Pathways to Notre Dame

The transcript has been formatted and lightly edited for clarity and readability.

Jenna Liberto:
Micki Kidder’s time at the University of Notre Dame has spanned finances to fundraising to events. While her path has taken many turns, she’s now focusing on prospective students embarking on their own pathway to Notre Dame as vice president for undergraduate enrollment.

Introduction:
Welcome to Notre Dame Stories, the official podcast of the University of Notre Dame. Here we take you along the journey where curiosity becomes a breakthrough for people using knowledge as a means for good in the world.

Jenna Liberto:
Micki, thank you for hosting us.

Micki Kidder:
Of course.

Jenna Liberto:
Thank you for inviting us over to McKenna Hall. Tell us about this space we’re in, first of all. What happens here?

Micki Kidder:
Yes, a lot happens here, actually—it doesn’t seem like it today without a bunch of bustling bodies, but, typically, that is the case. This is, in many ways, a hub for a lot of the work that we do to outreach to wonderful young people, truly, around this country and this world.

So, specifically, our marketing and communications and engagement team utilizes this space quite actively along with our TRIO Programs, which works with youth in our local South Bend School Corporation, and our Pre-College Program activates this space as it plans for hosting, truly, almost a thousand students each summer here on campus and abroad, and engaging them in college preparation every year. So it’s an active space really focused on young people around the globe.

Jenna Liberto:
As is McKenna Hall. I walked into a huge tour group, which is something that is very common to see on campus, of course.

Micki Kidder:
Yes, we love having those groups around.

Jenna Liberto:
Absolutely. I’d love to start our conversation by hearing more about you, and this series is called Notre Dame Stories, so tell us a little bit about your Notre Dame story.

Micki Kidder:
Oh, well, thank you. You’re kind to ask that. My Notre Dame story began approximately 20 years ago when I was invited to join this family, in our internal audit department, actually. And after a number of different roles and positions on this campus, I just feel so incredibly blessed that, 20 years later, I have the opportunity to invest in future generations of Notre Dame students. I’ve enjoyed so many things I’ve done here at Notre Dame, working in Father John’s office years ago; obviously, my work in University Relations was a really formative time for me. Ten years spent in Development was amazing. A little over four years spent in University Enterprises and Events, which I absolutely loved. The people on that team are just salt-of-the-earth, really mission-oriented, amazing humans. And now, a little over two years here in Enrollment has been transformative for me. I love the work we do here of investing in future generations, and it’s been wonderful.

I’m a Notre Dame graduate, so I graduated with my MBA in 2019. I did the executive program in Chicago—at the time we offered that, and that, too, was a transformative opportunity for me to learn and continue to be enriched by this mission. And now I’m wearing another hat this year as Notre Dame mom, which also puts a whole new perspective on the Notre Dame mission, and the family, and the commitment to an unsurpassed undergraduate education.

Jenna Liberto:
So I didn’t know that going in. What is that like?

Micki Kidder:
It’s amazing. It’s really incredible to see your children, obviously, continue to flourish and grow. And to see this community, I would say, walk the talk in many ways. You know, we hear so much about providing an unsurpassed undergraduate education and our Catholic character informing all that we do in the classroom, in the residence hall, in club activities, etc. And I see that in practice over the last six weeks, and it’s really been a beautiful thing to witness and something I’m so grateful for.

Jenna Liberto:
And with all the places on campus that you’ve touched, what is special about Enrollment for you?

Micki Kidder:
Well, I like to say that we are “extending invitations for life” to this family. To new young people who will join this family, will enrich this University, will be enriched by this University, and forever will continue to wear the monogram on their shoulder—however they amplify and celebrate the Notre Dame mission. Not just during their four years here but, truly, forever.

And to have the privilege and the honor of extending those invitations is something that we don’t take lightly. It is an honor to extend invitations to this family to future generations of students but, ultimately, to individuals who will become alumni. And it’s a beautiful thing. This mission is extraordinarily distinct. It is important to the world and we feel very strongly about how we extend invitations to young people who will advance and amplify that mission for years to come.

Jenna Liberto:
We’re all here for our students. We’re here because of our students. Is this the most directly you’ve worked with our students, though? That has to be energy-giving for you.

Micki Kidder:
It is. It’s very rewarding. In past roles, I’ve of course employed students, right? Through internships, student employment, etc., and that has been so rewarding. Any time you have the opportunity to work with Notre Dame students is a gift. We’ve done a multitude of things in other positions I’ve had. Working with what is now ND Listens, I had the opportunity of leading that years ago. And that is a whole team of students who work within the University Relations team to help advance this important mission. One of my most treasured opportunities to work with students was in University Enterprises and Events, to see the literally dozens of students who work within that team, particularly in the dining halls and in Campus Dining. But this [current role] is different because this is, in a very acute way, understanding why this mission is so distinct and important, extending invitations for young people to join it, and then, also, continuing to employ them and invest in their education of their hearts and minds.

