Irish fighting: Faculty denounces ND
president
By PAMELA SCHAEFFER
NCR Staff
A controversy at the University of Notre Dame over a new theology
professor, hired as a visiting professor by President Edward Malloy over the
objections of the faculty, has brought tensions at the university into public
view.
Following months of controversy, the university's Faculty Senate
denounced the president's administrative style in a formal resolution adopted
Dec. 3. Sources at the school say they can recall no precedent for such an
action in a hiring dispute.
The disputed theologian, Fr. Michael Baxter, is a Holy Cross
priest, as is Malloy. The Holy Cross order founded Notre Dame and maintains a
special relationship with it, although the university is now operated by an
independent board of trustees. Baxter is a former theology student at Notre
Dame.
The resolution, passed 29 to 5 with three abstentions, contends
that Malloy's "unilateral" action was detrimental to the theology department
and the university as a whole. It "seriously erodes the confidence that a
faculty ought to have in a president," the statement said. The resolution
followed by three weeks a statement of concern from the school's theology
faculty contending that Malloy's actions had violated collaborative process and
undermined academic integrity of the department and the university.
Malloy said through a spokesman that he preferred not to comment
on the matter. But spokesman Dennis Moore strongly defended Malloy's action. At
issue, Moore said, is "a disagreement over the qualifications of the candidate.
It was an academic decision on the part of the president that this person is
eminently qualified to be appointed to the faculty and that the faculty's
analysis of his credentials was incorrect."
It is accurate to say that the collaborative process had been
undermined, Moore said. "But who is in error? The president's determination is
that the evaluation of the candidate was in error."
However, Fr. Richard McBrien, chair of the Faculty Senate and
former chair of the university's theology department, said Moore's decision to
impose the candidate on the department represented a serious breach.
Moore said the controversy would have no ill effects on Malloy's
position or on a capital campaign due to begin May 3. Malloy enjoys full
support of the university's board of trustees, and the school's benefactors
value highly the role of Holy Cross priests on the faculty, he said. Further,
he said, Malloy was fully within his rights as president to overrule the
faculty in a hiring matter.
Sources at the school offered this version of events leading up to
the Dec. 3 action:
Early last year, Malloy proposed Baxter for the faculty. He holds
a master of divinity degree from Notre Dame and a doctorate from Duke
University. His dissertation there was directed by Stanley Hauerwas, a highly
respected Christian ethicist.
Under an "affirmative action" plan at Notre Dame, Holy Cross
priests get special consideration in hiring and need not be counted in a
department's budgeted faculty allotment. Normally, however, Holy Cross
candidates go through the usual hiring process.
Sources said it is unusual for a Holy Cross priest to be imposed
on the faculty -- but that it is also unusual for a department to reject a Holy
Cross priest outright.
In Baxter's case, the theology department's hiring committee and
its chair, Lawrence Sullivan, had unanimously rejected him for an assistant
professorship when Malloy proposed a compromise: that he be hired for a
three-year term as visiting assistant professor. That proposal was also
rejected.
Nevertheless, Baxter was hired as visiting professor. McBrien said
that Malloy had failed to notify Sullivan that he was hiring Baxter.
The theology department issued its first statement on Nov. 11.
Before issuing its resolution, the Faculty Senate met with Malloy in October. A
transcript shows that Malloy refused to discuss the matter, but was willing to
speak generally about the role of Holy Cross priests.
Baxter could not be reached for comment before press time.
One member of the senate, G. Robert Blakey, a law professor, wrote
a 13-page dissent to the resolution. He argued that the group had rushed to
judgment without undertaking a full investigation.
McBrien said the resolution would be posted on the university's
Internet home page and had been the subject of a front-page story on Dec. 4 in
The Observer, Notre Dame's daily student newspaper.
National Catholic Reporter, December 13,
1996
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