"As usual, those with the least money and fewest options are the ones most affected by this stuff. "
Those really poor can get free birth control through medicaid (in states that have expansion, which is of course a government issue not a private employer issue) or through other programs.
Or, those having to pay $50/mo for birth control need to consider this when deciding to attend ND. It is a cost the school isn’t going to cover just like other costs aren’t covered - books, Starbucks, travel, toothpaste. My daughter’s school didn’t even supply toilet paper or cleaning supplies to the dorms because they were suites. Yep, $50 month not covered and we needed to consider it when deciding if we could afford the school. Some student insurance policies cover very little. Some students have to pay for asthma medicine, epi pens, vitamins, blood transfusions. Some have really large deductibles which many students really can’t afford. Other schools cover everything, have great hospital facilities right on campus. You have to consider all those things when picking out a college.
Notre Dame is willing to fight this battle to the death and is okay with students, even really good students, deciding to go somewhere else.
Our son knew when researching colleges that condoms have to be hidden and BC pills should be picked up off-campus. This news really does not change anything about the university from the student’s perspective.
Like with ACA, this needs to be handled at the national level. It’s cheaper for taxpayers to give free BC pills to anyone who wants them, not just the insured. Same goes for asthma meds.
The change to require next year’s freshmen to live on campus for 3 years is a much bigger issue. That has the students talking.
“Notre Dame is willing to fight this battle to the death and is okay with students, even really good students, deciding to go somewhere else.”
Exactly right. If you’ve ever been there, you will find out that ND is absolutely overflowing with kids who really get ND, had ND as their #1 choice, and are absolutely thrilled to be there. If a smart kid really doesn’t get and buy into ND, they won’t even apply and ND is good with that.
The only other schools I’ve seen that are in the same ballpark in terms of a distinct and strong culture and community are USNA and USMA. Here’s the number about ND that blew me away when my kid was applying. If you are a Catholic kid in the U.S. and you have top 1% stats as a HS student, 50% of those kids nation-wide apply to ND. 50%!!
And the endowment per student is just behind Dartmouth and ahead of the EPS at NW, Chicago, Duke, Penn, WUSTL, Emory, Vandy, Brown, Columbia or Cornell.
"SouthernHope: I grew up very Catholic and even a million years ago, all Catholic girls in late college & above were on birth control of some sort. The thing I really don’t understand about this is that we’re not talking about terminating pregnancy…I can better understand the strong emotions around that…but instead stopping the pregnancy from happening at all. It defies logic. "
It defies logic only if you do not accept Catholic thinking. To Catholics, I’ve been told, it’s all the same, both the prevention of implantation (if that was going to happen) and the prevention of a birth. They simply do not believe you should interfere with the process of being open to the creation of life. Though they do approve the rhythm method, an method to have sex and yet prevent the outcome, which I do agree is somewhat inconsistent.
Now it’s Natural Family Planning. Basically, you are permitted to use what knowledge you have been given to decide when it is appropriate to have sex. There is nothing inconsistent about it from a theological point of view. It’s the use of artificial barriers that’s the problem.
Really I think ND and Georgetown can take care of themselves. There are many smaller, less prestigious schools where there aren’t a lot of options for their students or staff. Want to save the world? Focus on Ave Maria or Stubbinsville.
Notre Dame does not offer any academic programs that are not available at most other top 25 universities. So what is the attraction other than the environment? That environment has a strong Catholic influence. Students, and faculty, are free to go to other top colleges if they choose.
I wouldn’t have considered ND for either kid, they didn’t look at G-Town either.
I’m not Catholic and cannot imagine being. I have a few Catholic family members and they use contraception to limit the number and timing of their children…the whole thing seems so hypocritical, it just makes me shake my head.
Wow, all this anguish over a Catholic institution not providing BC - like it’s some huge surprise.
ND is a Catholic institution, just in case there was any question about it’s identity.
The party line is ‘we don’t condone use of artificial BC’. As far as I know, ND is not sending out goon squads, collecting unsuspecting HS students and/or unsuspecting individuals who could be employees, and incarcerating them in their university. Students and those who work for an employer make a choice.
Just curious, would those who are aghast at this policy go to a vegan restaurant and make issue of the fact they can’t get a steak? If you work for a vegan restaurant would you raise issue with the fact they don’t let you cook a steak you bring from home on their grill?
Notre Dame is a Catholic school, not a public institution. Its policies are an extension of the tenets of the Catholic Church. I don’t understand why they should be expected to abandon the practice of their faith, any more than I would expect a yeshiva to abandon its policies of keeping kosher.
Notre Dame is not anyone’s only choice. If you don’t like who they are or what they believe, there are something like 3000 other choices in our nation, the vast majority of which are not Catholic schools…
@bjkmom, I certainly don’t expect a Catholic school to stop being Catholic. Certainly, some of the faculty at BC were taken aback when the administration decided to install a crucifix in every classroom, where there had been none before, but that was a change in the status quo. The fact that Jewish faculty were unhappy was derided here. “After all, it’s a Catholic school, what did they expect…”
What gets me is that whenever someone says they or their child does not want to apply to a Catholic school, a big cry goes up about how that is narrow-minded, said school is full of perfectly happy Jews and Atheists, and so forth.
You can’t have it both ways. If a school wants to be distinctly religious, and impose religious requirements or restrictions or observances or whatever on all students and employees, they have every right to do so. But other people should not be told that it is all in their mind when they say they won’t go there for that reason.
@northwesty said “Exactly right. If you’ve ever been there, you will find out that ND is absolutely overflowing with kids who really get ND, had ND as their #1 choice, and are absolutely thrilled to be there. If a smart kid really doesn’t get and buy into ND, they won’t even apply and ND is good with that.”
^^ This! The years S was there, ND was second, only to Harvard, in the number of students attending their #1 choice school. That makes a palpable difference in student attitude and campus atmosphere. Paraphrasing Lou Holtz, “If you understand Notre Dame, no words are necessary. If you don’t, no words are enough.”
That quote is played out, over and over, on cc threads. There are 3000+ college choices in this country. Keep them on or throw them off your list for whatever reasons you want. This issue won’t impact which students apply and attend ND.
Not me. I always point out that schools, even Jesuit schools, are NOT Catholic in name only, that there will be masses, prayers, crucifixes. There will be the huge Touchdown Jesus on campus to remind you that the mission of the school is to educate in the ‘catholic tradition.’ Everyone is welcome but the school is not going to change one thing just because you don’t like it.
Why do people want to go to the catholic colleges? Because the are good schools. They are Georgetown and BC and USD. Many are around 8000 students and people like that size. They like the good merit aid. But there are limitations and maybe compromises that you have to make to attend. Harvard has some limitations too (no single sexed clubs anymore, must live on campus, etc). If you don’t like those rules, don’t go there.
The problem ND faces is trying to be a “Catholic School” to Catholics, while simultaneously trying to attract top non-Catholic faculty and students by claiming that they are not substantively different from other top schools. This decision to treat women like second class citizens just made that job more difficult at a time where the US student population is declining and the US Catholic population is also in decline.
Time will tell what the impact is, regardless of what we say here. They had a choice, they made it, and they will adapt to the consequences.