The University of Notre Dame has restored its “Catholic Mission” as a core value following backlash over its removal.
Notre Dame President Rev. Robert Dowd said in a statement to the university’s community that “we now realize that placement is causing confusion, and that some could interpret that not as elevating our mission as we intended, but as a sign of diminishing commitment. To avoid any further confusion, we have now included the language on Catholic mission as the first of our five core Values. You will see the updated Values below.”
He emphasized that the Catholic mission “guides and informs all that we do and how we work together.”
The university’s list of core values is now led by “Catholic Mission,” which is described as being a “force for good and help to advance Notre Dame’s mission to be the leading global Catholic research university.” Other core values are listed as “Community,” “Excellence,” “Collaboration,” and “Innovation.”
Upon first announcing the value shifts, the university said the changes were a “refresh of longtime organizational principles” and are an “expression of how we seek to advance Notre Dame’s mission as a global, Catholic research university.”
“By embracing these values, we reaffirm our commitment to one another and to the University’s mission,” Vice President for Human Resources Heather Christophersen wrote in an email to The Observer, a student-run newspaper. She further explained that removing “Leadership in Mission” was an effort to make the Catholic mission a theme rather than a singular value.
