Updated January 25, 2012
News About Notre Dame
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Updated January 25, 2012
News About Notre Dame
(PLEASE CLICK ON LOGO FOR FULL INFORMATION)
Click on the picture of Teddy Hodges fencing for the story of his recovery from a heart transplant to return to the ND fencing team.
Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., president of the University of Notre Dame, was among some 350 Notre Dame students, faculty and staff who traveled to Washington, D.C. on Jan. 23 to take part in the March for Life.
The annual march, which marks the anniversary of the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion, has drawn increasing numbers of people over the years, and this year, the 39th anniversary of the decision, tens of thousands of marchers braved raw temeratures and intermittent rain to participate.
The Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture Fund to Protect Human Life provided funds to defray the cost of the buses and to offer $250 travel grants to some of the students who made the 15-hour trip to the nation's capital.
The Notre Dame Alumni Association and the Notre Dame Club of Washington, D.C., hosted a "Notre Dame Reception for Life" for the Notre Dame march participants at a Washington restaurant on Sunday evening.
On Monday morning at Saint Agnes Catholic Church in Alexandria, Va., Father Jenkins presided at a Mass for the Notre Dame contingent before joining them on the National Mall for a noon "Rally for Life," followed by a march along Constitution Avenue to the Supreme Court Building.
"Notre Dame assuredly has one of the largest contingents here from any college or university in the country," according to Rev. Wilson Miscamble, C.S.C., professor of history and president of Notre Dame's chapter of University Faculty for Life. "This not only reflects the willingness of these faculty to demonstrate their own commitment to the cause of life but also indicates the desire of faculty and staff to march with and support our marvelous pro-life students. Together we are making clear Notre Dame’s commitment to defend human life at every stage and forcefully stating Notre Dame’s unambiguous position on the great civil rights issue of our time."
The afternoon of the march on the Notre Dame campus, the Alumni Association hosted a "Sanctity for Life" prayer service in solidarity with the Notre Dame marchers. Some 50 students, faculty and staff members gathered for prayer in the Log Chapel followed by a procession to the Grotto, where they recited prayers for the protection of human life submitted by members of the extended Notre Dame family to the alumni association website at http://mynotredame.nd.edu/sanctityoflife.
A Mass of Remembrance will be held at the University of Notre Dame on Feb. 6 (Monday) in memory of Sister Jean Lenz, O.S.F., former assistant vice president for student affairs at the University. Sister Lenz died Jan. 21 at Our Lady of the Angels Retirement Home in Joliet, Ill., after a long illness. She was 81 years old.
Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., Notre Dame’s president, will preside at the Mass, which will begin at 5:15 p.m. in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on the Notre Dame campus.
Visitation will be held Wednesday (Jan. 25) from 2 to 7 p.m. at Our Lady of the Angels Retirement Home, 1201 Wyoming Ave., Joliet, Ill., followed by a funeral Mass at 7 p.m. Burial will be Thursday (Jan. 26) at 9 a.m. in Resurrection Cemetery, 200 W. Romeo Rd., Romeoville, Ill.
A Chicago native and a Franciscan sister of the Congregation of the Third Order of St. Francis of Mary Immaculate, Sister Lenz, who earned a master's degree from Notre Dame in 1967, was among the first women rectors on campus following the University's transition to coeducation in 1972 after 130 years as an all-male institution.
As an administrator, teacher, mentor and alumna of the University, Sister Jean shaped and shared the experience of its first generation of women. "When I first came to campus, I had planned to assist Notre Dame's first women for a year or two," she said when she retired three years ago. "I'm surprised, delighted and grateful that those years turned into 36 years of wonderful ministry."
The following is a statement from Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., president of the University of Notre Dame, on the announcement Jan. 20 by the Department of Health and Human Services regarding the health care reform law:
"I am deeply disappointed in a decision by the administration that will place many religious organizations of all faiths in an untenable position.
