Notre Dame Considers Opening Satellite Campus – in China

The College Fix ^ | 2/23/15 | Alexandra DeSanctis

[marshmallow]

Officials quiet about status of discussion after several scholars voice concern

Officials at the University of Notre Dame are contemplating opening a satellite campus in China, but the discussion has prompted concern among some faculty who say the notion runs afoul of the school’s Catholic identity and, if approved, would appear to condone some of the communist country’s anti-Catholic policies.

The partnership under consideration would be a joint residential liberal arts college with Zhejiang University at the school’s new international campus in Haining, China.

The college would open for the 2017-18 academic year and is projected to admit 1,000 undergraduate students, 70 percent Chinese and 30 percent international, according to Notre Dame officials. The college would operate autonomously, directed by a governing council, comprised of members from Zhejiang University and Notre Dame and chaired by the presidents of both universities.

A white paper on the subject was authored by J. Nicholas Entrikin, Notre Dame’s vice president and associate provost for internationalization, and Jonathan Noble, the university’s assistant provost for Asia. Circulated to Notre Dame faculty in October, it states that the international campus “will be composed of six colleges and institutes, each developed in joint partnership with North American and European university partners … This past summer Notre Dame and [Zhejiang University] signed an agreement to hold bilateral discussions about the feasibility of this joint venture.”

[SeekAndFind]

Notre Dame is supposed to be a Catholic University.

The Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, abbreviated CPA, CPCA, or CCPA, is an association of people, established in 1957 by the People’s Republic of China’s Religious Affairs Bureau to exercise state supervision over mainland China’s Catholics.

It is the only organisational body of Catholics in China officially recognised by the government of the People’s Republic of China, but is not recognised by the Vatican.

The Government of China wants no organization in mainland China owing allegiance to “foreign influence”, in this case, the Pope in Rome. Critics of the CPCA argue that it was created precisely to establish state control over Catholicism in mainland China.

I wonder how this relationship is going to play out....

Unless Notre Dame has already thrown out all claims to be Catholic, except in name only...