University President Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., plans to use his annual address to the faculty to celebrate the University of Notre Dame’s admission into the Association of American Universities and mark the launch of a new strategic framework that will guide Notre Dame for the next decade.

“The President’s Faculty Address: A Roundtable on the Strategic Framework” will take place at 4 p.m. Sept. 5 (Tuesday) at the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center’s Leighton Concert Hall. A celebratory reception will follow.

Father Jenkins will offer opening remarks, to be followed by a roundtable discussion moderated by John T. McGreevy, the Charles and Jill Fischer Provost, featuring Barbara R. Snyder, president of the AAU and president emerita of Case Western Reserve University, and Peter Lange, provost emeritus and professor emeritus of political science and public policy at Duke University.

The strategic framework, a product of more than two years of planning involving contributions from more than 700 faculty, staff, and leaders from across the University, will be released to the campus community in advance of the faculty address.

In addition to the Sept. 5 address, Notre Dame’s membership in the AAU and the launch of the new strategic framework will also be discussed at town halls for University staff on Sept. 19 (Tuesday).

“Both the recognition by AAU and the formulation of the strategic framework are the result of extensive and excellent work by scholars and leaders across Notre Dame,” Father Jenkins said. “I am grateful to Dr. Snyder and Dr. Lange for their willingness to engage with us at this pivotal moment in our institutional history, as we reflect on the opportunities the current moment provides for Notre Dame as well as any challenges we should consider.”

Prior to serving as AAU president, Snyder was president of Case Western Reserve University from 2007 to 2020, where she encouraged interdisciplinary excellence, catalyzed institutional collaboration and reinvigorated alumni engagement and fundraising.

In addition to being provost emeritus, Lange holds roles as the Thomas A. Langford Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Political Science and Public Policy at Duke and as vice president at executive search firm Isaacson, Miller, where he leads the higher education strategy practice.

“We are looking forward to an enlightening conversation with these two distinguished leaders on Sept. 5 and to working together as an institution to implement the ideas put forth in the framework,” McGreevy said. “Notre Dame’s effort to educate students and conduct research at the highest level animated by a distinctive Catholic mission is one of the most exciting and consequential experiments in global higher education.”