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Originally posted by GeekyPenguin
I don't think there's anything wrong with having non-Catholics on the faculty - we have several professed atheists, Buddhists, etc. To me it doesn't matter if my economics professor believes in God or not, so long as the cross stays on the wall. He just needs to believe in the market and we'll be fine. I don't think the majority of Catholic college students attend them to be better Catholics - many of them aren't Catholic themselves. They come for a good education.
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I think this is an interesting point. Not to bring up Notre Dame again, but since its the only Catholic school that I'm relatively familiar with (friends that go there/I've read books on it) -- I know that they have been having trouble with this issue. As their academic rankings have gotten better and better, the percentage of their faculty that is Catholic has dropped -- I think down to 65% in the mid-1990s and every decade it drops lower. The same with the student body composition. They struggle with whether they are a university first and a religious institution second or vice versa, and obviously there are those on both sides of the issue. Basically the current university administration has decided that in order to stay a strong academic institution, they have to compromise on some aspects of their Catholic heritage.
I'm sure Marquette struggles with the same issues and I'm sure a number of other religious schools do too.