Conflict in the Catholic Colleges

The Catholic colleges, founded both to prepare immigrant Catholics to swim in the mainstream of society, and to provide them with a set of spiritual water-wings, that they might not lose their faith there, are experiencing the stresses of any institution which must accommodate itself to a milieu that no longer takes its definitions of reality for granted. Faced with increasing costs and a diminished distinctiveness of educational product, the Catholic institutions of higher learning must face difficult decisions involving both their via bility and their desirability. A number of key issues which must be resolved are discussed under the headings of "Clientele," "Religious Communities," "The Institutional Church," "Faculty and Administration," and "The Future." It is suggested that there is no necessary contradiction between the terms "Catholic" and "university," and that it is possible that, freed from the constraints of state legislatures and boards of regents, the Catholic colleges may be able to shake loose from the false professionalism now characterizing higher edu cation in America, drawing from a distinctive set of values and traditions to work against the fragmentation which is at the root of much that is wrong in the groves of academe.