Sunday, January 8
Notre Dame in the News
"Addressing faculty at the University of Notre Dame, the school's new president, the Rev. John Jenkins, recently expressed concern that the percentage of faculty who were Catholic had fallen to 53%, compared with 85% in the 1970s. Today's level is barely above a line set in 1990 by the late Pope John Paul II, who decreed that non-Catholics shouldn't be a majority of the faculty at a Catholic university.
Notre Dame is compiling a database of candidates who can contribute to the university's religious mission. Administrators say that instead of reducing quality, Notre Dame's religious identity has lured some premier faculty, such as associate professor Brad Gregory, who left a tenured job at Stanford in 2003 for an equivalent, higher-paying position. 'Notre Dame's Catholic character wasn't only a factor, it was the factor,' says Mr. Gregory, a Catholic, who specializes in the history of Christianity. 'By any ordinary measure, you'd be crazy to leave Stanford for Notre Dame.'
At another Catholic school, Boston College, some administrators would like to hire more people committed to its religious mission, but its faculty has proved 'particularly resistant,' says a 2004 report by the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities. To achieve its goals, the college is contemplating establishing research centers on Catholic intellectual tradition and Catholic education. Georgetown University, also a prominent Catholic school, appointed its first vice president for mission and ministry, a Jesuit priest, in 2003."
(Link via Amy)
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