Four Challenges
Below are four specific examples of national trends which pose challenges for each of the four pillars of Notre Dame's strategic framework. We hope that thinking about these particular challenges will be a springboard for generating discussion among advisory council members about the future of our university.
We ask you to consider the issues that most interest you and brainstorm ideas for three big questions ahead of our Friday listening session:
- How are these national trends affecting Notre Dame right now?
- What will Notre Dame be like 20 years from now if we have succeeded in light of these challenges?
- What steps could the Notre Dame community take in the years ahead to create that successful vision?
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I. Decline of Trust in Institutions
Goal: Ensuring that our Catholic character informs all of our endeavors.
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II. Affordability and the ND Family
Goal: Offer an unsurpassed undergraduate education that nurtures the formation of mind, body, and spirit.
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III. Training Future Faculty and Leaders
Goal: Provide superb graduate and professional programs that exhibit disciplinary excellence, foster interdisciplinary connections, and engage the world’s most pressing problems, while attending to the holistic development of the student.
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IV. Research in a Fragmented Society
Goal: Advance human understanding through scholarship and research that seeks to heal, unify, and enlighten.