Late Feb. 7, the University held two noteworthy events addressing poverty, which could mark a turning-point in the University’s commitment to being a force for good in the world.
The first, which took place in the McKenna Hall auditorium, celebrated the long-awaited launch of the Provost’s Poverty Initiative. The attendance was impressive and included many administrators from the Dome and deans and directors from colleges and centers. The program featured an informal discussion with professor James Sullivan, the director of the Laboratory for Economic Opportunities (LEO), the appointed leader of the Poverty Initiative. Explaining that the initiative was a reflection of Notre Dame’s mission as a Catholic university, Sullivan laid out the Initiative’s bold and ambitious goal — to make Notre Dame known as one of the top poverty research universities in the world. To get there he pledged to hire a “dream team” of the best poverty scholars in their fields with support from a recent, $100 million gift, the “largest single donation to an academic priority in the University’s history.”
The second event was held shortly after the first in the Morris Inn's Smith Ballroom where Princeton Professor Matthew Desmond gave a lecture on his best-selling book, ”Poverty, by America.” The size of the audience well-exceeded the ballroom’s capacity and late arrivers had to listen to the speech in the reception area. The crowd was diverse and included not only Notre Dame students, administrators and faculty, but a sizable of number of people from the South Bend area including social workers, teachers, union representatives and community activists. Some of those present remarked that the large and receptive audience made the experience feel more like concert or a rally. Professor Desmond spent little time describing the misery and the disgrace of poverty in our land of plenty. He condemned our country’s growing inequality as “sinful” and exhorted us to take responsibility for our hoarding resources instead of sharing them and the foot exploiting our poor instead of empowering them. He concluded with a plea to all of us to get involved, “If you love fairness and justice, if all this hardship in your country violates your sense of decency, this is your fight.”
With these two dramatic events, Notre Dame set the stage for an all-out war on poverty. If we are to succeed, we must deploy our formidable economic, intellectual, moral and spiritual resources in solidarity with those we have marginalized, oppressed and ignored. Professor Sullivan rightly emphasized that Notre Dame’s Poverty Initiative will be grounded in the Catholic social teaching principle of subsidiary. This means, I believe, that we must launch our war to end the crushing poverty in our home city of South Bend, where we live, work, pray and play.
Clark Power
Professor in the Program of Liberal Studies
Feb. 13
