faculty, Trustees emeriti, and campus officers and administrators.
Back inside the Joyce Center, amid a sea of onlookers estimated at some 5,000, Father Malloy was then formally invested with symbols of the office—a gold-plated Presidential Medal and a bronze-and-walnut University Mace, both newly created for the occasion.
The University Concert Band performed three fanfares composed especially for the occasion by then-assistant professor of music Paul Johnson, since retired.
“It takes an Arnold Schwarzenegger to carry it in one hand,” Father Malloy joked of the slender walnut mace, which was designed by Rev. Anthony Lauck, C.S.C., a professor of art, art history and design at the time.
The Presidential Medal, struck in bronze and plated in gold, was produced by the Medallic Art Co. of Danbury, Connecticut, the largest and oldest private mint at the time whose work over the years included the Pulitzer Prize, the Peabody Award, the Newbery and Caldecott medals, and the inauguration medals for 11 US presidents.
Both objects, the medal and the mace, endure as symbols of the presidency to this day, most commonly used during commencement ceremonies.
In his inaugural address, Father Malloy emphasized Notre Dame’s commitment to teaching and research and its Catholic mission and character, saying, in part, “Society has a right to expect from us a continual stream of thoughtful and well-trained men and women who can exercise leadership in the workplace, in the social world, and in all of those private and public organizations and agencies that promote the common good.”
Presaging current efforts to diversify all corners of campus, he also talked about the need to make Notre Dame ever more inclusive.
“At times, we neglect the needful in our midst, we stereotype the minorities, and we treat with disdain those flauntingly different,” he said. “We regretfully allow gender or race or status and rank to fracture our commonality and drive us apart.
“In recognition of this inconsistency and harm, we ever need to acknowledge our failure and move to reform our common life.”
“The fact that John and I are two of the 'rememberers’ now, and Ted and I were earlier on—I think there’s something special about that here. And I hope that we can continue to build on what’s been established before.” –Father Edward "Monk" Malloy, C.S.C.
Among those in attendance was Lou Nanni, a graduate student in international peace studies at the time and a close friend of Father Malloy.
“I’m real excited about the whole presidency and I think (Father Malloy is) a super person,” Nanni told a reporter for the Notre Dame student newspaper, The Observer.
The day ended with a student picnic on the South Quad, where members of student government presented the newly vested president with a variety of gifts small and large, including a wooden hope chest and an engraved plaque.
As dusk settled across the quad, the Glee Club sang the alma mater, “Notre Dame, Our Mother,” followed by the “Notre Dame Victory March,” the latter accompanied by fireworks.
“I’m a little embarrassed,” Father Malloy said afterward of all the attention. “But it’s nice for my family.”
That included his mother, Elizabeth, who, speaking to a reporter from the lobby of the Morris Inn, proclaimed excitedly, “I’m being treated royally. I feel like a queen for a day.”
She added, of her son, “I know I’m prejudiced, but I think he’ll do a wonderful job. He always has in everything he’s done.”
When asked what stood out to him about the day nearly 40 years later, Father Malloy offered a self-deprecating response: “My inauguration speech was way too long.”
He explained: “I thought I had to say everything because I had no precedent, no model to go on. If I were to do it again, I’d cut it in half. But that’s something you learn over time.”
Other than that, he said, “I remember how enjoyable it was for the student body.”
Even as president, Father Malloy cultivated close relationships with students, drawing on his experience as a professor and priest. A former standout on the basketball court, he participated in Bookstore Basketball—as part of “Four Sinners and a Monk” and, later, “All the President’s Men”—for years before age got the better of him. He also led a regular pickup game for students and faculty at the Moreau Seminary gym. To this day, a hand-lettered welcome sign beckons students into his suite at Sorin Hall, where he’s served as a priest-in-residence since 1980.
“Since I was living in a dorm and teaching undergraduate and graduate students, too—I’d been teaching for so long—I think (the students) felt like it was a chance for us to celebrate together,” Father Malloy said.
Still, a sense of uncertainty, tied to concerns about the future of Notre Dame without Father Hesburgh and his singular leadership, served to temper the otherwise celebratory mood, according to Nanni, who is now vice president of University relations.
“Father Ted had been president for 35 years, and there was a real question: ‘Could Notre Dame survive Hesburgh [stepping down]? And could it continue to thrive?’” said Nanni, who remains close to Father Malloy to this day.
The answer, of course, was yes.
Father Malloy would go on to serve 18 years as president, growing the University’s reputation, faculty, and resources and expanding and deepening its ties to the local community before handing the reins to his successor, Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., on July 1, 2005.
