Nondiscrimination, sexual orientation, and Catholic universities

A student in my "Catholic Social Thought and the Law" class composed and shared this post:

I wanted to take this opportunity to discuss, in light of our recent discussion of Catholic universities, Notre Dame’s recent affirmance of its decision not to add sexual orientation to the university’s nondiscrimination clause.  This is an extremely hot-button issue on campus.  Surprisingly (at least to me), from the reaction in the Observer and my own observations, a majority of students seem to be in favor of making the change.  I have always supported Notre Dame’s decision on institutional freedom grounds (even before I knew that this was the argument I made), but now pose the question of whether we can maintain our status as a meaningfully Catholic university if we make the change, and the corollary, whether we can maintain our status as a well-regarded research university if we continue to resist the change?

There are interesting arguments on both sides.  Many people believe that Notre Dame’s low undergraduate peer-assessment scores on the US News & World Report ranking indicate a bias in the academic community against our supposedly “backward” policies.  Still others believe that talented high school students who would otherwise consider attending are scared off by our lack of recognition of the LGBQT community.  Both of these are supposedly holding us back from being an “elite” university.

On the administration’s side, of course, is the assertion that Notre Dame’s identity as a truly Catholic university would be compromised by such a move.  I think that this far more accurate than many believe.  While we can still plausibly claim to be Catholic, how much more can we sacrifice in the name of secular recognition?  Of course, we are still instructed to treat all human beings in accord with their dignity; the only practical effect of the nondiscrimination clause is that Notre Dame does not have to recognize student organizations with LGBQT ties.  The downside of not including it is far worse; it would lead us further along the road of becoming just another secularized, Catholic-in-name only, university.  There is something much more to being a Catholic university than simply having a majority of Catholic students or some Catholic faculty.  If we someday forget this, we are heading down the wrong road and being influenced by secular pressure to conform to the popular image of the university. 

In sum, the students and faculty that come to Notre Dame generally come here because of, not in spite of, our Catholicism.  Our goal is not simply to have a group of students with high standardized test scores, but to accomplish our mission.  Should we have to lose a few spots in USNWR or median SAT scores to do that, it is a trade worth making.