Campus Watch
Xavier Leads Nation
XAVIER UNIVERSITY, March 12 — For the eighth year in a row, Louisiana's Xavier University placed more graduating black students in medical schools than any other university, the school announced.
Xavier, the only historically black Catholic university in America, sent 73 students to medical school in 2000, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. Morehouse College had 31 accepted, the second-largest number of black graduates entering medical school, and Howard University, much larger than Xavier, sent 26.
Xavier's streak should continue, as 44 of this year's seniors have already been accepted into medical schools.
Penn President Questioned
The hearing focused on a sex-education fair held at the university, which featured free condoms, explicit brochures, and even obscene games and gingerbread men.
The campus ministry sponsored a counter-event, featuring prayer and testimony from chaste couples. The university's president, Graham B. Spanier, defended the school on academic freedom grounds throughout three hours of grilling from angry lawmakers.
‘Real’ Catholic On Campus
Smith discussed his faith and his experiences on MTV as part of the school's Newman Week, an event put together by campus Catholics to raise money for charity and help Catholics focus on their faith.
Smith said that he had been able to share his faith with the other “Real World” participants, and that it helped him get through the show's sometimes traumatic filming in New Orleans. He added that he has considered entering the priesthood now that his television gig is over.
Influential ‘Friends’
The St. Ignatius Institute focused on authors from Aristotle to Nietzsche — with a large helping of Catholic theology. Many defenders of the institute charge that its strong commitment to the magisterium of the Catholic Church didn't sit well with the university's establishment.
The Friends of the St. Ignatius Institute bought an ad in the San Francisco daily as well as the diocesan newspaper to draw attention to their cause. The ad said that the university's actions teach “a sad lesson about the growing exclusion from our colleges and universities of even the most fair-minded traditional religious educators.”
Eighteen prominent Catholic professors, writers and thinkers signed the advertisement denouncing the university's actions. Signatories included Princeton University's Robert George, papal biographer George Weigel, First Things editor-in-chief Father Richard John Neuhaus, Amherst College's Hadley Arkes, Michael Novak of the American Enterprise Institute, Crisis publisher and editor Deal W. Hudson, and Robert Royal, president of the Faith and Reason Institute.
University Hosts Funk
March 3 — Seattle University invited Jesus Seminar founder Robert W. Funk to speak at the Jesuit institution, the Seattle-area daily reported.
Funk's appearance marked the first time a representative of the Jesus Seminar has spoken at a Catholic institution in the United States. In 1993, the group claimed that its investigations into Biblical history revealed that Jesus did not say 82% of what is attributed to him in the Gospels.
Seattle Archbishop Alex J. Brunett expressed disappointment at the university's invitation. University president and Jesuit Father Stephen Sundborg said that the university did not endorse the Jesus Seminar, and the dean of the school of theology and ministry said the school's Scripture faculty disagreed with the seminar's methods and conclusions.
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- March 25-31, 2001