I also had the privilege of teaching in our Mendoza College of Business, and I loved that. That is, obviously, very direct in terms of the students. But it’s really beautiful how all these things add to a person’s journey, and to your understanding of a student’s journey here at Notre Dame, and how we all play a part, I think, in investing in those journeys and in celebrating and in supporting the mission of Notre Dame—to invest in the hearts and minds of these young people, invest in their full human formation so they can go out and do good in the world.

Jenna Liberto:
Speaking of investing in our students, financial aid is a piece of that. And our financial aid programs are part of your division. So, in fact, Notre Dame does offer a robust financial aid program. A majority of our students, is that correct, receive some sort of financial aid? So, before we get to an exciting announcement that we’re going to get into, give us just an overview of the scope of financial aid here on campus.

Micki Kidder:
Sure. So financial aid is an essential tool in the toolkit to ensure that a Notre Dame education is affordable and accessible to so many students. Approximately 50 percent of our students every year are on need-based financial aid, but once you add additional vehicles of financial aid—things like external scholarships, ROTC, these type of things—you get to 70 percent of students on this campus are on some type of financial aid. Which is incredible to think about, right? And I hope every member of this family, particularly staff and faculty, feels so proud about that and grateful for the opportunity to advance that part of a student’s journey. It is an essential part and we should be very grateful for the leaders who came before us that, for 25 years, we have been administering need-blind admissions practices and meeting the full demonstrated need of these young people.

And that is transformative for the families from which they [originate]. Really wonderful, hardworking families across this country and across the globe for which, if financial aid weren’t available, a Notre Dame education would not be accessible to them. So it’s, I would say, not nice to have, it is an essential part of the calculus that provides the opportunity to ensure that these young people can be on this campus and enrich this family in the way that they do.

Jenna Liberto:
And now we’re taking a look at what the future looks like. And so, I want you to talk about the announcement made during Father Dowd’s inauguration speech, that Notre Dame is going need-blind and no-loan. It’s a series of steps we’re calling Pathways to Notre Dame. We’re going to dig into each of these steps, but, first of all, just talk about Pathways, summarize that for us.

Micki Kidder:
Yes, so I am so grateful for Father Bob and his leadership and his vision around this. And I do believe that this will continue to ensure that a Notre Dame education is affordable and accessible to students from so many pathways. And that’s the beauty about it: So many different, diverse, beautifully different pathways can find their specific way to the University of Notre Dame here in South Bend, Indiana.

Pathways currently does include two distinct policies as part of that umbrella, if you will, of a program. The first is, you mentioned, need-blind admissions for all, which does ensure that need-blind admissions is now being applied to international students. We’ve been practicing need-blind admission for domestic students, as I said, for a little over two decades, which is such a student-centered policy to have.

What that means is that we review the application of a student based on their specific merit—not counting what mom or dad make in terms of financial dollars and contributing to their household; it’s based on that young person. Their academic preparation. Their desire to do good in this world. Their desire to be a contributing member and a leader on this campus. And it ensures that domestic, and now international, students all have a fair, equitable, and comprehensive review, regardless of financial means. It’s a beautifully mission-oriented policy that’s very committed to our Catholic faith, ensuring that Catholic scholars and faith-based scholars, in general, can find their pathway to Notre Dame.

The other big component of this is no-loan financial aid policy, which will benefit and impact, truly, hundreds of students every single year. And that ensures that Notre Dame is not mandating the burden of debt when it admits students in order to meet their demonstrated financial need. It is something that puts us on par now with most of our competitive peers, many of which have been practicing this for a long time, and now ensures that we can be competitive in offering financial aid offers to a wonderful number of very academically prepared, mission-oriented students every single year. And, again, ensuring that this University is affordable for those young people.

Jenna Liberto:
That’s also a bold commitment from Notre Dame. So talk about that.

Micki Kidder:
Yes, this is significant. This is bold. Whenever we talk about, going back to Father Sorin, when he found his way here from Le Mans, France, and wrote back to Basil Moreau and stated that this University will not fail, that it will be a powerful means for good, all the way to Father Jenkins in his inauguration speech really inviting and, I would offer, challenging us to ensure that we’re never dreaming too small. This is, in Father Bob’s presidency, another step in that bold vision.

It is significant for the impact it will have to students and to families and to this University, to the now countless number of students who can call this place home. It’s also significant of the University’s investment in those families. The financial resources necessary to ensure that students are not burdened with debt as part of their financial aid package is material.