As for Father Hesburgh, he would leave to travel for a year before returning to continue his service to the University, inaugurating yet another tradition—that of the outgoing president granting space, both literally and figuratively, to his successor.
“That was a gift from Ted,” Father Malloy told The New York Times for a profile in June 1988. “It allowed everyone to get used to the new arrangement.”
Nevertheless, Father Hesburgh would remain in service to Notre Dame for the rest of his life.
“In a lot of other schools, the former president is a non-entity,” Father Malloy said. “Whereas here, because we have this tradition of people staying here, we continue to have a role to play, but it’s also to remember where we’ve come from.
“The fact that John and I are two of the ‘rememberers’ now, and Ted and I were earlier on—I think there’s something special about that here. And I hope that we can continue to build on what’s been established before.”
“With respect and gratitude for all who embraced Notre Dame’s mission in earlier times, let us rise up and embrace the mission for our time: to build a Notre Dame that is bigger and better than ever.”—Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C.
Eighteen years later—to the day—on Friday, September 23, 2005, the University celebrated its second inauguration with the formal installation of Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., as its 17th president.
A professor of philosophy who joined the University’s faculty in 1990, Father Jenkins had served as a vice president and associate provost at Notre Dame from 2000 until he began his first term as president in 2005.
Father Jenkins, who is often described as genuine, warm, friendly, humble, and somewhat introverted, did not aspire to the presidency, but embodied the role of a servant-leader, according to friends and family who were interviewed at the time of his inauguration.
“Perhaps the best recommendation for John’s presidency is that he did not seek it. He did not spend his life trying to be a good president. He spent his life trying to be a good person,” longtime friend Martha Merritt told the Chicago Tribune.
Merritt, who was an associate director in Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, added: “He is doing it because he loves Notre Dame.”
The inauguration events began Thursday morning with a breakfast for Father Jenkins and University staff in the Joyce Center, followed by the first occurrence of a new initiative launched by Father Jenkins—the Notre Dame Forum.
Titled “Why God? Understanding Religion and Enacting Faith in a Plural World,” the forum was moderated by retired NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw and featured world leaders including a Catholic cardinal from Honduras, a former member of Israel’s parliament, the imam of New York City’s largest mosque, and a former US ambassador to the United Nations.
Together with selected Notre Dame faculty and students, they discussed the importance of considering religious and faith-based perspectives when addressing global issues and the role of religion in questions of human rights, economic development, and violent conflict.
Considered a centerpiece of Father Jenkins’s inauguration celebration, the Notre Dame Forum has become a hallmark annual event and an opportunity for campus-wide dialogue about enduring issues of importance to the University, the nation, and the world.
A celebratory reception and dinner for 800 guests, hosted by Notre Dame alumna and journalist Hannah Storm, followed that evening. And a variety of arts performances in the University’s new DeBartolo Performing Arts Center (which opened in September 2004) and other campus spaces rounded out the first night.
Along with a concert by internationally renowned pianist Leon Fleisher, who performed with members of the Notre Dame Symphony Orchestra and the University’s choral groups, participants were invited to attend a jazz performance by the Ramsey Lewis Trio, a performance of traditional Irish music by Bohola, and screenings of Babette’s Feast—billed as Father Jenkins’s favorite movie—in the Browning Cinema.
Friday morning began with a Mass at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, where Father Hesburgh served as homilist and recounted Father Sorin’s vision and determination to build a great university when he first came to a frozen lake and a log cabin in northern Indiana.
“It didn’t matter that there were actually two lakes there,” Father Hesburgh said. “It didn’t matter that he only had $300 in his pocket. He had the gall, or the zeal, to call it not a school or a college, but a university.”
Father Hesburgh went on to tell Father Jenkins that with the Holy Spirit behind him and the Holy Mother inspiring him, Father Jenkins’s presidency would be “great years” for Notre Dame.
“I have to say, John,” he said, “it is a rich history you are inheriting. There are many after Sorin who have dreamed great dreams for this place. There’s only one way to do it. That is to put yourself in the hands of the Holy Spirit and the Blessed Mother.”
Members of Father Jenkins’s family served as gift bearers during the Mass.
An academic procession from the Main Building to the Joyce Center preceded the convocation, with nearly 1,000 University faculty, Trustees, administrators, student leaders, alumni, and representatives of other colleges and universities participating.
The Notre Dame Band led the procession and provided international music at five locations along the route. And Kenneth Dye, director of bands, composed an original piece titled “Altius” (Latin for “Higher”) to accompany the procession into the Joyce Center.
