University ignores deception, blatant policy violation

A Gender Studies professor has secretly booked rooms for Irish 4 Reproductive Health (I4RH) using a fake club name. I4RH, an unofficial student group, uses the reservations to meet and distribute contraceptives on campus—a direct violation of university rules. 

Professor Pamela Butler, Associate Director and Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Gender Studies Department, books the rooms under the “Gender Studies Club,” an organization that does not exist on Notre Dame’s club database. I4RH uses Butler’s reservations to host students in Debartolo Hall, where the group distributes free “resource bags” for attendees, which contain condoms, Plan B, and cards with information on abortion services for students. 

As I4RH told the Rover, the group is “not affiliated with the University in any official capacity, nor do we intend to be.” Student Activities Office (SAO) guidelines limit the use of campus rooms to official student clubs only, which would prevent I4RH from meeting on campus in an official capacity. Despite this, I4RH uses Instagram to publicly advertise its meetings in Debartolo Hall. 

Butler primarily researches “feminist, queer, and trans theories of race and racialization” and “reproductive politics,” according to the Gender Studies website. She teaches courses on “Feminist and Queer Prison Studies,” “Race and the Politics of Reproduction,” and “New Readings in Transgender Theory,” which she is offering this spring. 

Both Butler and the Gender Studies Department declined to comment on her involvement with I4RH. 

Faculty and staff may reserve rooms through the Office of the Registrar for “course-related work, departmental meetings, etc.,” per the Registrar website. Nowhere does the Registrar explicitly allow faculty to book rooms for individual students or unofficial student groups. Faculty Advisors for official clubs are not allowed to reserve rooms either, according to the 2019 SAO Faculty Advisor Handbook. 

The SAO room reservation process is complicated and extensive, requiring official clubs to submit a request for approval at least two weeks before their intended event. All SAO reservations are monitored through NDCentral, where club officers must include all details of their event in order to use university buildings. Required information includes event topics, speakers, time, location, and advertising material. 

SAO declined to comment on I4RH using Debartolo Hall without university approval. The Office of the Registrar also declined to comment on whether faculty reservations are reviewed at all. 

In an email to the Rover, Father Terrence Ehrman, C.S.C. expressed concern over Notre Dame failing to police I4RH: “I4RH is a group explicitly opposed to—in principle and in practice—the Catholic Church. Their activity is scandalous. … What other ideas/behaviors contrary to the Catholic Church would be allowed to use university space to promote their views and actions? Pick any other immoral activity and substitute it for I4RH’s activities. Would the university respond to these?” 

Fr. Ehrman added an example, writing, “[Imagine] a group of students who are white supremacists and have a faculty member reserve a university classroom for them to promote their views. They have dorm reps in each hall to promote white supremacy. They have ‘office hours’ in the Library or DeBartolo to raise awareness about and provide resources for white supremacy and its activities.”

Jacqueline Liedl, Assistant Teaching Professor of Law, echoed Fr. Ehrman’s concerns. She told the Rover, “It’s pretty clear that the university only approves clubs that are consistent with the university’s Catholic mission—that’s directly stated on their website and throughout their approval process. So there’s a reason why [I4RH] is not a registered student organization, and therefore, there are privileges that they don’t get to have. … One [privilege] is using a university space that is not open to the public.”

Liedl added, “I think it’s good to have this kind of oversight in the use of facilities, especially because we have limited facilities at this law school and at this university. … You can see the slippery slope pretty obviously, if faculty members could book rooms for whatever they wanted without any approval, or if students could do that. I’m disturbed by it.” 

Erin Blasko, Associate Director of the Office of Media Relations, declined to comment on Butler’s actions, including whether any official action will be taken to prevent I4RH and Butler from subverting SAO policies. 

Liedl called I4RH “completely scandalous and obviously antithetical to the Catholic mission.”

Fr. Ehrman expanded on I4RH’s anti-Catholic behavior, writing, “The group’s foundational anthropology of the human person and of human sexuality distorts the truth of who we are as human beings.” 

He also raised legal concerns about I4RH distributing Plan B: “The Catholic Medical Association (November 29, 2016) and the Pontifical Academy for Life (October 31, 2000) have both expressed their moral opposition to the use of Plan B pills because of its abortifacient action. Besides the women who use the pill, those distributing the pills are also morally responsible. Is the university, then, complicit in and morally culpable for possible abortions by allowing this group to distribute the drug? What kinds of legal issues arise if complications result from the medicine?”

As of publication, the Rover is not aware of any steps that SAO, the Registrar’s Office, or the university is taking to prevent I4RH and Butler from handing contraceptives to students on campus. 

Haley Garecht is a senior studying political science, constitutional studies, and Irish studies. If you, or anyone you know, have any information regarding Professor Butler or I4RH’s activities on campus, please contact her at hgarecht@nd.edu. 

Editor’s note: Specific quotes in this article have been modified at the request of one of the interviewees. 

Photo Credit: Irish Rover

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