Advancing International Studies: Strategic Plan

I. Aspirations: An International Signature for Notre Dame

In the past fifty years, Notre Dame has made great strides to deepen its international character, founding distinguished international institutes; adding renowned international faculty; establishing one of the most extensive international study programs among research universities in the U.S.; and, in the past ten years, increasing the number of international undergraduates fivefold.

The University's signature themes - democracy, social justice, peace, development, religion - suggest a trademark for international studies at Notre Dame that is distinctive yet engages both the public debate and the intellectual developments at the cutting edges of our disciplines. Father Hesburgh's vision of bringing the world to Notre Dame and Notre Dame to the world gave rise to such centers as the Kellogg and the Kroc Institutes, as well as the Center for Civil and Human Rights. Father Malloy, in turn, has also recently reaffirmed that the enduring issues of International development with social justice, the establishing of political institutions that can govern efficiently and fairly, and the lasting significance of religion for most people on this earth are of persistent salience for a Catholic University. The University therefore aspires to project itself into issues of broad domestic and international public significance. In sum, internationalism, understood within the framework of Notre Dame's distinctive mission, must become a central element of our university's aspirations for the next decade. International studies can and should become a signature of a great, international Catholic university.

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