Fr. John Jenkins, CSC to step down at end of '23-'24

sfk324

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To be fair this was rumored shortly after BK left because of his "burner" account on Twitter alleging that both Jack and Fr Jenkins would be gone after 2023.
It was rumored before that as well. Conventional wisdom at the start of Jenkins' most recent term was that he and Swarbrick would both leave at the end of that term. This is a year early, but Monk stepped down before his last term expired as well.

I wonder if Jack and Jenkins will go on a cross-country RV trip like Fr Ted and Fr Joyce...
 

NDPhilly

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My alma mater, Fordham, recently had long-time president Fr. Joseph M. McShane step down after a 20-year stint. He was replaced by our first female + lay president in Tania Tetlow, who was previously president at Loyola New Orleans.
Tania Tetlow - Wikipedia

Becoming more and more common at Catholic Universities.
 

Jiggafini19Deux

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I remember my dad was enraged when Bob Davie got hired. I think it was the most upset I'd seen him as an ND fan other than the Orange Bowl clipping call against Colorado. He was beside himself.

That was around the time Gary Barnett was getting hyped at Northwestern and Gerry DiNardo went 10-2 at LSU. I seem to recall Terry Donanue and Bobby Ross being mentioned as well.
 

Irish4life

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I remember my dad was enraged when Bob Davie got hired. I think it was the most upset I'd seen him as an ND fan other than the Orange Bowl clipping call against Colorado. He was beside himself.

That was around the time Gary Barnett was getting hyped at Northwestern and Gerry DiNardo went 10-2 at LSU. I seem to recall Terry Donanue and Bobby Ross being mentioned as well.
Barry Alvarez IIRC was the name most people wanted
 

MKEagle

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My alma mater, Fordham, recently had long-time president Fr. Joseph M. McShane step down after a 20-year stint. He was replaced by our first female + lay president in Tania Tetlow, who was previously president at Loyola New Orleans.
Tania Tetlow - Wikipedia

Becoming more and more common at Catholic Universities.
Can confirm the same at Marquette with President Lovell who was previously at UW Milwaukee.
 

Irish#1

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I was told a couple of years ago that Jenkins is actually more favorable to football than anyone else there. This might be a really bad thing.
Yep. He's actually been a pretty big supporter of FB, just not as big a supporter that everyone wants.
 

Giddyup

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Lol. UW was coming back from the dark ages when Barry took over.
 

Giddyup

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Fwiw. Joe Rudolph was a guard on that Rose Bowl winning team. Darrell Bevell was qb.
 

FDNYIrish1

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Fr. Pete is a public face, the ND equivalent of "Catholicism Wow" for those who have seen Dogma. I don't know that the university sees being the cool priest that the kids like is a necessary quality for the President, which is much more of an executive administration role. Fr. Pete is great, but while he's out on the quad with students or messing around on a mix table at a game, Jenkins and the like are at symposiums or glad handing with donors. I don't think that's Fr Pete's forte.

On the whole, that's probably a fair assessment. But from what I've read, I think he'd probably qualify that as not being a political/policy issue so much as a moral one. Groody is also a member of the BOT and BOF.
Soooo not a Freeman hire for President??? Before I get killed here it’s a joke I just don’t know how to use italics on my phone
 

NDMD

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Fr. Pete is a public face, the ND equivalent of "Catholicism Wow" for those who have seen Dogma. I don't know that the university sees being the cool priest that the kids like is a necessary quality for the President, which is much more of an executive administration role. Fr. Pete is great, but while he's out on the quad with students or messing around on a mix table at a game, Jenkins and the like are at symposiums or glad handing with donors. I don't think that's Fr Pete's forte.

Fr Pete was my rector for a year while I was in undergrad and I got to know him pretty well. The man is earnest and genuine & the public persona is accurate. I highly doubt it’s going to be him but I believe it would be a home run if so.

I can’t speak to his administrative ability but he has the ability to galvanize support & would be a great face of the university.
 

ulukinatme

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Fr Pete was my rector for a year while I was in undergrad and I got to know him pretty well. The man is earnest and genuine & the public persona is accurate. I highly doubt it’s going to be him but I believe it would be a home run if so.

I can’t speak to his administrative ability but he has the ability to galvanize support & would be a great face of the university.
The students have really taken to his 3rd quarter speeches that replaced the old McCarthy joke. There's always a huge ovation when he comes on the Jumbotron.
 

IrishLax

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People have already hit on this but I'll add my two cents --

It is underrated how much Jenkins did to strike balance and curtail the two factions at ND that want to kill football (and sports in general). There is a sizable group of priests that want ND to be CATHOLIC not Catholic. Mind you, ND being Catholic is a lot more than Georgetown/BC/etc. being "catholic"... but there's a group that wants the university to be crazy dogmatic and for that to dominate student life. Then there are the prestige chasing academics who want ND to be "catholic" in name only. Both basically hate football, athletics, etc. as they mistakenly think it is a drain/distraction from more noble pursuits.

It's possible to upgrade from Jenkins/Swarbrick but it's more likely we take a step backwards. Fingers crossed.
 

Irish4life

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People have already hit on this but I'll add my two cents --

It is underrated how much Jenkins did to strike balance and curtail the two factions at ND that want to kill football (and sports in general). There is a sizable group of priests that want ND to be CATHOLIC not Catholic. Mind you, ND being Catholic is a lot more than Georgetown/BC/etc. being "catholic"... but there's a group that wants the university to be crazy dogmatic and for that to dominate student life. Then there are the prestige chasing academics who want ND to be "catholic" in name only. Both basically hate football, athletics, etc. as they mistakenly think it is a drain/distraction from more noble pursuits.

It's possible to upgrade from Jenkins/Swarbrick but it's more likely we take a step backwards. Fingers crossed.
It'll be what it's going to be. I 0% buy the bolded. We specifically hired an AD with NBC connections to broker the best possible TV deal. That is not the action of a university on the brink of shutting down it's athletic department or it's football team. I'm most intrigued by the new BOT chair though. That's going to be a big part of all this going forward.
 
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Jiggafini19Deux

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Not too dissimilar to how Matt Campbell has shaken out, and we all know how popular he is as a candidate for ND...
No, I actually don't know, and I'd rather not find out more.

Matt Campbell is Frank Beamer or Bill Snyder. He may as well stay at Iowa State forever because it won't get any better for either party involved. He can come to South Bend as an opponent or an analyst.

Notre Dame beat Matt Campbell in the Camping World Bowl, the last pre Covid bowl game Notre Dame ever played. That's a fine memory I hope remains as such.
 

Jiggafini19Deux

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I think pretty well, considering where Wisconsin was when he got there
"How would this go over today?"

If a coach with that record was hired to replace Freeman right now, 95% of this board would be shitting coat hangers out of pure anger and disgust. In modern college football, Alvarez is probably fired after year 3 at Wisconsin.

I don't even recall Barry Alvarez being a candidate at the time. There was all the Gary Barnett Northwestern Rose Bowl hype, Terry Donahue and Gerry DiNardo chatter. Maybe he was, but there is zero way the majority would unite around a hire with a record like that in the present.
 

ab2cmiller

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Kind of crazy that over the last 70 years Notre Dame's only had 3 Presidents.
 
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