Welcome to Project Sycamore
Welcome to the first edition of the Project Sycamore Newsletter. We will in this format periodically explore issues relating to the Catholic identity of Notre Dame.
This is a critical time for Notre Dame. A renowned Catholic scholar, Dr. Jude Dougherty, Dean Emeritus of The Catholic University of America School of Philosophy, put it this way in a letter to us:
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As word of Project Sycamore has spread, the response has been gratifying. There are now some 1,000 subscribers, with over 700 petition signatories, and the comments from supporters reflect keen interest and strong enthusiasm. Accordingly, we are incorporating and applying for tax-exempt status.
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NDAA Thumbs Down
 The threshold task is to make Project Sycamore more widely known. In theory, this ought to be simple. The Catholicity of Notre Dame is at stake, the University is dedicated to free speech, and the Alumni Association, alumni clubs, alumni classes, and a host of University academic units and affiliated organizations have splendid communications networks.
Those networks, however, are closed to us. The Association has instructed the local clubs and the class officers not to distribute our materials and has advised us that it would issue similar directions to those who might otherwise grant access to Association-serviced e-mail lists of University departments, units, and affiliated organizations.
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The Mission Statement
Will It Be Honored, Ignored, or Discarded?
 Mission statements are usually framed in terms so general as to be unhelpful. The Notre Dame Mission Statement provision defining the relationship between Catholic identity and Catholic faculty is a welcome exception. The Statement declares that the "Catholic identity of the University depends upon . . . the continuing presence of a predominant number of Catholic intellectuals" on the faculty. The author of this language, then-President Rev. Edward Malloy, emphasized that it means more than a bare majority:
[A] 'predominant number' refers to both more than 50 percent and not simply being satisfied with 50 percent. It's an effort, without specifying particular numbers, to take seriously that numbers and percentages make a difference.
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The Catholic Professor
An Endangered Species
Students of the secularization of religious colleges and universities agree that it is invariably the result of the progressive reduction in faculty members committed to the founding faith. But how many Baptists, or Methodists, or Catholics must there be?
At Notre Dame, the Mission Statement provides the answer. It declares, "The Catholic identity of the University depends upon, and is nurtured by, the continuing presence of a predominant number of Catholic intellectuals." The author of this language, then-President Rev. Edward A. Malloy, explained that the phrase "predominant number" means more, not less, than a bare majority. It means "not simply being satisfied with 50 percent."
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We're Only as Catholic as Our Faculty 
There has been a great deal published respecting the essential role played at a Catholic university by Catholic faculty. Much of it is collected in the "Sources" section of our website.
Most, while rewarding, are lengthy. For a clear and compelling summary of the reasons that Catholic identity depends on Catholic faculty, one cannot do better than The Irish Rover's account of an address last December by Professor Walter Nicgorski of the Program of Liberal Studies. Given the relative brevity of the article, it would serve no purpose for us to summarize it. Rather, we send you to it directly. Why should Notre Dame have a "predominant number of Catholic intellectuals" on the faculty? Professor Nicgorski tells us.
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"How Catholic the Faculty?"
Notre Dame Magazine, Winter 2006
In this useful article, Dick Conklin, a retired Notre Dame officer, examines the decline of Catholics on the faculty and prospects for the future. Because the author's unsupported assumption of a key fact is wrong, however, the resulting picture is out of focus, as we show below.
The author opens with the pivotal Mission Statement requirement that "[t]he Catholic identity of Notre Dame depends upon, and is nurtured by, the continuing presence of a predominant number of Catholic intellectuals." As we have shown elsewhere, this 1993 provision echoes the admonition in Pope John Paul's 1990 statement on Catholic higher education, Ex Corde Ecclesiae, "that the number of non-Catholic teachers should not be allowed to constitute a majority."
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Other Commentaries of Interest
"Can Notre Dame Be Saved?"
Fifteen years ago, a doctoral candidate in the Notre Dame philosophy department published what was, so far as we know, the first widely read warning that secularization was threatening the Catholic identity of the University. The author was Dr. David Lutz, a West Point and Notre Dame graduate now teaching in The Catholic University of East Africa. His article predictably triggered a torrent of comment, much of it from startled alumni. It would not be productive to revisit that controversy, but it is past time to pay tribute to Dr. Lutz for his prescience and to reflect upon his words. Accordingly, we bring to you his article, "Can Notre Dame Be Saved," from the pages of "First Things." What he said then is even more telling now, since secularization has since then proceeded apace.
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Through the Eyes of the Students
In a poll taken last year by The Observer,58% of students answered "Yes" to the question: "Does Notre Dame need to increase the number of Catholic faculty members."
It would be useful to ask the students a more realistic question: "Do you believe the number of Catholic faculty members should be reduced?" .
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Declining Catholic Faculty
"The combination of impending faculty retirements and predominant recent hiring trends...threatens Notre Dame's capacity to realize its mission."
Report to Faculty 2005
Mark W. Roche, Dean
College of Arts & Letters
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Shortcuts
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Contact us
Steering Committee
Richard V. Allen ('57, '58)
Daniel M. Boland ('56, '61)
Timothy M. Dempsey ('89)
William H. Dempsey ('52)
John A. Gueguen, Jr. ('56, '58)
George L. Heidkamp ('52)
Amelia Elizabeth Marcum ('04)
Joseph A. Reich, Jr. ('57)
Susan Biddle Shearer ('88)
(703) 237-9061
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