And that’s why we don’t take this lightly in the Enrollment Division. We recognize the investment that the University is making in families. We recognize, frankly, the giving that will be required, and so graciously done by so many family members of the Notre Dame family who want to ensure that a Notre Dame scholarship and financial aid is available to students.

Jenna Liberto:
Can you talk a little bit more, again, about the impact on our international students? And with our future students coming from, really, all around the world—or we hope to make that true—what could that mean for the next generation of young people and for our University here on campus?

Micki Kidder:
Sure. So the Catholic Church is the most diverse organization, literally, in the world. And we aspire to be the leading Catholic global research university—full stop. In order to do that, we feel that we need to be home to the leading Catholic scholars, truly, around the globe. The most academically prepared young people who aspire to have an education where faith is important to that equation, to that experience, and who want to contribute to a thoughtful dialogue around a Catholic education.

In addition to that, we think it’s really important if we are investing in the hearts and minds of young people to go out and be leaders around the globe. We owe it to them to ensure that they are surrounded in a beautifully vibrant, diverse, global Catholic community. And so, the investment into need-blind admissions, which, ultimately, will increase our presence of international students—albeit somewhat modestly—we believe that that’s a benefit to every student who walks on this campus. It’s a benefit to every faculty member who is teaching in the classroom, to the benefit of every rector who is investing in the formation of these students in the residence halls. Frankly, to every staff member, like you and I, who is contributing daily into the hearts and minds of these young people. We will be enriched by a continuously more vibrant global Catholic community.

So our efforts are focused on very global Catholic areas around this world. Areas like Central America, South America, Southeast Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, areas where beautifully prepared young people—Catholic young people—enrich and desire this experience. We think that we will see our international student body grow to maybe 10 to 12 percent of our student body. It’s currently been at 7. This will be a very mission-appropriate future that we aspire to achieve here.

Jenna Liberto:
So really, what you’re describing, too, is this intersection of need-blind and no-loan merging to create the Notre Dame that lives out our mission.

Micki Kidder:
Yes. So if you think about the future of our student body—and I would encourage everyone listening to this podcast, or viewing it, to go out and read the document Notre Dame 2033: A Strategic Framework—I think it is the greatest gift to us as staff and faculty helping advance this vision.

It’s the greatest gift from, at the time President Jenkins, and now Father Bob, along with Provost McGreevy, Shannon Cullinan, all the deans, etc., who worked so diligently on this. In that document, it outlines the vision for our undergraduate student body: to ensure that our students here represent the diversity of gifts of the full human family, to ensure that we have a more global Catholic community, and to ensure that our student body represents socioeconomic mobility for all pathways to Notre Dame, not simply low-income and ultra-high-net-worth individuals—so that middle class, that hardworking, beautiful family, with good core values across this country and around the globe—that they have a pathway to Notre Dame. All of that undergirded by two foundational elements: academic excellence and our Catholic character.

So if you think about that, as we look to identify how we achieve that vision for the student body here at Notre Dame, need-blind admissions ensure that we are enrolling the most academically prepared mission-oriented young people. It’s a non-negotiable. It’s the most student-centered way that we can achieve that vision, with the elimination of debt—the elimination of the burden of debt. Now, families may still elect to take out loans, either personal or private, or federal loans, but the elimination of the requirement of debt means that more individuals, particularly in that middle class, see a pathway to Notre Dame.

These are two tools that help us—or two policies, if you will, that help us achieve that vision of an undergraduate student body that is outlined by our leadership and supported in that strategic framework.

Jenna Liberto:
And these families that you speak about, these are families who didn’t think they could, maybe, have a Notre Dame story. They couldn’t have dreamed that, right? And now it’s a reality.

Micki Kidder:
That’s right. It’s been, frankly, quite disheartening for us here in the Enrollment team as we look at the shift in our applicant pool. If you look over the last decade, there has been a decreasing percentage of the applicant pool that is represented by these really hardworking, great families, particularly domestic hardworking middle-class families. There’s been a decrease in the representation of those individuals in the applicant pool. And so that affirms what you’ve just stated, that, perhaps, there is this perception that Notre Dame never was even a possibility—never would be an option as a pathway for them. And maybe it was a dream that they’ve had since a young age, but, in reality, the affordability and the accessibility of it wasn’t quite there. And so, that has proven to be true. We’ve seen that decrease in our applicant pool.

The introduction of no-loan financial aid means that these young people, they now see that it might actually be a reality, right? If they’re a really wonderfully talented young person, maybe Notre Dame is an option. And so, we hope that these policies will see an increase of those young people in our applicant pool.

The other illustration where we hope to see it have an impact is on yield. So, unfortunately, right now, when you have a young person—let’s take the middle-income type of family—the young person applies to Notre Dame, they get admitted. Too often, right now, that young person isn’t able to say yes to that invitation for admission, strictly because of affordability. We believe that, while every family will still have a contribution that they make to a Notre Dame education, every student will still have a stake in the game, right—they’ll have work-study and these types of things. The elimination of the burden of debt now will ensure that more admitted young people can say yes to Notre Dame than they historically have been.

