TAKE A BITE FROM THE BURGER BIBLE PAGE 16
Vol. # 96, Issue # 16
CHICHACHA | Creative Commons
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March 12, 2012
Catholic conundrum
COMMENTARY
Got to admit, it’s getting better
Men’s hoops making steady progress By JULIAN ZENG Sports Editor
LAURA COLLINS | The DePaulia
Percentage of Catholics at DePaul lower than other Catholic universities By EVA GREEN Contributing Writer A study of student faiths at DePaul, deemed the largest Catholic University in the nation, has concluded that Catholic students are not the majority at the school. Statistics gathered by the Institutional Research and Market Analytics strategy group illustrate that while 33 percent of students at DePaul declare their Catholic faith, nearly 45 percent of the student body do not identify themselves as being part of any sort of faith-based religion. Although “First Things Magazine,” a publication through The Institute on Religion and Public Life, ranked DePaul the “Least Catholic Catholic School” in
past years, it is undeniably the largest Catholic university by enrollment with 25,398 total students, 8,314 of which identify as Catholic. St. John’s University follows closely behind with 21,354 students, and as of 2010, reports
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Senior mathematics and economics double major, Michael VanDorpe, who serves on the Pastoral Council, is a liturgist assistant and facilitates student mass, said although DePaul may not have the highest number of Catholic students; its
There has been no time in the university’s history that DePaul has required students or employees to declare their religious affiliation.
JAY BRAATZ
a higher percentage of Catholic students with 46 percent of its students identifying as Catholic, compared to the 33 percent at DePaul. Senior finance major, Adam Belkalrous, identifies as Agnostic and despite his Catholic upbringing said, “I go to church when my parents force me.”
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identity is illustrated through its Vincentian values, “values of service and to the poor.” VanDorpe also admitted that the founding values at DePaul, based on the practices of Saint Vincent de Paul, are found in many faiths and are often “universal values to humanity.” “While we are a Catholic University, we are not the
Catholic Church,” he said while describing DePaul as supporting diversity in a way not always accepted by the Catholic Church such as issues within the LBGT community. VanDorpe said this inclusion is one way that the university is projecting its Vincentian values which includes “respecting who people are…and how they are born is important…” He described DePaul as keeping up with its Catholic tradition in many ways, such as offering religious services at the school. “People don’t necessarily always see it, but it’s always there,” he said. DePaul offers prayer, meeting and meditation rooms to support its diverse religious community. Course offerings at DePaul include Catholic
Rebuilding is often a slow, gradual process. Teams will enjoy long runs of success, then plummet to the bottom, losing players to free agency, having trades go awry or, in the case of college sports, simply seeing talent depart for greener pastures. The DePaul men’s basketball team is rebuilding. The 2011-12 campaign, which ended Tuesday with an 81-67 loss to Connecticut in the opening round of the Big East Championship, marked the team’s fifth straight season with a losing record. With the program’s hiring of head coach Oliver Purnell prior to the ‘10‘11 season and heavy recruiting of potential-laden players like Cleveland Melvin and Brandon Young, it is clear that rekindling their winning ways of the past is priority number one. Sure, the team recorded just five more wins than last season, finishing with a 12-19 record. But with three solid Big East conference victories and a handful of other losses by the narrowest of margins, the Blue See MEN’S HOOPS, page 26
See CATHOLIC, page 5
College of Law under fire for misrepresentation
By DYLAN McHUGH Contributing Writer
A class action law suit was filed against DePaul University’s College of Law for allegedly misrepresenting their postgraduation employment statistics and mean salary data, along with similar suits against 14 other law schools. The class action, filed Feb. 1, alleged that the College of
Law makes it appear to the reasonable consumer that its reports of 88 to 98 percent employment rates refer to fulltime, permanent positions that require a law degree. The class action stated that if DePaul were to only include full-time legal positions, the post-graduation employment rate “could be well below 50 percent, if not lower.” In addition, it alleges that DePaul “grossly inflates its graduates’ reported mean salaries,” by failing to include
people who do not provide their salary information or do not have employment. The plaintiffs in the class action are eight DePaul College of Law alumni. Of the eight plaintiffs, two of them have fulltime legal employment, four have part-time legal employment, and two have jobs outside of the legal sector. Gregory Mark, dean of DePaul’s College of Law, said that DePaul’s statistics were accurate and that they complied
with American Bar Association (ABA) regulations. “The ABA has acknowledged for decades that graduates want to use their degrees for many different things,” Mark said. “There’s a lot of bad publicity about job prospects. DePaul is not immune from the effects of a bad economy.” The class action stated that instead of giving graduates a See LAW page 9
GRANT MYATT | The DePaulia
Cleveland Melvin is set to take on a leadership role next season.