DePaul Expands

THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, Dec. 15 — DePaul University, already the nation's largest Catholic university with 20,500 students, is growing at a wildfire pace, the Chicago daily reported.

Other schools have begun studying DePaul to see how it managed to raise enrollment 66% in 15 years, hire new faculty, build and renovate, and still maintain high academic standards. The university is starting to feel growing pains: It is running out of classroom space, and for the first time it has had to turn down qualified applicants.

Because the school's Vincentian mission stresses access to education, these growing pains have prompted some faculty to suggest that it's time for the growth to slow down.

The administration points out that the percentage of students in the top quarter of their high school graduating class has increased, while test scores and grade point averages have remained the same. And about 75% of all courses are taught by full-time faculty rather than graduate students — in part due to the 104 new faculty members the burgeoning school hired this fall.

Play Raises Hackles

UNIVERSITY OF DETROIT MERCY, December — The Women's Studies program at the University of Detroit/Mercy announced on its Web site that it would present the play “The Vagina Monologues” on Valentine's Day.

The play will be directed by a professor in the Jesuit university's theatre and Women's Studies departments; proceeds will benefit local shelters for battered women. Last year, the university's theater department co-presented the play with a neighboring college.

The play features extremely explicit sexual descriptions, including a sexual encounter between a woman and an underage girl.

Knights of Columbus Gives Millions in Scholarships

KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS SUPREME COUNCIL, Dec. 11 — The Knights of Columbus announced scholarship grants for higher education, including religious vocational studies. The Knights' Supreme Council alone gave out 655 college and postgraduate scholarship and fellowship grants, and distributed $1.3 million in scholarship funds.

The total amount of scholarship money awarded by all levels of the Knights came to $9.1 million, with an additional $6.2 million to support Catholic schools. The Knights spent more than $7 million to promote vocations, including scholarships for seminarians and direct support for seminaries.

Sending Out an SOS

UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL, Dec. 18 — Cardinal Francis George challenged wealthier Catholics to help him prevent the shutdown of Catholic schools in poor black communities, the wire service reported.

The archdiocese is laboring under the burden of a $14.3 million operating deficit for the year 2000, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. The archdiocese is considering parish consolidation, which may lead to the closure of some schools next year.

Cardinal George said, “We're going to save as many as we can.”