Notre Dame Undermines Catholic Mission In Pursuit Of DEI; Notre Dame Criticized for Calling Diversity and Catholicism ‘Equally Important’ in Hiring

Notre Dame Undermines Catholic Mission In Pursuit Of DEI:

Notre Dame faculty conflated the goals of DEI with Catholic social teaching, doubling down on its diversity push in the days before Trump’s inauguration.

The University of Notre Dame has been on a decades-long warpath of undermining its Catholic mission at the altar of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) ideology. But that drive could be on a collision course with the Trump administration’s threat to revoke federal funding from DEI schools.

Just before the Jan. 20 inauguration of President Donald Trump, Notre Dame Provost John McGreevy sent a faculty-wide email stating that the hiring priorities of the school were to increase “the number of women and underrepresented minorities” and that those DEI goals were “equally important” to hiring Catholic faculty. That is one of the latest examples of the school’s dedication to the ideology dating back to at least the 1970s, as detailed in a new report from The Claremont Institute.

“They change Catholicism to be DEI, and while most places are moving in one direction on DEI, Notre Dame is moving in the other direction,” report author Scott Yenor, senior director of state coalitions at The Claremont Institute and political science professor at Boise State University, told The Federalist. “Few conservative or traditional aspects of campus life have grown as quickly or with as much administrative enthusiasm as the DEI efforts have grown in the past several years.”

Yenor said the “worst thing in the report” was McGreevy’s email, especially since the timing was just days before Trump was set to be sworn in after being elected on a mandate to end things like DEI. He said it signaled a “note of defiance.”

“One important goal is to hire Catholic faculty and other faculty deeply committed to our mission to ensure continuity with our past and our future as the world’s leading global Catholic research university,” McGreevy’s email stated. “A second overlapping and equally important goal is to increase the number of women and underrepresented minorities on our faculty so that we become the diverse and inclusive intellectual community our mission urges us to be.”

The report and Yenor noted that Notre Dame is a trusted institution for Christians and remains one of the few Catholic schools that actually has a commitment to hiring Catholic Faculty. But, as the report states, the school’s reputation is “threatened by DEI practices that compromise Catholic doctrine and replace superb instruction with social engineering.” —>READ MORE HERE

Notre Dame Criticized for Calling Diversity and Catholicism ‘Equally Important’ in Hiring

Some say the hiring guidance elevates secular ideology, while others argue it flows from the university’s Catholic identity.

The University of Notre Dame is facing a fresh round of criticism after the institute’s chief academic officer told faculty that hiring women and minorities is “equally important” to its mission as is hiring Catholics.

John McGreevy, Notre Dame’s provost, shared the hiring priorities at the start of the spring semester in a Jan. 17 faculty-wide email, which has since been obtained by the Register.

After noting the importance of hiring Catholics and “other faculty deeply committed to our mission,” McGreevy wrote that “a second overlapping and equally important goal is to increase the number of women and underrepresented minorities on our faculty so that we become the diverse and inclusive intellectual community our mission urges us to be.”

McGreevy’s equation of the importance of Catholic and diversity hiring has received criticism both on and off the South Bend, Indiana, campus. Detractors have described it as the latest indication that the prestigious university is overly influenced by secular ideologies and is willing to dilute its Catholic identity for the sake of its peer institutions’ esteem.

Others, however, have defended the provost’s directive, describing it as consistent with Notre Dame administrators’ desire to better reflect the demographic makeup of the universal Church and to redress injustices committed along racial and sexual lines.

The debate about priorities isn’t merely academic, however, as the provost’s stated vision is slated to guide Notre Dame’s academic hiring practices in the near future.

In his email, McGreevy wrote that his office will issue a new hiring guide “to support academic units in their pursuit of these goals,” which will go into effect on July 1.

“[The guide] will include strategies and best practices to build broad applicant pools, evaluate candidates equitably, and ensure that faculty candidates who visit Notre Dame can imagine themselves as thriving future members of our academic community,” he said.

The Register could not independently verify that the guide was sent out to heads of Notre Dame’s academic units by the end of January, as McGreevy said it would in the Jan. 17 faculty-wide communication.

McGreevy’s email came out just days before the Trump administration announced measures to curtail so-called DEI practices on college campuses. It is unclear how the president’s Jan. 21 executive order, which includes cutting off federal funding to universities that promote such frameworks, will impact Notre Dame’s hiring practices.

Notre Dame administrators did not respond before deadline to a request for comment. —>READ MORE HERE

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