Religion should not be a deciding factor in the hiring of new professors, even at a Catholic university. By using religious quotas and seeking to bias the faculty more heavily towards Catholicism, Notre Dame is not doing itself any favors; rather, it is shutting doors that should be opened to increasing diversity of viewpoint and enriching the quality of education on campus. Notre Dame's desire to maintain its Catholic identity is understandable and important, but this cannot be done at the expense of its identity as a place of learning. The Catholic worldview is ubiquitous on campus, even with a "mere" 54 percent Catholic faculty, and eliminating ideas that are simply different - whether they are complementary or conflicting - is not the only way to ground education in moral character or encourage students to serve the church. Notre Dame's Catholic affiliation is an absolutely essential part of its identity and provides a valuable perspective of the world to its students, but is not the only perspective. Perhaps the other 46 percent of faculty has a valuable contribution to make, too.
Claire McGathey
sophomore
Lewis Hall
Oct.10
