ND in the News
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in these articles do not necessarily reflect those of the University.
The Economist
Tax breaks for charity donations are a poor way to do good
August 28, 2026
The key test is whether charities gain more in additional donations than governments lose in revenue. Academic estimates vary wildly. Although some are bullish and suggest that donations can exceed lost revenue, some recent studies are more equivocal. In 2024 Daniel Hungerman of the University of Notre Dame and his co-authors found that, if the government uses tax reliefs to make the cost of giving 10% cheaper, it incentivises donors to give only 6% more on average. The state gives up more than charities gain.
ND Experts
Economics
Newsweek
Trump Approval Rating as Consumer Confidence Drops 70 Days Before Midterm
August 27, 2026
The declining level of confidence should be concerning for any politicians not focusing on affordability, Jason Reed, professor at the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business, told Newsweek. “Historically, the economy has been the single biggest domestic factor influencing presidential approval,” he said. “For President Trump, I would argue that affordability concerns will continue to shape the direction of his approval rating, while other single-issue voters, such as those on immigration, influence the magnitude of the rating.”
ND Experts
Mendoza College of Business
Mirror Indy
‘Forever chemicals,’ microplastics and data centers. What you need to know.
August 26, 2026
“Is that from microplastics? Or is it just because the people who had Alzheimer’s do something else in their life where they’re exposed?” wondered University of Notre Dame professor Kyle Doudrick.
ND Experts
Civil & Envr Engr & Earth Sciences
The Wall Street Journal
States Face Election Confusion as Postal Service Upends Mail-Ballot Rules
August 26, 2026
“It seems like the rule is more significant than the solicitor general is suggesting,” said Derek Muller, a law professor at Notre Dame.
ND Experts
Law School
USA Today
These politicians love talking about religion. They're also Democrats
August 25, 2026
Democrats' coalition of voters tends to be the most religiously diverse, but also the most secular, said David Campbell, director of the University of Notre Dame Democracy Initiative.
ND Experts
Political Science
Associated Press
Nothing Changes Yet With the Supreme Court's Order on Elections. but It Could Open Door to 'Chaos'
August 25, 2026
Derek Muller, a Notre Dame law professor, said the Supreme Court still ensured a fraught court battle in the coming days. “It puts courts in a terrible place, because whatever happens is super close to the election,” Muller said. “If it permits it, it creates super disruption for the states. If it suspends it, it visibly angers the administration.”
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Associated Press
Supreme Court clears the way for Trump mail voting order in advance of midterms
August 25, 2026
“This is just the first inning of a very fast nine-inning game,” said Derek Muller, a law professor at Notre Dame University.
ND Experts
Law School
CNN
Supreme Court hands Trump win over mail-in ballots, for now
Video
August 25, 2026
I do want to welcome a professor of law at the University of Notre Dame. Derek muller joins us now. Derek, good to have you with us.
ND Experts
Law School
Straight Arrow News
You could pay for this article — or you could read it for free through a shady website. Inside the economics of news paywalls
August 25, 2026
“Folks that are willing to circumvent paywalls are always going to find ways to circumvent paywalls,” said Vamsi Kanuri, a marketing professor at the University of Notre Dame and a co-author of the report. But ultimately, Kanuri told Straight Arrow, news outlets should see the piracy as a compliment. “There’s a reason why people are trying very hard to get around your paywall,” he said. “They love your coverage.”
ND Experts
Mendoza College of Business
National Catholic Reporter
Podcast: 'The Special Olympics is a peacemaking movement,' says Tim Shriver
August 24, 2026
In May, the University of Notre Dame awarded (Shriver) the Laetare Medal.
Financial Times
Kevin Warsh seeks to reassure investors as US economic strains worsen
August 24, 2026
“What is unsettling is Warsh’s unwillingness to provide a clear and open assessment of the current situation and the outlook for the US economy,” said Christiane Baumeister of the University of Notre Dame.
ND Experts
Department of Economics
Religion News Service
Notre Dame’s John Cavadini taught the forgotten power of fatherhood
August 24, 2026
It would be difficult to find a more influential lay-run organization in the U.S. Catholic Church than the McGrath Institute for Church Life at Notre Dame.
ND Experts
Theology
Deseret News
As students embrace AI, universities scramble to keep up
August 22, 2026
“With each passing day a machine becomes capable — or seemingly capable — of doing something that until yesterday you and I thought only a human being could ever do,” said Adam Kronk, an ethicist at the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Ethics and the Common Good.
London Times
Robert Blakey obituary: lawyer who fought the Mob
August 21, 2026
In 1980 (Robert) Blakey returned to teaching as a law professor at his alma mater, Notre Dame, where he remained until his retirement in 2012.
VOGUE
The Art of Choosing Your Wedding Day Fragrance
August 21, 2026
“Scent can be a powerful trigger of certain memories,” says Matthew Robison, assistant professor in the department of psychology at the University of Notre Dame. “We remember events with all their associated features, not only the sensory experience, but also the emotions we were experiencing at the time,” he explains, adding that memory is naturally associative, building connections between these sensory experiences and the people, places, and events surrounding them.
ND Experts
Psychology
The Washington Post
A ‘nonbeliever’ in Congress argues new view of religion is gaining ground on the Hill
August 21, 2026
University of Notre Dame political scientist David Campbell said Huffman is probably right that secularism’s impact in the U.S. is growing. He called the change “one of the most significant developments in American society in the last generation.”
