Twenty-five years ago, much of Latin America was mired in political repression. In the US, the Reagan administration was engaged in an ambivalent policy of support for both democratic and authoritarian regimes. The Vatican was growing increasingly concerned about the clergy who were giving voice to liberation theology.

Meanwhile, Notre Dame's long-standing interest in Latin America was converging with the goal, outlined by Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, CSC, of making Notre Dame a top-notch research university. The former president had a vision for three institutes that would consider the challenges of peace, human rights, and how to create the conditions for democracy and social justice around the world.

"A university should respond to the needs of the times, and it was obvious we were living in perilous times," said Fr. Hesburgh, who served as President of the University from 1952- 1987. "It had been on my mind for a long time that we should study peace, democracy, social justice, human rights, and the conditions that make it possible, from different points of view."

Against this backdrop, Fr. Hesburgh began to lay the foundations for what would become the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, the Center for Civil and human Rights, and the Kellogg Institute.

With the contribution of $10 million from the John L. and Helen Kellogg Foundation in 1980, it was not long before the Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies began to take shape. (See related story, "The First Fellows: Where Are They Now? and Who Was Helen Kellogg?" page 16)