Jenna Liberto:
We talked about Father Bob’s commitment to Pathways, and, as we mentioned, he announced this in his inaugural speech. That was a moment for him; certainly, it was a moment for our University. Does that feel significant as a moment for Notre Dame?

Micki Kidder:
It is. On Friday, September 13, in his speech, when Father Bob announced this, it was overwhelming to me.

Audio from Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C.:
Let me start with how we build more Pathways, more bridges, to and from Notre Dame. I’ll begin with the obvious: We want an undergraduate student body that reflects the rich diversity of the Catholic community in and beyond the United States, which requires that a Notre Dame education be both accessible and affordable. In recent decades, Notre Dame has become more accessible with extraordinary financial aid, thanks, in large part, to the commitment and the generosity of our benefactors, alumni, and friends. Yet, as costs continue to rise, we know that the door to a Notre Dame education still seems closed to far too many young people attracted to our mission.

And when forced to take out loans to pursue higher education, many families are saddled with sizable—potentially crushing—debt. I know what this is like. When I was accepted to Notre Dame, tuition was much lower, but still out of reach for my family. My mom, the head of a single-parent household, knowing that it was my dream to attend Notre Dame, refinanced our house and took out loans to send me here.

Decades later, it’s just not realistic to expect people to do what my mom did. We also know that, while the proportion of international undergraduate students has grown here, Notre Dame still has one of the lowest percentages of any university in the AAU, even as the Catholic Church is the most transnational and multicultural institution in the world. So today, I am proud to announce that Notre Dame will go loan-free and need-blind for all undergraduate students, including both domestic and international students.

Micki Kidder:
What Father Bob was articulating in that inaugural speech is the role that the University of Notre Dame has to be a bridge-builder, truly, around the world. And that is a role, as a bridge-builder, that I believe few institutions can articulate as their vision. Our distinctive mission establishes the ability for us to not only aspire to do it, but to truly do it. And for affordability and access to be part of his equation of what he sees is essential in order for Notre Dame to be that bridge-builder—to welcome these young people from all walks of life, from all faith traditions, to find that pathway to Notre Dame—it was very overwhelming that day, and I’m so grateful for his leadership. You know, none of this comes to reality without Father Bob’s vision and leadership around this. And it’s incredibly inspiring for our team to now know that we can help, in a small part, advance Notre Dame’s mission by extending these invitations and supporting these young people, both in their matriculation to Notre Dame but also through Notre Dame.

It’s pretty awe-inspiring, frankly. It’s no small thing.

Jenna Liberto:
No, it’s not.

Micki Kidder:
It’s not.

Jenna Liberto:
So, as a result of Pathways, what do you hope Notre Dame feels like in 10 years, as a result?

Micki Kidder:
Yes. I think that, not to repeat what I said before, but the vision outlined in that document is a vision that is clear, is concise, is tangible, and I think it’s also very achievable. And so, what to me that means is that we are on this campus, perhaps at this table, 10 years from now and, you know, we’re kind of pinching ourselves because the vision has become reality. Where you have a campus full of amazingly talented, hugely academically prepared young people, who desire to serve the common good. They deserve to be informed as humans by a Catholic education.

And they aspire to go out and do great things in this world—to truly make an impact. Not because they’re driven by financial aspirations, or not because they’re driven by, you know, the ability to achieve some title or some ranking in the world. They’re actually driven by an authentic desire to help other human beings. And if we can continue to welcome students onto this campus who have that aspiration and have that desire, and if they are reflective of the diversity of this wonderfully beautiful human family that is truly global, and truly far-reaching in terms of the pathways, if you will, that they take to get here, that’s going to be a beautiful thing.

But regardless of the pathway way that they find, their commitment to a Catholic education, their desire to be informed by a Catholic education and, again, these students who are so academically prepared to achieve greatness, it would be irresponsible for us to admit young people who aren’t prepared for Notre Dame education—this is a top 20 education in this country and around the world, frankly. We’re going to invest in the leaders of tomorrow, people who are going to go change the world on the global scale, always informed by a distinct Notre Dame education and a commitment to our Catholic character, which, of course, informs everything we do here.

Jenna Liberto:
Micki, thank you for the conversation. I hope we’ll talk sooner than the next 10 years, but let’s do that as well. Thank you so much.

Micki Kidder:
Agreed. Agreed. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

Jenna Liberto:
For more on Pathways to Notre Dame, click here.

Thanks for joining us for Notre Dame Stories, the official podcast of the University of Notre Dame. Find us on stories.nd.edu, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.