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University of Notre Dame professor replaces longtime president

On June 1, the new president of the University of Notre Dame, Father Robert Dowd, assumed his new position. A Congregation of the Holy Cross priest and associate professor of political science, Dowd had served as the university’s vice president until former president Father John I. Jenkins stepped down after 19 years. Dowd is the 18th president of Notre Dame and continues a 182-year legacy of a Congregation of the Holy Cross priest as president.

The return of the “priest-president”

A Catholic university in New Jersey has returned to its historic tradition of appointing a “priest president” after the sudden resignation of the previous president and a lawsuit filed against the school. On July 1, Monsignor Joseph Reilly will become the 22nd president of Seton Hall University, one of the nation’s oldest diocesan universities. Reilly is an alumnus of the university and the current vice provost for academics and Catholic identity. He will return the 168-year-old university to its tradition of having a “priest president” for 146 years of its history.

Chairman of the Board of Trustees Elected at the Catholic University of America

The Catholic University of America, a Washington, D.C.-based research university with more than 5,000 graduate and undergraduate students, named a new chair to its board of trustees on June 4. Robert Neal, a real estate executive and philanthropist who has served on the boards of Catholic Relief Services, the Becket Fund and the Papal Foundation as well as the Catholic Leadership Institute and Second Harvest Food Bank, will succeed Victor Smith, who has served as chair since 2021 and on the board since 2006.