This Time It's Not Our Fault

"Mission and Identity" is a big topic at Catholic Universities these days. In light of today's New York Times article about a tenure issue there, DePaul University seems to be having a problem with both--especially, if what their Arts & Sciences dean is reported to have said is true, with the latter:

Mr. Finkelstein said that the dean of DePaul’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Charles E. Suchar, explained his opposition by arguing that “DePaul was a Jesuit school,” and adhered to the values of St. Vincent. “He claims that my scholarship does not fulfill the Vincentian value of personalism,” or respect for dignity of the individual.

“That’s just inventing a new standard,” Mr. Finkelstein complained. “The whole purpose of annual reviews is to keep you abreast of whether or not you are fulfilling the requirements of tenure. If you look at my annual reviews, no one ever warned me that I wasn’t meeting the Vincentian standard of personalism.

“I would not have stayed at a university if it told me upfront that a condition for me getting tenure,” he said, was that “my views have to be filtered through Catholic values. I would consider it a betrayal of my parents’ legacy.”

DePaul is not a Jesuit University.

read the whole story here

hat tip to DotCommonweal.