Pork Bypasses Most Catholic Colleges

CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION, Aug. 10 — Congressional spending for the academic pork barrel ballooned by 60% this year, to the largest total ever, as lawmakers carved up the federal surplus for their home states, reported The Chronicle for Higher Education.

This year's $1.668 billion was $624 million larger than last year, The Chronicle reported.

The list of top 30 recipients has only one Catholic college on it, however.

Wheeling Jesuit University ranked 14th on the list, reaping $16,268,600 from the Federal treasury, far behind the $35,048,470 that the University of Alaska at Fairbanks received.

No other Catholic college or university received more than the $9,520,060, which the University of Miami (ranked No. 30) received this year.

For Wheeling Jesuit, getting government money had less to do with its Catholic identity than its location in West Virginia.

West Virginia's senior Democratic Senator Robert Byrd is unapologetic about funneling government pork to his home state. As ranking Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, he also funneled $15,592,333 to West Virginia University, ranked 16th on the list.

St. Louis U. Mourns Father Reinert

THE NEW YORK TIMES, July 25 — Jesuit Father Paul C. Reinert, who was St. Louis University's president from 1949 to 1974 before serving 16 years as chancellor, died July 23, The New York Times reported. He was 90.

Father Reinert received his bachelor's and master's degrees from St. Louis University, a Catholic institution.

Ordained in 1940, he was named the dean of the university's College of Arts and Sciences in 1944.

He became academic vice president in 1948, a year before being named the university's 27th president, at the age of 39.

Father Reinert was named chancellor in 1974 and chancellor emeritus in 1990.

The New York Times noted that during his presidency, Father Reinert admitted women as regular, full-time students to the university for the first time and oversaw the spending of more than $150 million to modernize and expand the campus.

In 1955, he was a Missouri delegate to the White House Conference on Education, and a year later President Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed him to his Education Beyond the High School committee, reported the New York newspaper.

In the 1960s, President Lyndon B. Johnson asked Father Reinert to serve on two education task forces, and in 1968 President Richard M. Nixon appointed him to his task force on education.

Mother Superior Stuns Researcher

CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION, Aug. 3 — University of Kentucky medical professor David Snowdon encountered something new to him when he sought permission from the head of the School Sisters of Notre Dame to initiate his now-famous study of the aging process in nuns.

He said he knew the subjects of his previous studies “only through their medical records and questionnaires they had filled out.” The head of the order of sisters, however, clearly told him that kind of approach would not be acceptable to her.

“No matter what you do, I want you to remember who these women are. They are real people. Very dear to us,” Snowdon quotes her as saying.

“They are holy people, too,” she continued. “I don't want you to treat them as research subjects. Get to know them. … We treat them with the care and respect they deserve. We will expect nothing less from you.”

Snowdon said simply, “I was a little stunned.”

Catholic Papers Win Five of 12 Awards

CENTER FOR PRINT AND BROADCAST MEDIA, July 23 — Two Catholic publications took home five awards at the Center for Print and Broadcast Media's third annual Conservative Campus Journalism Awards.

The Georgetown Academy received recognition for its humor and its fundraising prowess. The Villanova Times distinguished itself by winning three awards.

“They started the Villanova Times to remove the stranglehold on campus discourse that the Villanovan had,” said Tom Crowe, director of the awards for the Center for Print and Broadcast Media. “They wanted to let the Villanova community know the whole story on campus.”

Patrick Reilly, executive director of the Cardinal Newman Society, said that independent newspapers are critical for Catholic renewal in academia.

“Without the Georgetown Academy, efforts at Georgetown to return crucifixes to the classroom walls and end university support for an abortion advocacy group would not have been successful,” said Reilly, whose organization will highlight Catholic campus journalism in its first annual Ex Corde Ecclesiae Awards this November.