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Providing excellent professional and liberal arts programs in which community engagement and the values of social justice and global peace are integral to the learning experience.

Students of earlier times enjoying a game on the Ralston lawn. Photographer unknown. Photo courtesy of Notre Dame Archives, Belmont.
Students of earlier times enjoying a game on the Ralston lawn. Photographer unknown. Photo courtesy of Notre Dame Archives, Belmont.
Notre Dame de Namur University is a fully accredited, independent, Catholic, co-educational, university offering undergraduate, graduate, credential and certificate programs.

College of Notre Dame, the Sisters' first school in California, was founded in San Jose in 1851 and moved to Ralston Mansion in Belmont in 1923. At the time the mansion was a decrepit asylum with few usable rooms and the Sisters were warned not to buy it. Proving the naysayers wrong, fall classes started on time and eventually the building was fully restored. 

Excelling in basketball. Photo courtesy of NDNU.
Excelling in basketball. Photo courtesy of NDNU.
Today's students no longer learn embroidery and china painting along with geography and Latin. In the School of Arts and Humanities, a student may paint and exhibit in the university's gallery, study graphic and web design, or sing in an opera presented by NDNU with San Francisco Pocket Opera. Business and communications majors prepare for their future jobs through internships in nearby Silicon Valley businesses.The university's sports programs and a variety of student clubs and activities foster students' personal growth and leadership. But most importantly, woven throughout each program, class and activity are Notre Dame's values of social justice and global peace.

In keeping with these values, on March 19, 2008 the University dedicated the Dorothy Stang Center for Social Justice and Community Engagement. Sister Dorothy Stang, a 1964 College of Notre Dame graduate, is the inspiration behind the center, which is dedicated to increasing awareness, dialog and activism around issues of social and environmental justice. The center trains NDNU students to develop and carry out community involvement projects now and in their future professional lives. 

In 2010, NDNU was one of 114 colleges of the 5800 nationwide to be granted President Obama's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with Distinction. 

Historical Tidbits 

  • The school was chartered in 1868 as the first college in the state of California authorized to grant the baccalaureate degree to women. 
  • For the first 126 years (1868-1994), Sisters filled the role of college president. Notable in recent history are Sr. Catharine Julie Cunningham (1956-1980) and Sr. Veronica Skillin (1980-1994).
  • From 1923 till the present, 97 Sisters have held full-time teaching and administrative positions at the college with nearly 50 holding part-time positions. Sr. Roseanne Murphy has the distinction of over 50 years of service at the college. An endowed scholarship was recently launched in her honor.

President Judi Greig
President Judi Greig
Judith Maxwell Greig, Ph.D., President
Notre Dame de Namur University
1500 Ralston Avenue
Belmont, CA 94002
Telephone: (650) 508-3500
Website: http://www.ndnu.edu/


 

 

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