From the issue dated March 29, 2002
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Finding Their VoiceConservative newspapers at Catholic colleges aim to be heardBy BETH McMURTRIE Last fall, The Georgetown Academy, an independent student publication at
And that was just the first article. The October issue also criticized "the gay activist agenda" on campus, labeled the university chaplain "cold and belligerent," and castigated "misandyrst [sic] women's studies faculty members and females in the university's feminist Women's Center." Needless to say, the Academy has made a few enemies. And that suits it just fine. Established in 1990, the monthly journal hews to conservative and orthodox Catholic views on most issues. In the Academy's often acerbic opinion, the leaders of the country's most prominent Roman Catholic university are itching to jettison its Catholic heritage. And the Academy aims to stop them. "The thing about the Academy is, we're straight shooters," says Barry Schiffman, editor in chief. "If Georgetown is doing something inconsistent with what Catholicism purports, I think we have a role in speaking up." The Georgetown Academy is one of only a handful of alternative conservative student publications at the country's 235 Catholic colleges. But there may soon be more. The Cardinal Newman Society, an organization dedicated to renewing the Catholic identity of Catholic colleges, has begun fostering such newspapers around the country. Last fall, it created the Catholic Campus Media Network and recruited some high-profile conservative writers, including the former presidential speechwriter Peggy Noonan, to its advisory board. Although still in its infancy, the network plans to offer training, mentors, fund-raising assistance, and a wire service to students who want to start alternative papers on their campuses. "There are traditional students at a lot of schools across the country who are concerned, and they feel they are in a lit-tle ghetto in their own schools because they're not the prevailing viewpoint," says Kathryn Jean Lopez, executive editor of National Review Online and director of the network. Conservative students echo this thought. The established campus newspapers, they say, rarely ask questions about their college's Catholic identity, and frequently take liberal positions on issues such as feminism and homosexuality. Some students also worry that administrators and faculty members seem equally disinterested in Catholic issues. "A local joke about Boston College is that it is Barely Catholic," says Gary Gabor, a senior editor at Crossroads, which made its debut two years ago. Mr. Gabor points to the university's reputation as a party school and says administrators rarely talk about concerns such as premarital sex and drinking within the context of Catholic teachings. "We ask students to consider what it means to be at a Catholic university, and the administration fails to engage them to consider this," he says. Virtually every Catholic college in the United States has been wrestling with the issue of its religious identity for years, prompted in large part by a 1990 papal document, Ex corde Ecclesiae, that calls on them to strengthen and clarify their Catholic character. But conservative-newspaper editors remain dissatisfied with what they consider perpetual lapses from Catholic doctrine: productions of The Vagina Monologues on campuses, abortion-rights speakers at college events, gay student groups lobbying for resources. A Tough Market The network has its job cut out for it. Independent, student-run newspapers frequently come and go, reliant as they are on the dedication of a handful of students willing to put in long hours. Student editors say the cost of publishing a single issue can run from $300 to $800. Because they are independent of the university, they have to rely on donations and advertisements. Two of the country's most-prominent Catholic institutions, the University of Notre Dame and the Catholic University of America, once had conservative publications, but they are now defunct. Only Georgetown, Boston College, Villanova, and the University of Dallas currently publish alternative papers with a conservative or Catholic emphasis, according to supporters of such publications. Students at Holy Cross expect to publish the first issue of their recently revived conservative newspaper this month, and Ms. Lopez said she has been contacted by students at two other colleges interested in starting a paper. The Catholic Campus Media Network is getting help from some familiar faces in the conservative-journalism movement. Two nonprofit groups, the Intercollegiate Studies Institute and the Leadership Institute, both of which train conservative student leaders on college campuses, are represented on the network's advisory board. The Intercollegiate Studies Institute has been the primary benefactor of conservative student newspapers through its Collegiate Network program, which offers journalism workshops and annual grants of between $1,000 and $5,000 to publications at Catholic universities and about 70 other colleges. The Leadership Institute also provides some start-up grants and training for student-newspaper editors. Ms. Lopez says that although the network won't provide grants, it plans to offer columns by Catholic commentators like Deal Hudson, editor of Crisis magazine, to the newspapers free of charge. The network also aims to connect student newspapers with alumni who may offer financial support. The project is already rubbing some people the wrong way. Monika K. Hellwig, executive director of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities, says the network's sponsor, the Cardinal Newman Society, preaches a narrow definition of Catholicism. Members of her association suspect the society of trying to use student newspapers to further its ideology and worry that such papers may create divisiveness at their colleges. "The idea for student publications is great, but it should be coming from within the campus," she says. "This is kind of a supercampus, one that is trying to control and dominate what is going on there." Ms. Lopez rejects the idea that the Cardinal Newman Society is using students for its ends. If it were, she asks, why would it put a full-time journalist in charge of the network? "The project isn't about National Review politics, it doesn't have to be politically conservative," she says. "The idea is to get kids discussing Catholic issues and know what the Vatican teaches." Diversity of Catholic Papers The existing alternative newspapers on Catholic campuses present a range of ideologies. Crossroads, at Boston College, is more religious than political in focus. The newspaper praised The Vagina Monologues for raising awareness about women's sexuality, even as it argued against including sexual orientation in the campus's nondiscrimination policy. It also supported a decision by the college to buy its coffee through a "fair trade" program. Justice, at the University of