CHRISTIANITY TODAY, Jan. 21 — In a searing indictment of “the wink and nod our colleges give to fornication and dissipation,” a theology professor of at Loyola College in Baltimore claims that ubiquitous campaigns against student drinking are a “smokescreen that covers the colleges’ greatest sin,” which is the facilitation of the “hookup culture.”

Loyola and other universities “do not acknowledge, let alone address, the sexualization of the American college,” said the professor, Vigen Guroian. Rather, they “put a smiley face on an unhealthy and morally destructive environment that also makes serious academic study next to impossible.”

There is much rhetoric about how “colleges are spending more and more resources on counseling and therapy,” said Guroian, “when the direct cause of many wounds they seek to heal is the Brave New World that they have engineered, sold as a consumer product, and supervised.”

Plaque Removed

PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, Feb. 1 — Villanova University reversed course and removed a plaque from its library memorializing a professor who, in the grips of postpartum depression, killed her six-month-old daughter and herself in 2003.

“The appropriateness of the plaque had been questioned by some of the Roman Catholic university’s students, alumni and others, who said it was inconsistent with Church teachings,” on the sanctity of human life, reported the newspaper.

The university said that Professor Mine Ener will now be memorialized by a symposium on mental illness, “specifically postpartum depression and psychosis, led by the College of Nursing.”

Too Far

CHRONICLE.COM, Jan. 26 — Following widespread protests, Ashland University, an institution in Ohio affiliated with the Brethren Church, rescinded a three-month-old policy that had required new faculty and staff members to be Christian or Jewish.

William Benz, Ashland’s president, said that the university’s board of trustees had wanted to make sure all employees supported the institution’s Christian mission, reported the website of The Chronicle of Higher Education.

“But,” he conceded, “they went a little further than they needed to” in setting the policy.

Elite & Pro-Life

THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN, Jan. 25 — Twelve University of Pennsylvania students attended the 32nd annual March for Life in Washington.

The turnout, which may seem meager, reflects steady pro-life growth at elite, secular institutions, said sophomore Frank-Paul Sampino, vice president of Penn for Life. He said the representation of such schools in the pro-life camp is “essential.”

Sampino said the Penn group, which boasts a total of 250 members, was joined at the rally by students from similar organizations at Princeton, Yale and Rice universities.

Benedictine in China

CATHOLIC EXPLORER, Jan. 15 — Benedictine University of Illinois is now offering graduate programs in China, reported the newspaper of the Joliet Diocese.

Courses for Chinese students pursuing a master of business administration degree are now offered at Shenyang University of Technology, and plans are under way to start the master of science in management information systems degree program during the summer at Shenyang Jianzhu University.

The Benedictine program is the only American program of its kind in northeast China.