Universities and Religious Missions

The March 10 issue of the New York Review of Books has an interesting article entitled, Colleges: An Endangered Species.  The article describes the history of American higher education in three phases, the current third phase of which is described as one in which colleges have "became essentially indistinguishable from one another (except in degrees of wealth and prestige), by turning into miniature liberal states themselves—prescribing nothing and allowing virtually everything."  The author in a footnote observes as an important exception to this generalization institutions that retain a strong religious affiliation. The footnote cites none other than our own Mark Sargent's 2001 Toledo Law Review piece on the role of the dean in an inclusive Catholic law school, "for a thoughtful account of how a university, in this case a law school at a Catholic university, can retain a sense of religious mission while being open to students of any, or no, faith."

The article can be viewed here.