"This unnecessary intervention by the government into religion disregards our nation's commitment to the rights of conscience and the longstanding work of religious groups to help build a more compassionate society and vibrant democracy. I find that profoundly troubling on many levels.
"Moving forward, we call for a national dialogue among religious groups, government and the American people to reaffirm our country's historic respect for freedom of conscience and defense of religious liberty."
Sharon Drake Petro, former head coach of Notre Dame womens basketball and womens tennis, will be the featured speaker at the Pink Zone luncheon on Feb. 12 (Sunday) at 12:30 p.m. at the Purcell Pavilion at Notre Dame.
The luncheon will precede the annual Notre Dame womens basketball Pink Zone game at 3:30 p.m. that day and is organized by the College of Science to recognize researchers and physicians in the fight against cancer.
Petro was one of the first female coaches and athletic administrators at Notre Dame. She came to the University in 1977 to serve as the first head coach of varsity womens basketball and womens tennis and to teach in the Department of Physical Education. In 1980, her basketball team reached the Sweet 16 in the AIAW national tournament. In 1985, her tennis team placed second at nationals, and she was awarded the NCAA Division II Wilson Intercollegiate Tennis Coach of the Year.
During her tenure at Notre Dame, she chaired the Department of Physical Education and served as an assistant athletic director under Gene Corrigan before leaving to pursue her doctorate in applied sport psychology at the University of Virginia. Recently, she was inducted into the Notre Dame Monogram Club as an honorary member and is currently on the faculty at American University.
In the Fall of 1983, Petro was diagnosed with breast cancer and received treatment locally at Saint Josephs Regional Medical Center. Her experience as an athlete and coach gave her the determination and strength to fight cancer. Yet she acknowledges that one does not fight this alone. She gives credit to her doctors who took immediate action and the Notre Dame community who provided tremendous support on this journey.
Petro later founded Head Coaching, a company that helps competitors of all agesand stages in their skill leveldevelop a great attitude, stay motivated, build self-confidence, and focus attention for consistent, optimal performance. She draws on decades of experience in athletics to help performers in sport, business, and the performing arts gain the Mental Advantage. Her coaching techniques have been used by amateurs and professionals alike in sport and business arenas. She is the creator of The WIN Method: A Model for Optimal Performance and is the author of The Tennis Drill Book.
Proceeds from the luncheon will benefit the WBCA Pink Zone initiative, a global, unified effort of the Womens Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) to raise awareness and support for women with breast cancer.
Tickets are available through the Notre Dame ticket office at 574-631-7356 or at Gate 9 of the Purcell Pavilion, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. A single seat at the luncheon is $100; a couple is $150, and a table of 10 is $1,000. A game ticket is included with purchase a seat to the luncheon.
Contact: Marissa Gebhard, 574-631-4465, gebhard.3@nd.edu
Percentage of ethnic students drops again
By Joseph McMahon of the Observer
The current freshman class has been heralded as the most academically accomplished group in the University's history, with average SAT scores of 1405. But the class of 2012 is also Notre Dame's least ethnically diverse in the past three years.
Twenty percent of the class of 2012 is composed of domestic ethnic minorities, a drop from 22 percent last year and 24 percent two years ago. Three percent of the class is composed of international students.
"There are a lot of good things to say about this current class: It is the strongest class in our history, almost 50 percent of the students are on financial aid and we have great diversity in a number of areas," Assistant Provost for Admissions Dan Saracino said. "But with the ethnic minorities and the international students, we're not where we want to be."
Saracino said the two-year drop doesn't necessarily qualify as a trend, but if the percentage continues to fall, it would present a serious problem for the University.
"I'm not sure it's a trend. Two years in a row isn't necessarily a trend. Three years, I would say, would be a serious trend, and we aim to change it," he said. "Both of those areas have jumped to the top of our priorities for next year's class to make sure that it is not a trend."