Dallas, and The Villanova Times are more politically and socially conservative, although there is a fair amount of overlap with traditional Catholic thinking. The Villanova Times, for example, ran an article this year criticizing professors who refused to excuse students from class to attend an anti-abortion rally in Washington. Justice devotes a section to Catholic issues and runs news from the Vatican's wire service. The Georgetown Academy is by far the most combative. Some of its favorite targets are professors and administrators it deems too liberal, gay activists, and feminists. In 1998, hundreds of copies of an issue calling for the resignation of the university's president at the time, the Rev. Leo J. O'Donovan, were stolen. The Hoya, Georgetown's primary student newspaper, gloated, calling the Academy's editors "whining brats" who "wouldn't know a Catholic value if it sidled up and punched them square in the jaw." That editorial also praised the "thoughtful soul" who stole the publication, although the newspaper later apologized for failing to defend the Academy's right to print. To its critics, the Academy may seem single-minded, but its writers are a diverse bunch. Some want to preach the gospel of political conservatism. Others are driven to speak out against the distribution of condoms on the campus. Still others fight perceived threats to the traditional liberal-arts curriculum. And, this year at least, the majority of writers are not even Catholic. Mr. Schiffman, the editor in chief, is Jewish. He says he's had a great experience at Georgetown, both as an undergraduate and a law student. He admits he's not as critical of Georgetown's Catholic character -- or lack thereof -- as some fellow writers are. Still, he says, being at a Catholic university has deepened his own faith, and it troubles him that Georgetown seems "ashamed" of aspects of its Catholic identity. He mentions a debate several years ago about whether to put crucifixes in the classrooms. It was a cause the Academy championed, and ultimately, the administration agreed to do so. Cindy Searcy, the executive editor, grew up in a rural, blue-collar Kentucky town and says that "a lot of students here who call themselves liberal really have never met a poor person and would have no idea what to do with them." A Southern Baptist who is ardently anti-abortion and antifeminist, she is quite happy at Georgetown, even though, she says, she gets flak for working at the Academy. Once, she says, "someone shouted at me that I was a racist, fundamentalist propagandist." Amar Weisman, a senior editor, calls himself "probably the most conservative member of the Academy." Like Mr. Schiffman, he is Jewish, and he also perceives serious threats to the university's traditions. Many on campus seem caught up in cultural relativism, he says, and are dismissive of classical studies. He wrote an article for the October issue criticizing gay activists on the campus and calling homosexuality immoral. "When I say immoral, I mean it goes against what's normal," he explains. "It doesn't mean we should hurt individuals." Plenty of Critics Homophobia is one of the more common charges leveled at the Academy. It has vociferously opposed the creation of a resource center for gay students, arguing that Georgetown does not need to spend money on what it calls a special-interest group, particularly one that it feels already has plenty of support on campus. "For goodness' sake, this place is like a 24-hour gay bar in the Castro," the editors wrote in one issue. Kate McDonald, an openly gay student, says such remarks show how out of touch the Academy is. Georgetown, she says, is tolerant of gay students but far from openly supportive. "I think people who aren't affected by it think it's entertaining," she says of the Academy. "But if you're one of the groups that they're attacking, and the administration is letting it, it definitely gives the impression that it's OK to say those things." Some professors who have been ridiculed in the Academy's pages say the newspaper's language borders on character assassination. Margaret Stetz, an associate professor of English and women's studies, has been one of the publication's favorite targets, in large part because of her work as a faculty adviser to the Women's Center. She has been called "pro-homosexuality," "pro-abortion," and a "feminasty." In an e-mail message, Ms. Stetz wrote that the Academy's criticisms of her over a number of years "have created a long-term hostile workplace environment" and "defamed me to my colleagues and students." Alexander Sens, chairman of the classics department and former chairman of the university's Media Board, which finances a number of other student publications, says the Academy's tendency to shout down those it disagrees with limits the impact of its ideas on the campus. "I think they would have a very positive role in the campus debate if there were any indication that they were willing to listen to people without assaulting them," says Mr. Sens, who himself has been criticized in the Academy's pages. Julie Green Bataille, a spokeswoman for the university, says that because the Academy is an independent publication, Georgetown has no control over it, nor would the university try to hinder its right to publish. She maintains, however, that the Academy's claim that Georgetown is losing its Catholic identity "is simply incorrect." The Academy has its defenders. Aaron Kass, a senior who calls himself a moderate Democrat and "socially very liberal," refutes talk that the Academy is prejudiced. "I don't think over all they're homophobic or racist or sexist," he says. "I think they're overall conservative. I think sometimes people can have a knee-jerk response and be offended by it." In fact, last year Mr. Kass himself was offended enough to write an op-ed article for The Hoya criticizing one of the Academy's satiric pieces. Still, he says, "I find them to effectively present the opinions they're trying to get across. The Academy is not out to make people approve of them. They're not out to change numerous people's opinions. They're out to make people think." The Academy's staff members say they play fair by limiting their criticism to public statements by public figures on the campus. Ross Grimes, a sophomore and the publisher, calls Ms. Stetz "a fair target," because of her work. They also say that plenty of their articles attempt to be intellectually stimulating and praise aspects of Georgetown. Recent articles have discussed Cardinal John Henry Newman and his influential essay "The Idea of a University," lauded Georgetown's longtime rabbi, and assessed campus architecture. But they freely admit that taking on the sacred cows of the left is part of their mission. "I often feel like if we weren't here," says Mr. Grimes, "the administration would have a free run." http://chronicle.com Section: Students Page: A38
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Copyright © 2002 by The Chronicle of Higher Education