Notre Dame University official gives equal priority to both DEI and Catholic identity in considering new faculty
‘One important goal is to hire Catholic faculty . . . A second overlapping and equally important goal is to increase the number of women and underrepresented minorities,’ the email stated.
“By prioritizing race and gender at a level ‘equally important’ to Catholicism, this policy of DEI hiring sacrifices the university’s character for the sake of the meaningless buzzwords ‘diversity’ and ‘inclusion,’” said one critic.
An official from the University of Notre Dame in Indiana recently stated that Catholic identity and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) characteristics are “equally important” considerations when it comes to hiring new faculty, sparking criticism.
The National Catholic Register obtained an email sent to faculty on Jan. 17 by John McGreevy, Notre Dame’s provost, which described the school’s hiring priorities.
“Excellence in research and teaching is our fundamental and indispensable criterion for faculty appointments, but the complexity of our mission requires us to do even more,” McGreevy stated.
The email states that being Catholic and being a member of an “underrepresented minority” are equally important criteria in faculty hiring decisions.
“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 explained. “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 email concludes by stating that the Provost’s Office will “publish guidance to support academic units in their pursuit of these goals.”
McGreevy’s message faced criticism for its highlighting of DEI.
Michael Canady, the editor-in-chief of The Irish Rover, a student newspaper at Notre Dame, for example, criticized the email.
Canady stated: “By prioritizing race and gender at a level ‘equally important’ to Catholicism, this policy of DEI hiring sacrifices the university’s character for the sake of the meaningless buzzwords ‘diversity’ and ‘inclusion,’” reported The National Catholic Register.
McGreevy’s letter was sent just days before President Donald Trump signed his anti-DEI executive order on Jan. 21. The executive order applies to universities whose endowments are larger than $1 billion, and Notre Dame’s endowment is more than $20 billion.
Following President Trump’s executive order, Notre Dame rebranded its DEI webpage, removing references to DEI.
Recently, President Trump’s Department of Education sent a letter warning education leaders to stop promoting DEI programs and related content.
“Discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin is illegal and morally reprehensible,” the letter began, continuing to claim that DEI programs “frequently preference certain racial groups and teach students that certain racial groups bear unique moral burdens that others do not.”
The letter stated that such initiatives “stigmatize students who belong to particular racial groups based on crude racial stereotypes.”
Campus Reform has contacted the University of Notre Dame for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
