SOUTH BEND, Ind., Oct. 23 (UPI) -- Indiana's Notre Dame, one of the country's leading Roman Catholic universities, is trying to increase the percentage of Catholics on its faculty.
Almost half the faculty -- 46 percent -- do not identify themselves as Catholics, the South Bend Tribune reported. The percentage of Catholics fell from 64 percent 20 years ago to a low of 52 percent in the 2004-2005 academic year before inching upward to 54 percent.
Donald Keough, a former chairman of the Coca Cola Co. and chairman emeritus of Notre Dame's board of trustees, his wife, Marilyn, and their five children have provided an endowment for chaired professorships for scholars committed to the university's mission as a Catholic institution. The chairs are to be called Keough-Hesburgh professorships, honoring President Emeritus Theodore Hesburgh as well.
Part of the money has been used to establish an office headed by the Rev. Robert Sullivan, a professor of history, to identify Catholic scholars elsewhere who might be interested in Notre Dame.
