In Defense of Catholics

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, Feb. 25 — Outraged by an anti-Catholic sculpture at Washburn University, public schools in Wichita, Kan., have barred visits from university recruiters. Following the lead of local Catholic high schools, Wichita's Board of Education voted Feb. 23 to ban recruiters until the “Holier Than Thou” statue at the university is removed from campus.

The sculpture depicts a grimacing bishop wearing a miter, which some have said resembles male genitalia.

Washburn University said the Wichita's schools' action was “unfortunate.”

Woman President

PITTSBURGE POST-GAZETTE, Feb. 24 — St. Bonaventure University in New York has named its first woman president.

Sister Margaret Carney, who is currently the university's senior vice president for Franciscan charism — a position in which she is responsible for making sure Franciscan values are lived out on campus in everyday life — will replace Father Dominic Monti on June 1.

She has held her current position since March 2003, after school officials sought to instill those values in the basketball program, which was marked by scandal last year.

Then president Robert Wick-enheiser, the head basketball coach and the athletic director resigned after it was found a player who was ineligible was allowed to play anyway.

Discrimination?

BAYSIDE (N.Y.) TIMES-LEDGER, Feb. 26 — A federal court judge in Brooklyn, N.Y., has thrown out a lawsuit brought by the mother of two schoolchildren who claimed the Department of Education was discriminating against Christians for not allowing Nativity scenes on school grounds. Andrea Skoros, a Catholic, said the department unfairly favored Muslim and Jewish religious symbols in school holiday displays by forbidding Nativity scenes, although Christmas trees were permitted, the paper reported. “Exclusion of the creche from holiday displays is not discriminator y or hostile toward Christianity but rather serves the holiday display policy's secular purpose,” said Judge Charles Sifton in his Feb. 18 decision.

Skoros' attorney said the case would be appealed.

Downward Trend

THE TOLEDO BLADE, Feb. 26 — While tuition at most schools is rising higher and higher every year, Lourdes College in Sylvania, Ohio, is cutting its tuition by 41%.

The college announced Feb. 26 that tuition for full-time students (those who take 12 or more credit hours) will drop next year from $14,400 to $8,544.

Officials said research showed the college was becoming unaffordable to students interested in attending. “The public has viewed the price of Lourdes College as a barrier,” said Robert Helmer, who was inaugurated Feb. 29 as the college's seventh president.

Par t-time students, however, will see an 8% increase, from $330 to $356 per credit hour.

Human Harvest

KPRC-TV (Houston), March 1 — Har vard University confirmed Feb. 29 it plans to set up a privately funded research center to grow and study human embryonic stem cells.

A statement from the university said the center would stay within the laws and regulations on research for such stem cells. President Bush in 2002 allowed federal funding only for work to be done on existing stem-cell lines. To harvest stem cells, researchers must destroy human embryos.