Upcoming Dedication of our New Home at ND

The Institute for Educational Initiatives (IEI) and the Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) have a new home, located at the heart of the Notre Dame campus. A series of events on Sept. 16-17, 2011, will welcome visitors for the building’s dedication and associated celebrations.

The public events will begin with an “open house” at 3:30 pm on Friday, Sept. 16. It will feature displays and activities that tell the story of ACE from its founding in 1993 and the story of the IEI from its founding in 1996.

Visitors to the newly renovated historic IEI building and the newly constructed Carole Sandner Hall will see the collaborative work areas for ACE’s growing team of 70 faculty and staff members. They will also see the central gathering space called Remick Commons. That space, now beautifully refurbished for multiple uses by the University community, was once the chapel of the Sisters of the Holy Cross convent. Their vocation as teachers evokes a shared sense of mission connecting ACE and IEI to this nation’s Catholic school legacy--a legacy built largely by Holy Cross Sisters and other religious orders. Remick Commons is just part of the Sisters’ historic convent and novitiate, now renovated to include offices and state-of-the-art meeting space for IEI staff members.

This new home for the IEI and ACE will be blessed by University President Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., at 5 pm on Friday.

The Most Reverend Kevin Rhoades, Bishop of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, will preside at the Dedication Mass in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart that follows the open house at 6:30 pm.

The public celebrations conclude on Saturday, Sept. 17, with a tailgate party adjacent to Carole Sandner Hall, beginning at 10:30 am. This precedes the football game between the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame and the Michigan State Spartans that kicks off at 3:30 pm.