Associate Director for Admissions Gil Martinez said the competition among elite universities for top diversity students has increased in recent years.
"As the competition to get into Notre Dame has become more and more difficult, and we're shooting for better and better students, with the diversity students especially, we're finding ourselves in competition with other universities and colleges across the country. We're playing in the leagues now with the ivy leagues, Stanford, Rice, and Duke," he said.
Martinez said the decrease in diversity students has resulted mainly from a drop in black students. While the numbers for Hispanics, Asians and Native Americans have remained consistent, the percentage of black students at the University has fallen from five percent to three percent over the past two years.
"The major drop was in African American students, and those are students that we have to recruit hard because they don't necessarily grow up thinking 'Notre Dame is where I want to go,'" Martinez said.
Both Saracino and Martinez said the University has launched an aggressive new recruiting program to tap into the pool of ethnically diverse students in Chicago.
"We're trying to focus on, without ignoring other areas, Chicago. There are a significant number of African Americans in Chicago who we feel would be interested in Notre Dame," Saracino said.
Matt Tipton, the president of the black men's group Wabruda agreed with Martinez's assessment that a lot of African Americans grow up without knowing about Notre Dame. For many of his friends at Notre Dame, this was true.
"A lot of African Americans don't know about Notre Dame and they don't know where it is," he said.
Martinez said recruiters were in the process of acquiring locations in Chicago where they could organize information sessions for black parents and high school students who might be interested in the University. He said one of the biggest challenges was simply informing students about how close Notre Dame is to Chicago.
"It amazes me how many diversity students from Chicago don't even know where Notre Dame is. People don't realize that we're only 90 miles away," Martinez said. "[The information sessions are] just to talk about Notre Dame, to get them think about it, and to remind them how close we are."
In addition, Martinez said the University recently changed its financial aid policy, although no public announcement was made. Despite the fact that the school doesn't offer full financial aid to anyone whose family makes less than $40,000 like Harvard. Martinez said it will help the school recruit more diversity students.
"The school did change its policy so that we could be players in the game, but it wasn't a public announcement," he said. "We weren't going to make an announcement, but what we want to do is find the people that truly do need it. Different families will use accounting that will benefit them the best, but we look at a more holistic view."
Martinez did not elaborate on the changes to the financial aid policy.
Recruiters have also been expanding internationally, Saracino said.
"We have been focusing on Latin America and some recruitment in Asia," he said. "We're going to do some more recruitment in Asia and long term we're considering doing some more recruitment in Europe," he said.
Tipton, who grew up in Gary, Ind., said the University's admissions counselors would have to look outside SAT scores and GPAs to find many top-tier diversity students, especially those who were raised in economically-disadvantaged neighborhoods.
"I wish they could look more behind the numbers, more behind the GPA. SAT scores don't tell everything about a student. A lot of these kids are disadvantaged, they don't have the resources to study for the SAT like other kids do," he said. "Growing up in Gary, Ind., the surroundings aren't conducive to learning."
Saracino said he hopes these aggressive recruiting programs help increase the percentage of diversity students to last year's level.
"Anything less than 22 percent [ethnic minority] for next year's incoming class would be considered a definite disappointment," he said. "Our other goal is to increase the international student percentage from 3 percent to 4 percent."
Saracino was quick to note these are goals, not quotas, for next year's class.
In the long term, Saracino said he would like to increase the ethnic minority percentage to 30 percent within 5 years as well as raise the percentage of international students while still maintaining the University's Catholic percentage at around 80 percent.
In July 2012, scholar, conductor and interdisciplinary artist Carmen-Helena Tellez will join the University of Notre Dame as a professor in the Department of Music and in the Master of Sacred Music program in the Department of Theology.
She comes to the College of Arts and Letters from Indiana University Bloomington, where she was the director of graduate choral studies in the Jacobs School of Music, holding the position previously held by noted artist-scholars Julius Herford, George Buelow and Thomas Dunn. There, Tellez taught conducting techniques and mentored graduate students in the analysis and scholarship of choral music.
