(FILES) In this file photo taken on September 01, 2007 a general view of the “Golden Dome” on the campus of Notre Dame University before a game between the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana. - The University of Notre Dame, one of America’s most prestigious institutions of higher learning, is bullish on mask-wearing and social distancing to fight the coronavirus. Now, its president, the Rev. John Jenkins, is under fire after attending a notorious White House event with President Donald Trump at which both precautions were largely ignored — and testing positive for Covid-19. Some students called for Jenkins’ resignation but he survived. Jenkins is big on coronavirus safety — back in August, after students returned to class and there seemed to be a spike in Covid cases, he did not hesitate to suspend in-person classes for two weeks. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel / AFP) (Photo by JONATHAN DANIEL/AFP via Getty Images) ORG XMIT: 76344725 (JONATHAN DANIEL, Getty)
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — University of Notre Dame trustees have selected the Rev. Robert Dowd as the school’s 18th president. The university announced the move Monday.
Dowd will take over as president on July 1. He will replace the Rev. John Jenkins, who announced in October that he plans to step down at the end of the academic year after serving as president for 19 years.
Dowd has served as vice president and associate provost for interdisciplinary initiatives at Notre Dame since 2021. He graduated from Notre Dame in 1987 with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and economics. He entered Moreau Seminary that fall and was ordained a priest in 1994.
He earned a master’s degree in African studies in 1998 and a doctorate in political science in 2003 from the University of California-Los Angeles. Dowd joined Notre Dame’s political science department in 2004 as a member of the faculty.
Notre Dame has been led by a priest-president from the Congregation of the Holy Cross since the school was founded in 1842.
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