ND Administration: Who do they follow?

ddjones007
Sun, 17 Jun 2007 14:25:34 +0000

Fr. Jenkins is in the enviable position of having inherited the legacy of a now-elite institution (for which I credit Hesburgh more than Malloy), and a student-friendly campus funded by a booming endowment (that’s Malloy’s legacy). So his job is to walk that fine line between maintaining Catholic identity at the same time allowing academic freedom, and striving for academic excellence. I believe he’s the right man at the right time.

I personally think his handling of the Vagina Monologues controversy was wise and balanced.

As per quotas, I am not aware of any. I do think, though, that there are a lot of professors who genuinely embrace things such as having chapels in their faculty buildings and classrooms, as well as the ability to be more open about their faith.

Indeed, the idea that other more secularized institutions are somehow more advanced in academic freedom strikes me as amusing. Just look at Larry Summers, former president of Harvard. For daring to say that it is difficult to maintain an equal gender balance in the graduate level of science because (a) women tend towards other majors (which is true) and (b) a lot of women choose to sidetrack their careers for awhile to devote time to motherhood (also true–I did that; LOTS of very educated women have done that)–he was lambasted and ultimately driven from the university. When you get driven away from an institution for speaking a truth that is quite obvious to even the most casual observer–simply because it doesn’t fit into some elitist, politically correct view of how things are supposed to be (i.e. that there are no inherent differences in women and man, only cultural ones superimposed by some invisible patriarchy)—that doesn’t fit my idea of academic freedom, either.

How can some of these universities claim to be academically superior, and, in fact, elite, when basic common sense is often woefully absent?