She has also led the Indiana University Contemporary Vocal Ensemble since 1992 and is completing her 20th year as director of Indiana University's Latin American Music Center, a research institution dedicated to the promotion of Latin American art music.
At Notre Dame, Tellez will lead the graduate studio in conducting in addition to pursuing research and teaching.
"Carmen-Helena is a renowned specialist in 20th and 21st century choral and choral orchestral sacred repertory, a major growth area for Notre Dame's new program in sacred music," notes Margot Fassler, Keough-Hesburgh Professor of Music History and Liturgy and co-director of the Master of Sacred Music program.
Tellez' academic expertise and her skills as a conductor make her an essential partner for Notre Dame's faculty in sacred music, Fassler adds.
"She is an energetic and innovative programmer of events featuring contemporary composers and discussions of their works but also of canonic composers who can be experienced from a new inter-artistic and interdisciplinary perspective."
"I currently work on projects that reveal an expanded concept of sacred music in particular and choral music in general," Tellez says. "I study how different forms of collective singing, especially when manifested in ritualized contexts, express the highest values and deepest concerns of a society."
An international lecturer on Latin American repertory and interdisciplinary performance, she has contributed to the “Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.” Tellez's work also extends into a real-world exploration and experience of music.
"Carmen-Helena has strong artistic relationships with many composers both nationally and internationally, and we look forward to exciting collaborations beginning next fall with composer James MacMillan, who will be in residence in mid September," says Fassler, adding that Tellez co-commissioned and premiered his composition “Sun Dogs” at Indiana University in 2006.
"I concentrate on the creation and production of artistic events with multimedia components and interdisciplinary perspectives," Tellez says, "crossing the boundaries between choral singing, experimental theater, and sound installation."
Tellez currently serves as artistic co-director of Aguavá New Music Studio, a group of artists with which she has recorded and toured internationally. Tellez has won support for her academic and performance work through grants and awards from the U.S.-Mexico Fund for Culture, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Lilly Foundation, the Indiana Arts Commission, and the United States Information Agency.
After meeting with Fassler and other scholars in the College of Arts and Letters, Tellez says she was impressed by everyone's commitment to ensuring that scholarship in sacred music and the sacred arts reaches its highest potential at Notre Dame-an effort to which she is now personally dedicated, as well.
"Beyond its intrinsic beauty as the vehicle for spiritual expression of the highest order, sacred music is the cradle of the Western art music heritage," Tellez says.
"It is also a treasure of inspiration for new musical and interdisciplinary works that may resonate with the issues and spiritual needs of the modern world."
Originally published by at al.nd.edu on December 15, 2011.
A team of researchers from the University of Notre Dame have demonstrated a novel DNA detection method that could prove suitable for many real-world applications.
Physicists Carol Tanner and Steven Ruggiero led the team in the application of a new technique called laser transmission spectroscopy (LTS). LTS is capable of rapidly determining the size, shape and number of nanoparticles in suspension.
In a new paper appearing in the international, peer-reviewed, open-access, online publication PLoS ONE, the team describes how they applied LTS as a novel method for detecting species-specific DNA where the presence of one invasive species was differentiated from a closely related invasive sister species.
The research was carried out in support of and cooperation with Notre Dame's Environmental Change Initiative (ECI). Scientists from ECI are using environmental DNA (eDNA) as part of their surveillance of Asian carp in the Great Lakes region.
The results of the research demonstrate the basic premise of DNA detection by LTS in the laboratory.
The Notre Dame research team points out that the LTS technique has many benefits over established DNA detection techniques. The technique is highly sensitive and takes only a few seconds to genetically score a sample for species presence or absence. The researchers also feel that LTS technology will prove much more rapid, practical and cost effective than current detection methodologies and could ultimately reach the sensitivity required to eliminate the need for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification.
