‘Monologues’ Offstage

SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE, Feb. 5 — “The Vagina Monologues” is becoming a tougher sell on Catholic college campuses.

Holy Cross Father John Jenkins, president of the University of Notre Dame, announced that the controversial play, which was performed in Notre Dame theaters for the past four years, will be restricted to a classroom setting this year.

Father Jenkins also said he is seeking opinions from faculty, students and alumni about what events are appropriate to hold on campus.

Meanwhile, Dominican Father Brian Shanley, the new president of Providence College in Providence, R.I., issued an outright ban of the production — as did the Holy Cross Fathers’ University of Portland in Oregon.

‘Queer’ Studies

NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO, Jan. 26 — The Vincentians’ DePaul University in Chicago is launching a “queer studies” program that looks at issues of homosexuality.

DePaul, which promotes itself as the largest Catholic university in the United States, will be the first American Catholic college or university to offer a minor in the field, which generally celebrates homosexuality.

The first class in the new discipline, “Introduction to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Studies,” began in January.

The university, NPR warns, “could face the wrath of the Vatican.”

The Music Biz

UNIVERSITY OF DALLAS, Feb. 3 — This spring, in one of just a few programs of its kind, the Dominican university will offer a graduate business-administration program to teach the business side of the music industry.

Students will start out by learning music-business essentials such as generating revenue, new technology, working with talent, working with record labels and contract negotiation.

One class will require students to locate an artist, develop a business plan for the performer and present the plan to music executives and venture capitalists.

       

Fostering Intolerance

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, Jan. 30 — Despite protests from at least five teachers, a local school board has ordered that pro-homosexual posters be placed in every classroom at San Leandro High School.

The poster features a pink triangle and rainbow banner, and tells “lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, [and] questioning youth” that “this is a safe place to be who you are.”

Bob Knight of the Culture and Family Institute said such efforts “produce intolerance toward anyone who won’t accept homosexuality,” including “teachers who know that it’s not a good thing to sell kids on the idea that it’s okay to be gay.”

       

PC Madness

SUFFOLK EVENING STAR, Feb. 4 — Because they might offend some Jehovah’s Witnesses, Oaks Primary School in Ipswich, England, has banned hot cross buns, a traditional sweet pastry associated with Good Friday and Easter.

The school originally tried to order buns, which include two strips of decorative icing intersecting in the middle, without the distinct crosses, but was not successful.

The regional newspaper wryly pointed out that the school did not say whether it would expel students who chanted the traditional English nursery rhyme, “One a penny; two a penny; hot cross buns.”