Dear Faculty and Staff,
In various settings — among them, the President’s Address to the Faculty, the Provost’s recent letter to the faculty, and the Executive Vice President’s Staff Town Hall meetings — we have spoken recently about the importance of stewarding well the University’s resources.
As we all know, the affordability and accessibility of higher education are receiving considerable attention these days, especially from lawmakers and the news media. We have been attentive to these issues as well, and will continue to work to make progress on them in the years ahead. Our shared responsibility to each other, to our students, and to the mission of Notre Dame requires us to redouble our efforts to find ways to identify additional funds that will allow us to continue to provide highly qualified students the ability to afford a Notre Dame education no matter what their family income.
As we commit ourselves anew as a community to these goals, we are launching an exciting initiative, ND Innovates. This initiative is our way of enlisting your help in identifying potential areas of cost-saving and ways we might enhance the overall efficiency and effectiveness of Notre Dame. As experts in your respective fields and as individuals who experience life on this campus day to day, we invite you to submit your ideas, whether they relate to how to improve your department or other areas of the University.
To send us your ideas, visit innovates.nd.edu. We will offer a variety of prizes to those who ideas are implemented, so we encourage you to submit your ideas. The Office of Strategic Planning and Institutional Research, led by David Bailey, will review the submissions and determine
their feasibility.
Stewardship of the University’s human, physical and financial resources is central to our mission. We’re proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish thus far, thanks to the collective efforts of each member of this community. Let’s work together to become even better.
Thank you for all you do for Notre Dame.
In Notre Dame,
Rev. John I. Jenkins, President
Thomas G. Burish, Provost
John Affleck-Graves, Executive Vice President