Governance and Administration

Roles and Responsibilities of the Governing Board, Administration, and Faculty

Notre Dame Seminary Graduate School of Theology’s property and buildings belong to the Archdiocese of New Orleans and are subject to its Corporation for ownership, capital improvements, and disposition of title. The corporate powers and management of this corporation (entitled Notre Dame Seminary) are vested in and exercised by a Board of Trustees. The Board of Trustees is empowered to formulate and enact policies and regulations governing the administrative, academic and spiritual affairs of Notre Dame Seminary, which policies are to be administrated and implemented by the administration and faculty. The Rector-President has the ultimate responsibility for, and exercises appropriate control over, the institution’s educational, administrative, fund-raising, and fiscal programs and services.

The Rector-President, in consultation with the Seminary Formation Board, the Administrative Board, and the Faculty Council, is directly responsible for the administration of the Seminary. The Seminary Formation Board is responsible for the review of the priestly formation program and the implementation of the norms of the Program of Priestly Formation and the Formation Handbook. In addition, this board is responsible for overseeing the formation of the lay students enrolled at NDS. The Administrative Board is convened to review and address matters related to maintenance, housekeeping, campus matters, service contracts, fundraising events, and matters related to temporalities. The Faculty Council is responsible for planning, design and oversight of curriculum and programs, faculty recruitment and advancement, faculty welfare and domestic concerns, determining conformity with all accreditation requirements, and the implementation of governing documents in priestly formation relative to the intellectual formation of seminarians and matters related to faculty development.

Notre Dame Seminary Corporation

Notre Dame Seminary Graduate School of Theology was authorized to grant degrees in 1948 by the State of Louisiana through an act of the state legislature (Act 136, House Bill 832). The Seminary’s property and buildings belong to the Archdiocese of New Orleans and are subject to its Corporation for ownership, capital improvements, and disposition of title. Notre Dame Seminary was incorporated in 1970, and in 1975 its charter was amended so as to officially designate the Archbishop of New Orleans as Chancellor of the Seminary. It was revised again in 1995 designating the Archbishop as ex-officio Chairperson of the Board of Trustees, and emphasizing the requirements of the Code of Canon Law and the USCCB’s Program of Priestly Formation (PPF) in the operation of the Seminary.

As seen in Article III of the Restatement of the Articles of Incorporation of Notre Dame Seminary, the objects and purposes for which this corporation is organized are:

1. To establish, conduct and maintain a seminary, college and/or university in the city of New Orleans, Louisiana, or elsewhere, known as Notre Dame Seminary, or by such name may be designated by due corporate action, in accordance with the Program for Priestly Formation and in accordance with the requirements of Canon 259 ¶ 1, of the Code of Canon Law, and
2. To further advance the cause of education, to promote and disseminate the study and knowledge of theology, the classics and the arts and sciences and give instruction in the learned professions.

In addition, as seen in Article VII of this document, the powers and management of the Corporation are vested in and exercised by the Board of Trustees:

The corporate powers and management of this corporation shall be vested in and exercised by the Board of Trustees, which shall consist of not less than five or more than twenty-five members, of which the Archbishop or Administrator of the Archdiocese of New Orleans ex officio shall serve as its Chairman.