Thousands of spectators filled the Joyce Center to witness the academic convocation ceremony, including Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, Bishop John M. D’Arcy, and other dignitaries. In a nod to recent technological advancements, the ceremony was also “cybercast on the World Wide Web.”
According to an article in NDWorks, Father Jenkins’s inaugural speech cited the wisdom of “popes and priests, saints and scholars, and, of course, his mom.”
One of 12 children, Father Jenkins joked that his mother had a great seat for the ceremony and said that as he accepted responsibility as the head of the Notre Dame family, he looked to her for inspiration.
“My mother has always shown a supernatural talent for making 12 people all feel important and loved to the same degree at the same time,” he said. “If ever I display any of that talent in the future, as I hope I do, you can be sure it did not originate with me.”
Lou Nanni, the vice president for University relations and friend of Father Malloy, remembers that, like Father Malloy’s mother, Helen Jenkins “basked in the glory” of the day.
“I remember Father John was a little shy about the whole thing, but his mother loved it. Helen was enjoying every minute of it,” Nanni said. “Her smile was so broad. And I know for both the Malloy family and then the prodigious Jenkins family, it’s something that they really appreciated.”
“Our research must not be separate from our Catholic mission, but must draw strength from it and contribute to it.” –Father John I. Jenkins, C.S.C.
In his speech, Father Jenkins also referenced Father Sorin’s prediction that Notre Dame would be “one of the most powerful means of doing good in this country,” and declared his own intent to build a Notre Dame that was “bigger and better than ever—a great Catholic university for the 21st century.”
He outlined a vision for the University that included building on Father Malloy’s focus on diversity—in particular, affirming the value of religious diversity on campus and recognizing and embracing the many non-Catholics who are deeply committed to Notre Dame and its principles.
“If we were exclusively Catholic, we would be less catholic—less broad, less universal—with fewer opportunities to enrich our dialogue and test our ideas with those who share many of our values, but not all of our views.”
Father Jenkins also shared his goal of making Notre Dame a more significant leader in both faculty and student research—and connecting that work to the University’s mission.
“Our research must not be separate from our Catholic mission, but must draw strength from it and contribute to it,” he said. “Notre Dame is different. Combining religious faith and academic excellence is not widely emulated or even admired among the opinion-makers in higher education.
“Yet, in this age especially, we at Notre Dame must have the courage to be who we are. If we are afraid to be different from the world, how can we make a difference in the world?”
Looking back, Father Jenkins said one of his most memorable moments was at the conclusion of the ceremony when he knelt and received a blessing from both Father Hesburgh and Father Malloy as he embarked upon his new role. He also remembers “the excitement and the promise that were in the air that day.”
Immediately after the ceremony, a post-inauguration reception was held on the Hesburgh Library lawn near the reflecting pool. The night ended with an inaugural ball for students and fireworks on South Quad.
Celebrating our common mission
Nineteen years later, the University has become one of the fastest-growing research universities in the country, attracting more than $281 million in external research funding in 2022. Its success in this area was recognized in 2023 when Notre Dame was selected to join the Association of American Universities, a consortium of the nation’s leading public and private research universities.
As the University prepares for its third inauguration ceremony, formally installing Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C., as president this September, the planned events will include a new Notre Dame Forum with the theme of “What Do We Owe Each Other?” and a Habitat for Humanity build in South Bend, along with an Inaugural Mass and the traditional convocation ceremony and celebrations.
Father Jenkins looks forward to celebrating the occasion.
“Inaugurations are a time for the University community to come together and mark an important change as it looks with anticipation to the future,” he said. “They are community rituals that encourage reflection on and celebration of our common mission.
“Father Dowd will continue the great tradition of Notre Dame and reimagine it for the future.”
Another new addition will be the reading of Father Sorin’s famed letter declaring that Notre Dame will be one of the most powerful means for good in this country.
Both Father Malloy and Father Jenkins cited—and were inspired by—Father Sorin’s vision for Notre Dame. With the same inspiration, the academic procession for Father Dowd will begin with Rev. Greg Haake, C.S.C., the religious superior of the Holy Cross priests and brothers at Notre Dame and an associate professor of French and Francophone studies, reading the letter in its entirety, in English and in French.
That is especially significant at a time when the University has experienced such growth and success, Nanni said.
“I think it’s really a brilliant idea to read the letter and remember our humble origins and the bold vision of our founder,” Nanni said. “When you’re experiencing the level of accomplishment and achievement that a place like Notre Dame is, it’s more critical than ever to stick to the mission and show that we haven’t forgotten who we are.
“If you know where you’ve come from, and you know where you’re going, everything is sure to turn out all right.”