Marquette U. to offer domestic partner benefits

Marquette plans to offer domestic partner benefits to its employees in 2012.

The decision by Marquette comes nearly after a year after the school announced that it was rescinding a job offer to Jodi O’Brien, a lesbian and scholar at Seattle University, involving concerns relating to Marquette’s "Catholic mission and identity" and their incompatibility with some of O’Brien’s scholarly writings.

The university said at the time that the decision to rescind the job offer did not have anything to do with O’Brien’s sexual orientation.

The State of Wisconsin gives legal recognition both to marriage for heterosexual couples and to a registered domestic partnership for same-sex couples.

In a statement Marquette President Robert A. Wild said, “If we are truly pastoral in our application of the Jesuit principle of cura personalis, I asked myself if I could reconcile that with denying health benefits to a couple who have legally registered their commitment to each other.”

[Milwaukee Journal Sentinel via Inside Higher Ed]

Colleges attend to student spiritual growth

Allie Grasgreen of Inside Higher Ed has a long piece on how Elmhurst College in Illinois and Wagner College in New York are encouraging student interest in spiritual exploration and growth. Ties the two case studies to the findings in Cultivating the Spirit: How College Can Enhance Students’ Inner Lives by Alexander Astin, Helen Astin, and Jennifer Lindholm (Jossey Bass, 2011).

Gay alumni prompt discussion on how Westmont College treats its gay students

An open letter from 31 gay and lesbian alumni describing their “doubt, loneliness and fear” while they were students at Westmont College has prompted debate and discussion on campus. Westmont, a college near Santa Barbara, CA, bars “homosexual practice.” More than 100 fellow alums signed on in support of the open letter, and 50 of Westmont’s 92 faculty have asked for “forgiveness for ways we might have added to your pain.” The article offers reaction and background to the ongoing discussion.

[Los Angeles Times via Inside Higher Ed]

Baylor Board: 25% may be non-Baptist Christians

Inside Higher Ed’s Scott Jaschik reports on the decision by the Baylor University Board to allow up to 25 percent of its membership to be non-Baptist Christian. The change was opposed by the Baptist General Convention of Texas. There will be some limits on the non-Baptist regents:

As the Board of Regents gains some non-Baptist members, it will permit only Baptist members to vote on any future changes in rules about the religious qualifications of board members, and about any theological issues related to Baylor’s George W. Truett Theological Seminary.

Baptists make up the largest denomination in the student body, but but still far less than half. The article could easily serve as setup for discussions about religious identity and market forces. Jaschik offers a range of reactions to the decision and its possible implications for the university’s identity.

ACCU tracks Centers that promote mission at Catholic Colleges

The Chronicle of Higher Education [subscription may be required] reports on a project started by the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities to track what various centers at Catholic colleges and universities are doing to promote the Catholic mission of their school. A preliminary results were released at the ACCU annual meeting. A database is being created and will be posted on the ACCU website by this summer.

U.S. bishops begin 10-year review of “Ex corde”

The Chronicle of Higher Education [subscription required] reports on how the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is beginning its 10-year review of Ex corde Ecclesiae. The review will involve conversations between presidents of Roman Catholic colleges and universities and the bishops who lead their respective dioceses.

The bishops and presidents will base their conversations on five questions that were suggested by a working group of presidents and bishops, and approved by the conference’s Committee on Catholic Education this past November. The questions were modeled on those used in the five-year review of Ex corde but also include some changes, such as an additional question about how to continue the dialogue between bishop and president.

The conversations should take place between February and June and then be discussed by the bishops at their regional meetings.

Organizing adjuncts ruled not to infringe on Catholic college’s religious identity

Inside Higher Ed’s Scott Jaschik reports on the decision of a regional director of the National Labor Relations Board that ruled that a union’s attempt to organize adjunct instructors at Manhattan College, a Catholic institution, did not violate the institution’s religious identity. The decision apparently hinged on how close the College’s ties were to the Catholic church.

The decision largely states that Manhattan isn’t religious enough to be exempt from the NLRB’s jurisdiction, and that its employment relationship with its adjuncts is essentially a secular one. "While the college may well be affiliated with the [Roman Catholic] Church and take pride in its historical relationship with the church, the college’s public representations clearly demonstrate that it is not providing a ‘religious educational environment,’ " the decision says.

The case is likely to give rise to further litigation, and its being closely watched both by organized labor and religious organizations.

Some Background to Review of ‘Ex corde’

Inside Higher Ed’s Jack Stripling offers a useful overview of some of the issues likely to be addressed in the upcoming review by U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops of what effect Ex corde has had on Catholic colleges and universities over the last ten years.

Woman is Fired/Resigns after Announcement of her Marriage to Another Woman

Laine Tadlock says she was forced out as education program director at Benedictine University at Springfield, Illinois, because in July she and her partner, Kae Helstrom, put their wedding announcement in the newspaper. The University administration acknowledges the cause but denies that Tadlock was fired. The State Journal-Registrar reports:

“The university, for valid and lawful reasons, decided that it would not be consistent with the university’s mission as a Catholic institution of higher learning for Tadlock to continue in the office of program director of its education program,” the statement says.

Instead, Tadlock was offered a different position at Benedictine, a position she refused because she says she isn’t qualified for the job. Benedictine’s position is that she is qualified. The school warned Tadlock that if she did not take the position, the university would consider that her resignation.

Bishop Thomas Paprocki of the Catholic Diocese of Springfield supported the university in its actions and reaffirmed in his statement the Catholic position on homosexual marriage.

[Springfield, Illinois, The State Journal-Register via Insider Higher Ed]

Does an Adjunct Union Threated a Roman Catholic College’s Religious Heritage?

Inside Higher Ed’s Scott Jaschik offers a detailed look at the controversy brewing at Manhattan College, a Roman Catholic Institution, on whether the formation of a union for adjunct professors would compromise the religious tradition of the college. Much of the debate hangs on the interpretation of various court decisions regarding the unionization of faculty members at private institutions. But both sides in the dispute are also invoking Catholic tradition and social teachings.