Although the current paper describes the use of LTS in invasive species detection, the Notre Dame researchers believe that the technique could serve as an important tool in detecting human pathogens and understanding and indicating the presence of genetic diseases such as cancer.
The Notre Dame group is investigating the real-world applications of LTS technology generally and working on transitioning its success from the lab to the field.
Contact: Carol Tanner, 574-631-8369, ctanner@nd.edu; Steven Ruggiero, 574-631-5638, sruggier@nd.edu
Patrick J. Flynn, professor of computer science and engineering and concurrent professor of electrical engineering at the University of Notre Dame, has been named a fellow of the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for his contributions to biometric identification.
The IEEE is the world's leading professional association for advancing technology for humanity. Through its 385,000 members in 160 countries, the association is a leading authority on a wide variety of areas ranging from aerospace systems, computers and telecommunications to biomedical engineering, electric power and consumer electronics. IEEE fellow is a distinction reserved for select members who have established an extraordinary record of accomplishments in any of the IEEE fields of interest.
A faculty member since 2001, Flynn's interests include computer vision, biometrics and 3D sensing and modeling. He directs the biometrics research group with Kevin W. Bowyer, the Schubmehl-Prein Chair of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering. Flynn, his students and collaborators have been researching the feasibility of image-based biometrics and multi-biometrics since 2001.
Federal agencies have frequently used the Notre Dame biometrics research group's expertise to obtain objective analysis of commercial biometrics technologies.
In addition to this most recent honor, Flynn is a fellow of the International Association for Pattern Recognition, a distinguished member of the Association for Computing Machinery, a member of the American Society for Engineering Education, and an associate member of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences and the International Association for Identification. He has also received numerous teaching awards throughout his career.
He joins several other Notre Dame faculty who have been named IEEE fellow, including: Panos Antsaklis, Peter Bauer, Gary H. Bernstein, Kevin Bowyer, Daniel J. Costello Jr., Thomas Fuja, Yih-Fang Huang, Peter M. Kogge, Ruey-Wen Liu, James L. Merz, Anthony Michel, Wolfgang Porod and Alan Seabaugh.
Researchers from the Harper Cancer Research Institute, a partnership between the University of Notre Dame and Indiana University School of Medicine-South Bend, have uncovered a key element that plays a role in the spread of ovarian cancer.
Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of death due to gynecologic cancers. Annually, more than 20,000 women die from the disease, usually as the result of spread, or metastasis, of the primary tumor. The five-year survival for women diagnosed with primary tumors is 95 percent, which is a stark contrast to the less than 30 percent survival of women diagnosed with metastatic lesions.
"Understanding the reasons that ovarian cancer spreads is of the utmost importance and it is a focus of our research in the Stack Laboratory," said Sharon Stack, Anne F. and Elizabeth Riley Science Director of the Harper Cancer Research Institute.
Unlike many solid tumors, such as those of the breast, prostate or liver, ovarian tumors very rarely spread through blood and lymphatic vessels. Instead, the tumor cells grow on the surface of the ovary or fallopian tube and eventually slough off of that surface. In order for such an atypical event to occur, the tumor cells must undergo changes.
"They float in the abdominal cavity in a fluid called "ascites' that accumulates during ovarian cancer progression," Stack said. "This fluid provides nutrients to the spreading cells to prevent them from dying, which is typical of normal cells if they were disrupted or floating. Eventually, these cells adhere to other organs in the abdominal cavity, such as the colon or omentum, which requires another change in cell behavior."
These types of changes are also characteristic of embryonic cells, which must change between cells that grow in place and cells that migrate several times during development.
"Recently, we found that a cell signaling process called "Wnt signaling,' which is active during development and typically switched off in adult cells, also plays a role in ovarian cancer," said Rebecca Burkhalter, a visiting scientist at the Harper Institute and graduate student at the University of Missouri School of Medicine. "In colon cancer, it has been shown that proteins in the Wnt signaling pathway have mutations in their genes and these mutations lead to cancer. Interestingly, we find that Wnt signaling is improperly active in ovarian carcinoma, even in the absence of mutations.
