OPINION
Universities Abandon Truth and Lose Their Way
By Laura Hollis
Wednesday, 18 March 2026 12:58 PM EDT
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The University of Notre Dame generated plenty of headlines recently — most of them critical — when it named political science professor Susan Ostermann to lead the Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies in the Keough School of Global Affairs.
While no one challenged Ostermann's scholarly bona fides, Catholics around the country were profoundly distressed by the announcement, given Ostermann's zealous advocacy for abortion, her role in the eugenicist Population Council, and her characterization of anti-abortion activists as misogynists, racists and white supremacists.
A number of American bishops spoke out against the appointment, including Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades, who leads the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, which includes Notre Dame.
And while the university consistently expressed its support for Ostermann, she eventually withdrew from the position, which was to have started this coming summer.
Last week, the head of Notre Dame's de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture, Jennifer Newsome Martin, published a thoughtful essay on the matter in Public Discourse. In that essay, titled "How Catholic Should a Catholic Institution Be?"
Newsome Martin references the writings of the late Alasdair MacIntyre (a de Nicola Center Senior Distinguished Research Fellow until his death last year) who argued that today's research universities "do not share any clear agreement on what constitutes rational inquiry," and will therefore "simply tolerate 'limitless disagreement.'"
Martin agrees with MacIntyre that at Catholic institutions like Notre Dame, "there are foundational points that 'by their very nature cannot accept the indifference presupposed by such tolerance; standpoints which invite rejection rather than toleration.'"
Martin states that among those foundational points is the magisterium of the Catholic Church that "recognizes and upholds the sanctity of human life from conception until natural death."
Policies that articulate the university's commitment to the teachings of the Church must be reflected by its decisions.
"These commitments," Martin concludes, "cannot be affirmed in the abstract while being undermined in the concrete."
Martin's admonitions for a Catholic university are clear.
But what of those institutions of higher education that are not religiously affiliated?
Where can they find common ground?
The most important point of common ground between both should be the recognition, pursuit and dissemination of truth.
In that vein, a recent trend is worth noting.
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READ MORE: https://www.newsmax.com/laurahollis/biological-catholic-secular/2026/03/16/id/1249707/
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