Notre Dame, University of
Notre Dame, University of, a coeducational Roman Catholic institution of higher learning at Notre Dame, Indiana, near South Bend. There are undergraduate colleges of arts and letters, science, engineering, and business administration, and a graduate school. The law school is the oldest Roman Catholic law school in the United States.
Special centers within the university include the Institute for International Peace Studies; the Kroc Institute for Pastoral and Social Ministry; and the Kellogg Institute for International Studies, which concentrates on Central America. The Memorial Library contains more than 1.5 million volumes, and the Snite Museum of Art holds many valuable paintings from the Renaissance period. The gold dome on the administration building is a landmark.
The school's sports teams have gained national fame; this is particularly true of its football team, which first achieved prominence under the coaching of Knute Rockne, 1918-31.
Notre Dame was founded by the Congregation of the Holy Cross, a French religious order, as a school for boys; instruction began in 1843. The order operated it until 1967, when governing power was given to a board of trustees composed mainly of laymen. Women undergraduates were first admitted in 1972.