"As a matter of fact, the protein that helps a cell decide to remain attached to the ovary or an abdominal organ or detach, as in the sloughing step, regulates this aberrant activation."
The research results suggest that this abnormal signaling is, in part, what allows the ovarian cancer cells to survive the many changes required to spread in the abdomen.
"Especially exciting is the fact that there are already drugs in development for other disease states that regulate the Wnt signaling pathway," Stack said. "With more investigation, we may identify a member of the Wnt pathway as drug targets in ovarian cancer."
The research paper describing the finding appeared in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.
Contact: Sharon Stack, 574-631-2518, Sharon.Stack.11@nd.edu: Sharon.Stack.11@nd.edu_
University of Notre Dame students were awarded 12 Fulbright grants for 21.4 percent of its total number of applicants for the 2011-12 academic year, placing them among the top 15 universities in the nation.
The U.S. government's flagship international educational exchange program, Fulbright recently announced the complete list of colleges and universities that produced the most 2011-2012 U.S. Fulbright students. The success of the top-producing institutions is highlighted in the Oct. 24 edition of The Chronicle of Higher Education.
"Our students are well-equipped to shape their professions and disciplines internationally," says Deb Rotman, director of Notre Dame's Center for Undergraduate Scholarly Engagement (CUSE), the office that administers the Fulbright competition. "Our Fulbright scholars illustrate one of the many ways in which the University is cultivating global citizens and world leaders who will successfully address the significant challenges of the 21st century."
Almost 1,700 American students, artists and young professionals in more than 100 different fields of study have been offered Fulbright Program grants to study, teach English, and conduct research in over 140 countries throughout the world beginning this fall.
Of the 1,700 Fulbright recipients, 19 percent are at the Ph.D. degree level, 17 percent are at the master's level, and 65 percent are at the bachelor's degree level. Students receiving awards for this academic year applied through 600 colleges or universities. Lists of Fulbright recipients are available here.
Since its inception in 1946, the Fulbright Program has provided more than 310,000 participants-chosen for their academic merit and leadership potential - with the opportunity to study, teach and conduct research, exchange ideas and contribute to finding solutions to shared international concerns. In the past 65 years, more than 44,000 students from the United States have benefited from the Fulbright experience.
Contact: Deb Rotman, CUSE director, 574-631-7125, rotman.1@nd.edu
Researchers from the University of Notre Dame's Keck Center for Transgene Research and trauma physicians at South Bend's Memorial Hospital are joining forces to use a new medical technology to help save the lives of trauma patients.
Researchers at the Keck Center investigate how the genes involved in blood clotting processes function in inflammatory diseases like sepsis, atherosclerosis and asthma. In particular, the Center's Thromboelastographic Study Group focuses on the coagulopathy (clotting disorder or bleeding disorder) of trauma.
The Keck Center, as well as Memorial Hospital, recently obtained a new piece of medical technology called a thromboelastograph (TEG) analyzer for use on trauma patients suffering from acute traumatic coagulopathy. Memorial trauma physicians Scott Thomas and Mark Walsh and Keck Center director Frank Castellino have formed a unique partnership to use the TEG analyzer in groundbreaking ways.
Patients arriving at a trauma center following automobile accidents, falls, shootings and other acts of violence often are experiencing significant blood loss.
"The goal of trauma physicians is to first stop the blood loss and stabilize the patient. The aim of the current work between the Keck Center and Memorial Hospital is to employ real time thrombus measurements, combined with platelet functional analysis, which will engage the expertise of the trauma physician, researcher and perfusionist to make rapid point of care decisions as to which blood products the patient requires," Castellino said. "This will allow specific transfusion protocols to be used and save precious blood products and unnecessary expense to the patients, while at the same time providing state-of-the-art patient care.
