‘Leadership for What?’

THE OBSERVER, Feb. 3 — The recent decision by a department of St. Mary's College to sponsor four students to attend a pro-abortion conference has been repudiated by the college administration and by Bishop John D‘Arcy, ordinary of the Diocese of Fort Wayne, Ind., reported the independent newspaper that covers St. Mary's and nearby University of Notre Dame.

A spokeswoman for St. Mary's conceded that it was “the wrong conference to choose,” but added, “I'm sure the intention was to expose students to Washington,” and to show them “how to become involved in lobbying and leadership.”

“They're learning leadership for what?” Bishop D‘Arcy asked when contacted by the newspaper. “To become leaders that support pro-choice causes?”

Teams Cut

CHRONICLE.COM, Feb. 10 — Fairfield University will eliminate its varsity football and men's ice hockey teams at the end of the academic year, making it the third member of the mostly Catholic Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference to drop football this year, said the Web site of The Chronicle of Higher Education.

University officials said budgetary concerns drove the decision, not conformity with Title IX, the 1972 law banning sex discrimination at institutions.

However, Fairfield will now easily comply with the strictest standard of the law, which requires colleges to have roughly the same proportion of female athletes as female undergraduates.

No Mention

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES, Feb. 3 — The university's annual national survey of the attitudes and behaviors of college freshmen was widely reported in the media for such findings as a slight decline in student drinking and growing support for both military spending and same-sex marriage.

Neither the extensive coverage nor the university's own press release reported on attitudes about legalized abortion, which saw an almost two-percentage-point drop in support in two years (55.0% in 2001 to 53.6% this year).

When asked by the Register, a spokeswoman for UCLA said the change was not especially significant because it represents a continuation of a trend that has been in place since 1979 — a slow but steady decline in freshmen approval for legalized abortion, which peaked at 78.8% in 1969.

New Dean

CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA, Feb. 6 — Msgr. Brian Ferme has been named dean of the university's School of Canon Law in Washington, D.C., the university announced.

Dean of the canon law faculty at the Lateran University in Rome since 1999, Msgr. Ferme is an expert in medieval history and canon law. He was ordained in 1980 as a priest of the Diocese of Portsmouth, England.

A former professor at Oxford University, Msgr. Ferme is a consultor for the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts.

Gearing Up

GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY, Feb. 13 — The Jesuit-run university announced it is one of five Washington, D.C.-area colleges to share in a $13.9 million grant from a federally funded program called Gear Up, which helps prepare low-income high school students for college. Gear Up will also fund programs at Catholic-run Trinity College.