that are now available to ND that were closed off previously?
Are there contracts or grants that specifically require AAU membership?
The AAU is basically a club to foster interaction among leaders from leading research universities.
So if you're being recruited to be a Dean at Notre Dame, for example, you can now count on regular meetings with your peers, benchmarking resources, and visibility that leads to better staff recruiting. Just a few days ago, there was a thread about how insular ND has become with hiring senior administrators. Well, AAU membership opens up regular contact with places where you'd like to recruit, and incrementally advances ND's reputation as a career opportunity.
For research administration, it opens access to a knowledge base on the technical aspects of administration and benchmarks.
We all know how important networking can be.
and George Washington along with ND. This doesn't strike me as a group of elite universities, although each must have its areas of research strength.
I would imagine that Georgetown and BC will be inducted in the near future. But ND had to be first.
and only dropped out in 2002. It wouldn’t surprise me if the Catholics Need Not Apply was just something repeated over and over by uninformed people.
And Nebraska was kicked out of the AAU.
I’ve heard for years the AAU-Big Ten-Notre Dame story but now I wonder if it was just hogwash.
My understanding is that parts of the ND faculty and administration viewed Big 10 membership as a way to enhance ND's chances of being admitted to the AAU. The notion that the Big 10 would not take ND without ND first being admitted to the AAU has always been demonstrably false.
be demonstrably false?
I.e., that ND wanted in to the AAU, and the Big Ten members would support ND for AAU membership if they were a Big Ten member but would oppose the application if they were not a Big Ten member. Induction as a member requires a 2/3 vote of existing members. So if every member of the Big Ten voted against ND, that would not be enough, standing alone, to sink ND's application, but it would eliminate most of the margin for error.
and we weren't in the AAU back then.
There was some sort of conversation between Jim Delany and Mike Wadsworth, the ND AD at the time, inquiring about any potential ND interest in the Big 10. This was a soft, low-key inquiry. The initial reaction from ND was pretty cool. Still, the academic side of the University thought it might be interesting to explore this further as a way to advance the educational mission. That effort didn't get far before the overwhelmingly negative reaction of alumni, trustees, and others ended the discussion. No offer was made, and the discussion ended before it really went anywhere.
Certainly doesn’t mean that AAU membership is a requirement of the Big 10.
It was booted out afterward. Reportedly, Michigan and Wisconsin were among those who voted to expel Nebraska, all other Big Ten schools (as well as all current/former Big XII schools -- Texas, Texas A&M, Colorado, Missouri and Kansas) voted to keep Nebraska.