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NOTRE DAME, IN - Faculty Group Website Recommends Pro-Abortion Organizations, Urges More Lesbian and Homosexual Faculty, and Provides Other Noteworthy Insights
An organization of women faculty at Notre Dame called
ND Watch
has a website that, while providing useful
information for new women faculty members, also
contains material hostile to the Catholic character of
the University.
We provide links to three compilations of material
taken from ND Watch:
- A series of extracts from the website, with
particularly
striking passages underlined;
- ND Watch's list of useful websites for Women Faculty;
and
- A list of the faculty members of the organization's
advisory committee which
include the Chair of
Economics, an Associate Dean of Arts and Letters,
and professors from the departments of Theology,
Romance Languages and Literature, English,
Sociology, Film TV and Theater, and the Law
School;
Here are some of the highlights of what you will find in
these sources:
First, in terms of the crucial question of faculty
composition, the most arresting passages are those
in which the organization urges women to participate
to the fullest in the hiring process in order to promote
the hiring, not simply of more women, but of "more gay
and lesbian faculty."
Second, in terms of the identity-defining issue of
abortion, ND Watch recommends as resources every
major pro-abortion organization and some lesser
ones besides.
Third, ND Watch urges women faculty to persuade
their physicians to falsify prescriptions for
contraceptives in order to secure payment by the
University.
Fourth, according to the description of the Gender
Studies program, issues respecting homosexuality
are not taught from an orthodox Catholic perspective
but rather from "secular and alternative Catholic"
perspectives.
Finally, it is particularly disturbing that, while the
organization is "unofficial," what it says appears to
carry implicit University approval. The organization's
website address bears a nd.edu domain and uses
the official
Notre Dame favicon (i.e., an icon in the browser
address
bar), it uses the
university's electronic mailing list resources to
communicate with its members, the
materials are copyrighted by the University, and the
University's official website refers readers to the
organization as a resource for new women faculty
members in these words: "ND Watch is an
independent collective that exists to inform, mentor,
and support women faculty at the University of Notre
Dame. New women faculty are routinely invited to join
the group. (See What supports
are there for women faculty?)
Here are some illustrative passages from the
website:
On
Recruiting
"Your department will have to be
very
pro-active to recruit gay and lesbian
scholars and
artists." "Take it upon
yourself to contact the heads of
special minority, women's, and a gay
and lesbian
caucuses that operate inside your
national
Association." "Probably
the most important way to
address gender problems (and the
problems of
ageism, racism and homophobia) at
Notre Dame is to
hire more women, minorities, gay and
lesbian faculty."
And, after noting that Fr. Malloy
refused to include
sexual orientation in the school's non-
discrimination
policy, ND Watch urges in effect that
his decision be
undermined department by
department: "You can ask
your department to...vote on its own
informal
departmental anti-discrimination
statement."
On The Program in
Gender Studies
In
speaking of "political issues
that are central at Notre
Dame like...the treatment of gays,
lesbians and
other sexual minorities [and] sexual
and reproductive
health": "Given the official
position of Roman
Catholicism on many of these issues,
the program
must draw largely on secular and
alternative Catholic
positions." "The Gender
Studies Program has always
been a haven for GLBT students and
faculty. "No one
bothers you...about what books we
teach or what
films we show in our
courses."
On Notre Dame
Health Services
Duplicity is urged
in order to secure insurance payment for
contraceptives. That is, doctors
should be persuaded
to characterize their prescription of
contraceptives as
related to treatment of reproductive
dysfunctions rather
than birth control so that the University
will cover the
cost. "If your doctor won't work
with you on this, you
need to find another doctor."
On
Abortion
ND Watch's list of
resources includes
the pro-abortion organizations Emily's
List, The
National Organization for Women,
The National
Abortion and Reproductive Rights
League, Planned
Parenthood, and several more. New
women faculty
are advised, "You'll want to be
extremely discreet if you
choose to have [an
abortion]."
The Holy Cross Order,
"fundamentalist" Catholics, and
football take their hits. "Notre
Dame retains a clerical
social characte...Clerical attitudes are
often
manifested in... sexism or
misogyny." "Some of the
Roman Catholics here have aligned
themselves with fundamentalist segments of the
Church." And "the
strong emphasis on athletics...in
particular
footbal...may be correlated with
sexism or
misogyny." Still worse, "at
universities where either
sports or fraternities play a large role,
there tend to be
more rapes and more
sexism"
These ND Watch materials bear upon issues of large
importance to the Catholic character of Notre Dame.
Moreover, with respect to abortion, ND Watch has
presented Notre Dame with a challenge on a crucial,
defining issue.
That challenge is both plain and readily met. It would
be a simple matter for the University to disassociate
itself from ND Watch by removing any reference to the
organization in its materials and stopping it from using
a nd.edu domain and displaying a Notre Dame
copyright on its website materials. If any other action is
necessary to remove any implication of the
University's indifference to these objectionable
statements, the University should of course take
it.
We are asking that the University take such steps. We
urge you to join us in prayer that it will do so
immediately.
Sincerely,
Project Sycamore Officers and Directors
Officers
William H. Dempsey ('52)
President
Joseph A. Reich, Jr. ('57)
Vice President
George L. Heidkamp ('52)
Treasurer & Secretary
Directors
Richard V. Allen ('57, '58)
Dr. Daniel M. Boland ('56, '61)
Timothy M. Dempsey ('89)
Dr. John A. Gueguen, Jr. ('56, '58)
Dr. Susan Biddle Shearer ('88)
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