No NAACP at CUA

CHRONICLE.COM, June 4 — The Catholic University of America has denied a student's request to start a chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People on campus because some of the organization's positions conflict with Catholic teaching.

The school also said starting the chapter on campus overlaps with two already-existing groups for black students, the website for the Chronicle of Higher Education reported.

The NAACP's national organization supports abortion, but that factor was not the only one in deciding to deny the request, a school spokesman said, but it is “one of their planks with which we strongly take issue.”

Dead Theologians Alive

LA CROSSE TRIBUNE (Wisconsin), May 26 — Each week students in La Crosse, Wis. — home of the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse — meet to discuss the early Church Fathers and to delve into the lives of the saints.

The Dead Theologians Society, started in Ohio by a pair of youth-group workers who have since moved to the Diocese of La Crosse, draws about 10 to 12 students each week. And students are beginning to see how it's impacting their faith.

One student, Erika Deniger, said meetings have helped her better understand her Catholic faith at a time when many question it.

“Everything people are questioning now,” she said, “people have questioned before and found answers to.”

‘Shame on Seton Hall’

THE SETONIAN, June 3 — Protesters gathered outside the Seton Hall University Law School on May 28 to protest the school's hosting a proabortion judge at its graduation.

Archbishop John Myers of Newark, N.J., head of the university's board of trustees, also voiced his opposition May 26 to Judge Maryanne Trump Barry, who was awarded the Sandra Day O'Connor Medal of Honor. Barry in 2000 voted to overturn New Jersey's ban on late-term abortions, the Seton Hall student newspaper reported.

The protestors held signs that read “Shame on Seton Hall” and circled the entrance to the law school.

Standing on Principle

AVE MARIA LAW SCHOOL, June 1 — U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, a Catholic, told graduating students at the Ave Maria Law School in Ypsilanti, Mich., to act out of principle in their coming careers.

“Do it for principle rather than self-interest,” Thomas told graduates May 16. “Do it for principle rather than for prosperity. Do it for principle rather than popularity. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?”

According to a press release from the law school, graduates will move on to positions in the U.S. Department of Justice, with federal judges and in various law firms.

Record Enrollment

THE HONOLULU ADVERTISER, June 7 — Marianist-run Chaminade University in Hawaii is one of three private institutions in that state to announce record enrollment this coming fall.

Chaminade will see a 6% increase from last year, from 1,065 undergraduates to 1,130 in the fall, the Honolulu Advertiser reported. Overall, undergraduate enrollment at the university has increased 75% since 1995.

The school attributes its growth to recruitment efforts on the West Coast. Its four recruiters have visited schools from Alaska to New Mexico.