SOUTH BEND, Ind.—The University of Notre Dame announced a $400 million plan Wednesday to expand the school’s 84-year-old football stadium, adding thousands of premium seats plus new buildings at the “House that Rockne Built.”
The new buildings will house a student center on the west side, the anthropology and psychology departments and a digital media center on the east side and music and sacred music departments on the south side, leaving the side facing Touchdown Jesus unchanged.
The Rev. John Jenkins, the university president, called it “the most ambitious building project in the 172-year history of Notre Dame,” saying more space was needed to accommodate the university’s broadening research activity.
“What’s exciting about this project is it brings together athletics, faculty and academics, research and a student center, so it’s an integrated model,” Jenkins said.
Athletic director Jack Swarbrick said mixing athletics, student life and classrooms is what Notre Dame should do.
“It’s such a powerful symbol given what’s going on in college athletics right now, that you can take the stadium and say we believe in the integration of athletics into academics, and here’s the living proof of it,” he said.
The plans were presented to the university’s board of trustees during their meeting Wednesday in Rome. The university announced in May it would conduct a feasibility study.
