<p>Prptruong, I’d agree with you that ND is accepting of a diversity of viewpoints. I guess my concern, having a D there who came from a very diverse high school, is whether ND actually has representation of a diversity of viewpoints? Certainly there are different types of diversity, but is ND a reasonable representative of the general population in many of them? Racially, culturally, politically, economically, religiously diverse? Should it be more so? </p>
<p>I don’t know the answer, but I expect that the administration is struggling with finding the balance between striving to be a great academic university and a great Catholic university. You don’t have to look very far to find evidence of that struggle … last year’s commencement speaker, Pres. Obama. It’s the same conflict … invite the best you can get, or the best that fit within the “mission of the university”. Think of the uproar over that invitation to realize how difficult it can be to find that balance. </p>
<p>The new Hesburgh-Yusko scholarships are another opportunity to define the path forward … should they be used to recruit the best scholars ND can find, or the best Catholic scholars? </p>
<p>FWIW, I think that Notre Dame would be best served to continue to aspire to be the “best Catholic university in the world”. I’ll paraphrase something I once read that expresses this well. “With enough money, time, and effort, Notre Dame could become an academic equivalent of Harvard. However, Harvard could never become the equivalent of Notre Dame”.</p>