Brian Boyd
Executive Editor
This article is the third in a three-part news analysis series investigating the effects, rationale, and importance of President Jenkins’ Address to the Faculty, wherein he announced a renewed emphasis on the Catholic mission of the University.
WHILE FACULTY debate back and forth as to the importance of “mission hiring,” one key piece of information has been missing from the conversation: A clear picture of where the status quo will lead the University.
For this reason, the alumni organization Project Sycamore has put together a detailed statistical projection based on historical data (see insert, page _____ for graphs and assumptions). The bottom line is that, without a major change in hiring, it is inevitable that the Catholic faculty majority described by the Mission Statement as essential to the University's Catholic identity will soon be lost. More particularly, if Catholics are hired at only the 51% rate now specified by the administration as the minimum goal, Catholics would hit a low point of 39% in the year 2026 and not regain a majority until the 2080s – a recovery Project Sycamore thinks illusory after so long a time.
A slight increase would not make much difference. At the 53% rate that was the average in Arts & Letters from 1997-2004, Catholics would hit a low point of 42% through the mid-2020's, and not regain majority status until 2046. Were the hiring rate 60%, however, the drop would be only to 48% in 2016, and the faculty would again be evenly split in 2027. A slightly higher rate would preserve a Catholic majority throughout.
“Our hope is that, in light of our findings, the hiring goal will be raised to a level adequate to maintain at least an arithmetical majority of Catholics on the faculty and thereby at least a technical claim to continued Catholic identity. I say "at least" because, if last year's 53% majority is discounted by the likely number of nominal and dissident Catholics, there is not today the "predominant number of Catholic intellectuals" on the faculty that the Mission Statement declares to be essential to Catholic identity,” Project Sycamore President Mr. William Dempsey ’52 said in an email to The Rover.
While these projections into the upcoming decades are the result of the hiring policies of the past two Notre Dame administrations, changes are in the works by the current one. Associate Vice President and Counselor to the President James McDonald, C.S.C., and Dean Mark Roche each candidly shared their plans and views with The Rover in extensive interviews.
Neither denied the general plausibility of these projections, although exact predictions remain impossible. What each emphasized, however, was both the concrete plans of this administration to address mission hiring, with a simultaneous recognition of the complexity of the situation and the importance of not glossing over the important contributions of non-Catholic faculty by reducing the problem to mere statistics.
The current discussion focuses on a report by the Ad Hoc Committee on Recruiting Outstanding Catholic Faculty, which was convened by Provost Burish last spring to, in his words, “offer insight and leadership in addressing an issue that is vital to the University’s future.” The Committee brought together a wide range of faculty, from every college save Architecture and the full range of viewpoints on the issue, according to Fr. McDonald.
“The committee itself was extremely diverse in viewpoint, and that they could come to such large agreement on this is encouraging. … A trend that has been established over the past twenty years is not reversed by a reflex. But in being faithful to the Mission Statement, I think this is a huge step forward,” he said.
Dean Roche agreed, suggesting that this new approach was different in kind from what had been done by previous administrations.
“Is it realistic to think that given that many of the recommendations in the report have been previously considered … will we now be able to achieve our goals? My answer is that most of the innovations [previously thought of] have been endorsed just in the past few years, with increasing success … I’m actually optimistic that the structures in place will be effective. Something as seemingly banal as my releasing letters to chairpersons that clearly articulate data on their departments – where they are now, how they have done in the ten years I have been dean (in terms of hiring Catholics, women, and minorities), and where I would particularly like them to improve can be helpful. Also, we have introduced very clear parameters and in some cases incentives: while some searches are more or less turned over to the departments, in other cases departments are competing with one another for great hires, and in still others departments are invited in otherwise junior searches to nominate senior candidates who would enhance mission or diversity” he said.
The report, of which Dean Roche was one of the thirteen signatories, explores a range of practical measures, such as directly stating in all advertisements for faculty positions that the university seeks mission and diversity hires, and hosting “invited” conferences on themes resonant with the Catholic mission, thereby exposing speakers who would be potential mission hires to the campus life.