"The testing requires a small sample of the patient's blood to determine its ability to form stable clots with use of TEG measurements. Complex transfusion decisions can then be made in a very short time with the maximal amount of data."
Castellino notes that this close collaboration between scientific researchers and physicians is both unique and highly productive. Keck researchers are doing fundamental work in molecular medicine which is being employed by the the Memorial Trauma Center for patient care in a model of translational research.
The result means a state-of-the-art level of trauma care for residents of northern Indiana and a model for national care in this area.
Contact: Frank Castellino, 574-631-8996, fcastell@nd.edu
By Megan Doyle of The Observer
"When I'm a teenager, my big plans are to be smart and to go to Notre Dame."
A fourth-grade student in an elementary school classroom wrote those words in an essay more than eight years ago. This past spring, her mother sent her fourth-grade paper to the Office of Admissions as they considered her application.
The Office of Admissions said this girl will join over 2,000 freshmen and 154 transfer and readmitted students this weekend at Notre Dame for the fall semester. As one of many incoming students who dreamt of Notre Dame since childhood, her story showed that with a lot of hard work and a little help from mom's scrapbook, getting into Notre Dame could become a reality.
Associate Vice President for Undergraduate Enrollment Don Bishop said the Class of 2015's applicant pool was the largest in the University's history.
"We were more selective than ever before, without a doubt," Bishop said. "But we were more on a mission. When we were looking at who was admitted, we looked at what Notre Dame cares about in addition to the brilliant academics. We looked at leadership, the desire to serve."
Director of Admissions Robert Mundy said the Class of 2015 was more academically talented than any previous freshman class.
"We were just over 16,500 applications, which were about 2,000 larger than our previous pools," Mundy said. "We get it every year that this new class is the best class ever. The exciting part is that now you can dig deeper when you have these incredibly talented students academically. Which ones among this group are the really great matches for Notre Dame?"
The average member of the freshman class ranked in the top two percent of his or her high school class, Mundy said. Thirty incoming freshmen earned perfect scores on their SATs or ACTs, and more than half the class graduated as valedictorian or salutatorian.
"They are all great. Now what we want to do is make sure they are the right students who will take advantage of the great opportunities here, but also give back," Mundy said. "Those students who participate in community service or leadership will be as strong or stronger than in the past. As a group, we have students who are more engaged in life outside the classroom."
Mundy estimated the enrolled Class of 2015 will total about 2,025 students. One-third of the enrolled class participated in student government in high school, according to statistics from the Office of Admissions. Ninety percent of the incoming freshmen regularly volunteered or performed service work in their community.
The Office of Admissions accepted 4,018 students for the freshman class. While the admissions process was more selective, Mundy said more admitted students enrolled at Notre Dame than expected. About 51 percent of admits enrolled for the fall semester.
"Our communication got a little better this year," Mundy said. "We have such a great, unique message that it will resonate with students who might not have previously thought about Notre Dame. When it came application time, they might have [previously] eliminated Notre Dame. Fewer of those students did that this year."
Mundy said the admissions staff was only able to accept seven students from the wait list.
Bishop said Notre Dame's rank among the top schools for endowment, alumni giving and graduation rates increasingly marks the University as a more prestigious school.
"Notre Dame is really starting to reach higher levels in the ratings of individual accomplishments," Bishop said. "And that is building a better sense that Notre Dame has become a top-10 school."
The University's commitment to match all perceived financial need for its students might be another draw for freshmen in difficult economic times, he said.
"About half the students are on aid, and the average aid package is about $26,900," Bishop said.
Whether a student dreamt of Notre Dame from the beginning of elementary school or discovered the University late in high school, Bishop said he expected the Class of 2015 to quickly feel at home in the Notre Dame family.
"Notre Dame is a very aspirational college for many Americans," he said. "You get caught up in it."