Notre Dame preparing to inaugurate 18th president
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The University of Notre Dame will inaugurate Rev. Robert Dowd as the school’s 18th president Friday at the Purcell Pavilion on the South Bend campus. A Michigan City native, Dowd was elected for the role late last year and took office in June.
The inauguration ceremony is part of a two-day celebration of Dowd’s new role.
Dowd had served as vice president and associate provost for interdisciplinary initiatives, a member of the President’s Leadership Council and oversaw several institutes, centers and other academic units. He also was religious superior of the Holy Cross priests and brothers at Notre Dame.
As the University’s 18th president, Dowd is the fourth person to serve as president in the last 70 years. His inauguration is the third in Notre Dame’s 182-year history.
The university is inviting community members to attend several events over two days, including the 2024 Notre Dame Forum events on Thursday and the convocation and investiture ceremony on Friday.
The Forum will be held at the Leighton Concert Hall of the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center and includes four fireside chats with global development, technology, philanthropy and foreign affairs leaders.
Established in 2005, the Notre Dame Forum is designed to foster campus-wide dialogue on important issues across the university, the nation and the world. Chosen by Dowd, the 2024 theme “What do we owe each other?” invites reflection on our responsibilities to one another in the face of contention and divisions, the university said.
Speaking on the future of responsible technology, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna and John Veihmeyer, former global chairman at KPMG and chair of Notre Dame’s Board of Trustees, will open the conversation series at 11 a.m.
The second conversation kicks off at 1 p.m. with the United Nations Global Compact CEO Sanda Ojiambo and NBC News Chief Environmental Affairs Correspondent Anne Thompson speaking on the power of business as a global force for good.
Philanthropist and environmentalist David Rockefeller Jr. will be joined by former Vanguard CEO and former chair of Notre Dame’s board of trustees Jack Brennan at 2 p.m. to speak on “A Legacy of Giving Back”.
The final conversation will be held at 3:15 p.m. with Dowd joining Admiral Chris Grady, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Joe Donnelly, former senator and U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, to speak on “Advancing Peace in a Fractured World”.
Dowd will preside at Mass in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on Friday at 10 a.m. In the afternoon, the Convocation and Inauguration Ceremony will be held at Purcell Pavilion at 2:45 p.m. Veihmeyer will present the Presidential Medal and University Mace to Dowd.
Following the Inauguration Ceremony, several private events will be held on campus for Dowd’s family, guests, faculty, staff and students.