There are two levels of reasons as to why this initiative matters. The first is the straightforward need for Notre Dame to remain faithful to its original charter; the second is why this itself is worth pursuing, why there is a distinctive excellence open to Notre Dame that would be qualitatively different than that of its ‘aspirational peers’ in other respects.
As crucial as academic excellence is, the University’s guiding documents suggest that its foundation must be built upon Notre Dame’s Catholicity. The Charter and Statutes of the University of Notre Dame, the University’s most authoritative document, states that "The
essential character of the University as a Catholic institution of higher learning shall at all times be maintained, it being the stated intention and desire of the present Fellows of the University that the University shall retain in perpetuity its identity as such an institution." And the Mission Statement is quite clear on what that means: “The Catholic identity of the University depends upon, and is nurtured by, the continuing presence of a predominant number of Catholic intellectuals. This ideal has been consistently maintained by the University leadership throughout its history.” This is the first time in the history of Notre Dame that the number of Catholic faculty is at serious risk of dropping below half.
Fr. McDonald upheld a straightforward reading of these documents, yet cautioned that they cannot be taken in isolation.
“Our mission statement clearly says predominant. [This is synomonyous to “preponderant,”] and preponderance is from the legal world. When you tell a lawyer that you have to win your case with a predominance of the evidence, you need 50% plus one, at least. [… But] the question of the day is how long can Notre Dame retain its strong Catholic identity if it drops below 50%,” he said. “We need not to lose focus on the whole picture. What makes Notre Dame Catholic is a [broad] array of facts on campus. … The presence of the Lord at Notre Dame is in its students, faculty, staff, and alumni. I think it’d really be wrong, and I have no problem telling someone that they’re wrong, [to say] that if we have 49% Catholics on the faculty we’re no longer Catholic,” he said.
Dean Roche elaborated on the ways in which Notre Dame can retain the spirit of the Mission Statement during an interim period when it does not fit the letter.
“It’s incredible how much, and how rich, the Catholic identity of Notre Dame is. Each year the annual Dean’s Update lists an array of activities from curricular offerings to faculty research. You could also list many things beyond [the College of] Arts and Letters that have to do with the architecture of campus, the crucifixes in the rooms, the community service dimension; there’s a whole array of things that make our Catholic identity rich, and it’s almost inexhaustible. … And to reduce that [to statistics] as some people are wont to do is counterproductive in two ways: we’re much more than that, and it actually alienates people who identify with the Catholic character and the Catholic mission. There are a number of faculty members whose contribution to the Catholic mission is huge, and they’re not Catholic,” he said.
Explaining why this is of such importance to the university community as a whole is a crucial task that remains undone, both administrators suggested.
“Probably the strongest argument [for mission hiring] is that our students are overwhelmingly Catholic, and they need various models of lived Catholicism, different emphases within the Catholic faith,” Dean Roche said. “But what are the biggest challenges we face? One, sure, we need to work on the numbers, but I think [the right] strategies are now in place as never before. Two, we need to articulate the rationale, and Fr. Jenkins has said that he will articulate that rationale, because it will be accepted by the faculty only if there is an intellectual justification; it will not be taken by authority. That actually hasn’t been done yet: in a sense, we have moved ahead on strategies in advance of the rationale. The third issue, I think, is the feelings, and the sense of being at home, among persons who aren’t Catholic, with the rhetoric and hype of Catholic identity. … We need to articulate that all faculty members of Notre Dame are embraced for their teaching, their research, and for their potential to contribute to our distinctive mission, the ways they model other faiths, the ways they serve as models of community service, of moral integrity, of intellectual engagement, and of intellectual curiosity. We want faculty who buy into a distinctive model of human education.”
The administration opened the Ad Hoc Committee’s report to the faculty this past month, and is seeking input from all the faculty at least through Christmas break. While some of the new strategies are to be implemented immediately thereafter, there is no official date set for when the administration will announce a comprehensively new policy, Executive Assistant to the Provost Brandon Roach told The Rover in an email.
Contact Brian at bboyd@nd.edu.
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