ND Experts
Political Science
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National Catholic Reporter
Notre Dame professor with focus on AI is 'guardedly optimistic' about it
August 21, 2026
Meghan Sullivan, a philosophy professor at the University of Notre Dame, and founding director of the university's Institute for Ethics and the Common Good, did not have much of a summer break.
ND Experts
Department of Philosophy
National Catholic Register
Autism and the Priesthood: How the Church Is Responding
August 20, 2026
According to a July 2026 report from the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame, that increase has coincided with a growing number of seminarians who exhibit autism-related characteristics."
OSV News
Confession must include desire for reconciliation for clergy-penitent privilege, AZ court says
August 20, 2026
If the case had occurred between two Catholic priests, rather than two Baptist pastors, the obligation to report abuse would still exist both canonically and legally, said canon law expert Msgr. John Paul Kimes, a professor of practice at the University of Notre Dame Law School in Indiana.
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National Catholic Reporter
OPINION | Subsidiarity: The Catholic principle guiding popes through tech upheavals, from the Industrial Revolution to AI
August 19, 2026
By Walter Scheirer, Collegiate Professor of Engineering at the University of Notre Dame.
ND Experts
Computer Science and Engineering
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National Catholic Reporter
Pope Leo names 3 Notre Dame-affiliated experts to advise major Vatican office
August 18, 2026
The three U.S.-linked appointments are: Clemens Sedmak, an Austrian-born professor of social ethics and director of the university's Nanovic Institute for European Studies housed in the Keough School of Global Affairs; Fr. Emmanuel Katongole, a Ugandan native and Notre Dame professor of theology and peace studies, specialized in African theology; and Kathryn Koch, president and CEO of the asset management firm Trust Company of the West who is also a Notre Dame graduate and member of the university's board of trustees.
ND Experts
Department of Theology; Keough School of Global Affairs
Keough School of Global Affairs
EWTN
Pope names 2 Notre Dame professors as consultors to Vatican human development dicastery
August 18, 2026
Pope Leo XIV on Tuesday appointed 12 new consultors to the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development — reflecting a diverse group of theologians, experts, and professors, including two from the University of Notre Dame.
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EWTN
Florida Attorney General Urges Catholic Schools to Allow Religious Vaccine Exemptions
Video
August 17, 2026
Rick Garnett of the University of Notre Dame and Joshua Hochschild of Mount St. Mary’s University examine the religious liberty and church-state issues at the center of the debate.
ND Experts
Notre Dame Law School
ABC News
Some Democrats trying to reclaim the issue of faith from the Republican Party
August 17, 2026
David Campbell, a professor of politics at the University of Notre Dame, told ABC News that Carter ran on describing himself "as a born-again or evangelical Christian, and no presidential candidate had ever done that before."
ND Experts
Political Science
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The Economist
Donald Trump’s attack on mail-in voting looks doomed
August 14, 2026
The jumble of lists confuses even election-law experts like Derek Muller of the University of Notre Dame. “It is quite unclear to me how the various lists are supposed to interact with one another,” he says. Part of the confusion regards timing. The deadlines for the federal government sending lists to the states and the states sending lists to the USPS are both 60 days before an election, which seems to make it difficult for the former to inform the latter.
ND Experts
Law School
Wall Street’s Nonprofits Use Selective, Opaque Logic to Defund Charities
August 14, 2026
“The wisest choice is probably to rely on the IRS list,” said Lloyd Mayer, a professor at the University of Notre Dame Law School who researches nonprofits.
Time
Is There a ‘Religious Revival’ Happening Among Gen Z?
August 14, 2026
“I would not say that the evidence [of a revival] has been convincing, but there are hints in the data,” says David Campbell, a professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame. “It’s entirely possible that the anecdotal reports are a leading indicator—so one possibility is three years from now, we’ll be having this conversation and say yeah, it turns out there really was a religious revival; it just takes a while to show up in the data.”
ND Experts
Political Science
Yahoo
Anthropic Eyes $2 Trillion IPO Valuation, Jim Cramer Says the Revenue Backs It Up
August 14, 2026
Skeptics focus on durability rather than speed. Patrick Corrigan, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame, questioned whether the fundamentals will catch up. Whenever there is speculation, there's also usually substance and fundamentals. The question here is whether the price investors are going to end up paying is going to match up to the substance and fundamentals of what AI is really going to do in the real economy and as a business.
ND Experts
Notre Dame Law School
The New York Times
Luigi Mangione’s Case Hit a Cultural Nerve
August 14, 2026
“He’s seen online as an antihero, a Batman of characters — someone to stand up for the dissatisfaction that is being felt,” said Tim Weninger, a computer science professor at the University of Notre Dame who studies social media and violent discourse on the internet.
ND Experts
Computer Science and Engineering
phys.org
Can better civics education restore voter dissatisfaction over political corruption?
August 13, 2026
A study recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that dissatisfaction with democracy resulted in lower support for democratic behaviors in Mexico, according to development economist and co-author Enrique Seira Bejarano of the University of Notre Dame. Seira, the Joe and Deborah Loughrey Professor of Economics, studies how malfunctioning political institutions can cause economic issues and how democracy benefits and spurs economic growth in a country.
ND Experts
Department of Economics