The Kept-Up Academic Librarian

College Grad's Student Loan Debt Puts Dream Of Becoming A Nun On Hold

Nicole Ferko’s $60,000 in student loans made her put off her dream of becoming a nun for a decade. Ferko, who lives in Grand Prairie, Texas, graduated from a private Ohio Catholic university in 2002 and walked away with a huge loan burden. But she discovered that individuals looking to become priests or nuns need to be debt free. With the loans and credit cards paid off, Ferke, 32, is now on track to become a sister with The Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth, but she won’t reach her ultimate goal of donning a nun's habit until she’s 39 because the process takes that long. Read more at:
http://lifeinc.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/02/11488298-student-loan-debt-delays-dream-of-becoming-nun?lite

It's Rare But Higher Education Institutions Do Change Religious Affiliation

New York Medical College was planning to change its affiliation to Jewish from Catholic when an employee approached Rabbi Moshe D. Krupka in the cafeteria, voice raised and finger wagging, and demanded, “When you take over, will I be able to eat my ham sandwich here?” Institutions of higher education switch religious affiliations, as New York Medical College did nine months ago, so rarely that there really is no playbook to follow. It has meant addressing countless wary questions as they arise. Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/05/nyregion/some-puzzles-as-new-york-medical-college-shifts-religious-affiliation.html?_r=1

Catholic IHEs Seek To Resist Ruling On Prescribing Birth Control

Many Catholic colleges decline to prescribe or cover birth control, citing religious reasons. Now they are under pressure to change. This month the Obama administration, citing the medical case for birth control, made a politically charged decision that the new health care law requires insurance plans at Catholic institutions to cover birth control without co-payments for employees, and that may be extended to students. But Catholic organizations are resisting the rule, saying it would force them to violate their beliefs and finance behavior that betrays Catholic teachings. Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/30/health/policy/law-fuels-contraception-controversy-on-catholic-campuses.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha23

Xavier University Constructs Its First Chapel

Moving past sweaty workers lugging tools and heavy equipment, architects Dave Coon and Mac Ball strode into Xavier University's chapel-in-progress.It was dim inside the eight-sided sanctuary, but there was just enough light for Coon to point out details in the soaring, sloping ceiling, which rises from 35 feet to 52 feet alongside Interstate 10 and has been a curiosity for drivers for months. The chapel -- the first free-standing place of worship in the black Catholic university's 86-year history -- was designed by Cesar Pelli, a world-renowned architect whose headquarters is in New Haven, Conn. Although Pelli's buildings are all over the planet, this is his firm's first house of worship. Read more at:
http://www.nola.com/education/index.ssf/2011/07/xavier_university_chapel_will.html

Call This Major Non-Religious Studies

Colleges and universities have long offered majors in religion or theology. But with more and more people now saying they have no religion, one college has decided to be the first to offer a major in secularism. Starting this fall, Pitzer College, a small liberal arts institution in Southern California, will inaugurate a department of secular studies. Professors from other departments, including history, philosophy, religion, science and sociology, will teach courses like “God, Darwin and Design in America,” “Anxiety in the Age of Reason” and “Bible as Literature.” Studying nonbelief is as valid as studying belief, Mr. Zuckerman said, and the new major will make that very clear. Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/08/us/08secular.html?_r=2&hpw

Gay And Lesbian Students Fight For Acceptance At Religious Colleges

Battles for acceptance by gay and lesbian students have erupted in the places that expect it the least: the scores of Bible colleges and evangelical Christian universities that, in their founding beliefs, see homosexuality as a sin. More gays and lesbians at Christian colleges are starting to come out of the closet, demanding a right to proclaim their identities and form campus clubs, and rejecting suggestions to seek help in suppressing homosexual desires. Facing vague prohibitions against “homosexual behavior,” many students worry about what steps — holding hands with a partner, say, or posting a photograph on a gay Web site — could jeopardize scholarships or risk expulsion. Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/19/us/19gays.html

Jesuits Try To Stay Relevant On College Campuses

At Fairfield’s leafy campus in southwestern Connecticut, the Jesuits teach subjects as diverse as philosophy and film production, while trying to help students develop “spiritual depth,” in the words of the Rev. Dr. Paul J. Fitzgerald, the university’s senior vice president for academic affairs. Their goal is to remain relevant, a problem on a campus where student concerns range from the shortage of parking spaces to rules forbidding the distribution of condoms. Once there were nearly 100 Jesuits — members of an order founded by St. Ignatius Loyola in the 16th century — at Fairfield. Today, there are 22. Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/education/edlife/edl-17jesuit-t.html?ref=edlife

The Hottest Campus For Jewish Students Is Also A Lutheran College

One of the hottest college campuses in the U.S. for Jewish students is also one of the unlikeliest: a small Lutheran school erected around a soaring stone chapel with a cross on top. Approximately 34 percent of Muhlenberg College's 2,200 students are Jewish. Perhaps equally noteworthy is how Muhlenberg has responded: offering a kosher menu at the student union, creating a partnership with the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, and expanding its Hillel House, a social hub for Jews. Read more at:
http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2011/03/28/pa_lutheran_college_hot_among_jewish_students/

Muslim Students At Catholic Colleges Creates Some Cultural Conflict

In the past few years, enrollment of Muslim students such as Shabnan has spiked at Catholic campuses across the country. Last year, Catholic colleges had an even higher percentage of Muslim students than the average four-year institution in the United States, according to the Higher Education Research Institute. The influx has astonished and sometimes befuddled administrators. Some Catholic campuses are creating prayer rooms for new Muslim students and hiring Islamic chaplains to minister to them. Others are unsure how to adapt. Muslim students say they enroll at Catholic schools for many of the same reasons as their classmates: attractive campuses, appealing professors and academic programs that fit their interests. But there is also a spiritual attraction to the values that overlap the two faiths. Read more at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/19/AR2010121904199.html

Muslim College Students Alarmed by Increased Hostility

All of it points to a swelling hostility that many of these students had scarcely known was there and that religious and political leaders worry could fuel alienation and radicalism among some young American Muslims. At AU, there is little evidence of that. With their scoopneck shirts and skinny jeans, they are part of the patchwork of ethnicities and religions woven through most U.S. campuses. For them, any suggestion that being Muslim is incompatible with being American is disturbing. Read more at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/26/AR2010082606319.html?wprss=rss_education