Catholic University Announces that Dr. Peter Kilpatrick Will Serve as its 16th President

Image Courtesy of Catholic University

By Garrett Farrell

Early in the afternoon of Monday, March 28, Catholic University students received an email alerting them that the next day they would find out the answer to the question that has been on everybody’s minds since September: who will take over for President Garvey? At precisely 10 AM the next day, students anxiously checked their emails to find that the answer to this question is Dr. Peter Kilpatrick.

The announcement came after a months-long search process that included both laymen and clergy members. A potential hire for the presidency does not merely need permission from the Board of Trustees of the university, but also from the Vatican, which may have contributed to the prolonged selection process. 

Kilpatrick comes to the university after previously serving as the Provost for the Illinois Institute of Technology. Along the way, he served as a professor at N. C. State University, the Dean of Notre Dame’s School of Engineering. He holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Minnesota and earned his undergraduate degree from Occidental College. 

Kilpatrick is the fourth lay president the University has had and is the first President of the University to have a background in STEM. This fact aligns with the long-term goals of the University that Garvey outlined earlier in the year. At an SGA town hall, Garvey stated that one of the goals of the university is to achieve “Research 1 status,” which involves receiving more money in research grants for the hard sciences and increasing the enrollment of Ph.D. programs in those fields. 

According to the University’s announcement, during Kilpatrick’s tenure as Dean of Engineering, “the number of faculty rose by 70%, Ph.D. enrollment by 50% … research expenditures increased by 150% and endowments by $100 million.” If the University still aims to achieve Research 1 status, it seems they picked the right candidate to help us achieve it. 

“As someone who has done research with the University for the past three and a half years, it gives me hope that there will be sincere efforts to achieve the goal to make Catholic University a top-tier research institution,” said Sarah Tiufekchiev, a senior biology major.  “The hard sciences are an underrepresented group in our campus community…so I personally look forward to seeing how the new president incorporates his background into how university initiatives are prioritized in the future.”

The announcement included a video of Kilpatrick introducing himself to the student body. In the video, he describes his journey with his faith, including his conversion to Catholicism for his wife, and how he fell in love with the faith while preparing for the baptism of his first child. He also discussed his research interests and his philosophy of education. 

“As academics… we’re very interested in the life of the mind, and how that elevates the human person … but also how you apply your work, your scholarship, to the betterment of human beings,” said Kilpatrick. “I think it’s important for universities to be both places of learning and places of knowledge discovery. And so research is really important to help knowledge advance, so we have something new to teach as time goes on.”

Following the announcement, there was a reception in the Przybyla Great Rooms where President-designate Kilpatrick was formally introduced to the university community. Student Body President Abby Anger gave remarks and welcomed him to the university. 

“Pope Benedict XVI in his Encyclical Letter Deus Caritas Est said, ‘Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice, or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and decisive direction.’ Encounter — the mission of encounter is what awaits our University under the leadership of Dr. Kilpatrick,” said Anger in her remarks.  “The Catholic University of America has always been this point of encounter for our student body — the place that gives life a new horizon and decisive direction.”

Kilpatrick begins his term as president on the first of July. It feels safe to say that the students of the university are optimistically awaiting his arrival.