The universities today

Fall 2026 term

The boundary, once: The University of Notre Dame and Saint Mary's College stand in the unincorporated Notre Dame census-designated place adjoining the city, not inside it — printed plainly here, as everywhere in this history, while the institutions themselves are covered in full. Indiana University South Bend stands inside the city.

Notre Dame's enrollment: The university's own publications give the count in two successive falls, printed as the dated series they are: total fall enrollment of 13,042 — 8,880 undergraduates and 4,162 graduate and professional students — in the university's 2025 annual report, for the academic year ending May 2025; and a grand total of 13,204 in the university's Common Data Set for 2025–26, the fall 2025 count. The football program's current season stands in the teams entry below; the university's full record stands in the Notre Dame section of this history.

IU South Bend: The campus is led by Chancellor Brian Pappas, its seventh chancellor, who took office on 1 July 2025 after serving as dean of the University of North Dakota School of Law, succeeding Susan Elrod, who had retired the previous December. Indiana University's announcement of his appointment put the campus's enrollment at approximately 4,600 students — IU South Bend is the largest regional campus of Indiana University — and the campus's sixtieth commencement, on 10 May 2026, still lists Pappas in the office. Both figures print with their dates: the head is current to November 2026; the enrollment is the university's figure of January 2025, the latest the record reached.

Saint Mary's College: Katie Conboy, the college's 14th president, in office since 1 June 2020, stands confirmed in the post into the next decade: on 12 August 2026 the college announced that its Board of Trustees had unanimously extended her contract through 2030. In her letter of July 2025 she had recorded the college's largest entering enrollment class in close to thirty years, the Class of 2029. The college stands across the road from Notre Dame in the same census-designated place, and is printed here at the survey size this portrait keeps.

Sources:

1. University of Notre Dame — 2025 Annual Report, Statistical Highlights (total fall enrollment 13,042; academic year ending May 2025); Common Data Set 2025–26 (grand total 13,204, fall 2025).
2. Indiana University news releases, 7 January and 1 July 2025 — Pappas named and taking office; the campus at approximately 4,600 students; IU South Bend commencement booklet, 10 May 2026 (Pappas, Chancellor).
3. Saint Mary's College — release of 12 August 2026 (the trustees' extension of President Conboy's contract through 2030); the president's letter of 31 July 2025 (the largest entering class in close to thirty years).
4. The Notre Dame section of this history — the CDP boundary and the university's record in full.