When discipline goes too far at Notre Dame

Notre Dame is a place of rich history and tradition, which is a large part of what makes it special. Part of that tradition is religious, and while that can be polarizing at times, it does add a sense of higher purpose to everything we do at Notre Dame.

I am proud that my university uses its resources to make the world a better place, and I would never suggest that the religious aspect of Notre Dame should be eliminated (or that it ever could be). But I do think that there are some areas of life at Notre Dame that can be negatively affected by religion, specifically that many of the rectors are priests and nuns.

To be clear, there are some students who love their rectors, whether they are professed religious or not. Some rectors are incredible at their jobs – they are welcoming, attentive, warm and trustworthy. Some go above and beyond the call of duty – they have exponentially aided the development of a positive dorm experience and strong community.

However, there are some who simply do not seem suited for the position, and when these rectors assume the role of disciplinarian, their status as members of the Church takes on an unfortunate significance.

College students will always make bad decisions and break the rules. Most rules exist to keep us safe, and I’m not here to argue that if a student is caught, he or she shouldn’t accept the consequences. But Notre Dame is fairly unique in that, in addition to RAs, we also have adults living in the dorms to enforce the rules. Whether or not that’s beneficial is a question for another day, but I want to address the moral implications of being disciplined by a religious person.

One female student interviewed told this story: “Every semester our rector holds a house meeting, and one year, one of the topics was the way we dress to go out. She insinuated that our revealing clothes indicated that we were ‘asking for it’ and that we should treat ourselves with more respect.

“This was an awkward situation for a variety of reasons: not only was the comment coming from a nun, but our house meetings are conveniently located in the dorm chapel.”

Slut-shaming in any context is unacceptable, but the layer of religious judgment adds a completely new level of humiliation to the experience. This was not a one-time occurrence either, and another student reports her rector telling her, in effect, to stop dressing like a floozy.

Ideally, a nun or priest would not let religion influence the way they deal with the students under their supervision, at least not in any extreme way. That’s not how it always works, though.

I know students who have been told by their rector that they are morally corrupt for drinking underage. Others have been shamed for making mistakes typical of any college age individual and told that they are inherently bad people for breaking rules.

Hopefully, the student being disciplined would realize that this is completely inappropriate and disregard any implication that he or she is irredeemably evil for something like underage drinking. That shouldn’t be assumed, though.

It shouldn’t be the student’s responsibility to filter out the excess. Nuns and priests are religious authority, and the many Notre Dame students who are Catholic were told from an early age to obey Church authority figures. Even if a student can easily brush off attacks on his or her moral character, it’s still hard to ignore when a nun or a priest tells you that you’ve committed a grave sin.

It’s college – we make mistakes and we need room to grow. We don’t need to be told that our souls are permanently damaged.

This kind of atmosphere prevents open communication between rectors and students. One interviewee said: “There are some things I feel really uncomfortable talking to my rector about because of their religious background.”

This seems is quite ironic as the official webpage for Notre Dame rectors states, “Our rectors… are committed to one thing: caring for our students.” Rectors are also responsible for creating an environment that fosters conversation and spiritual growth. Treating students like heathens instead makes it nearly impossible for students to feel as if they are able to talk to rectors about the many difficult issues that arise during the course of four years of college.

There are several dorms on campus that have hired laypeople as rectors, and perhaps the rest of the dorms will follow suit in the future.

A layperson is obviously also capable of being emotionally manipulative, and the vast majority of religious men and women would never abuse the significance of their vocation. There are certainly even some benefits to having a nun or a priest as the leader of a community, so I don’t think the situation demands that we stop having professed religious as rectors.

I do believe, however, that the university should take greater care when hiring nuns or priests as rectors to be sure that they know how to act appropriately with the students. Those who go to extremes should be reprehended or even removed from the position. We shouldn’t assume that just because they belong to the Church that our rectors are infallible.