<p>While it may not affect students’ decisions to apply and attend, it may well have an impact on faculty and senior staff deciding to accept positions or, if they are already on campus, to move on. Sure, most faculty and senior administrators can afford to pay out of pocket for services such as these. However, ND employs many hourly wage staff in the kitchens, in landscaping and maintenance who do not have that financial flexibility; this issue affects them directly. </p>
<p>The decision to focus on this issue, to the exclusion of broader issues of social justice, poverty, etc., seems to some to be an attempt to recover favor among the conservative Catholics lost after the Obama invitation several years ago. Ten years ago, one could identify the Father Ted’s vision of justice. Now, the vision of what it means to be a Catholic university has become increasingly narrow and rigid. Non-Catholic and even more liberal Catholic faculty who supported the mission of the school are less likely to feel they can in the coming years. Some may see that as “good riddance” but ND cannot be a top 20 academic institution if it only hires a certain type of Catholic faculty. </p>
<p>No one was surprised when the suit was filed the day after graduation when students had left and the student paper is no longer publishing articles.</p>