University of Notre Dame officials are considering opening a satellite campus in China through a joint residential liberal arts college with Zhejiang University.
Under the partnership, the college will be incorporated at the Zhejiang University's international campus based in Haining, China.
If pushed through, the Notre Dame campus in China will be accepting enrollees for the academic year 2017-2018. Of the projected 1,000 undergraduate students that will be admitted, 70 percent is allotted for Chinese nationals, while the remaining 30 percent is for international students.
The liberal arts college will run autonomously and will be directed by a dedicated governing council. The campus's officials will be composed of members from both Notre Dame and Zhejiang University. The residents of both academic institutions will serve as the council's chairpersons.
J. Nicholas Entrikin, Notre Dame's vice president, penned a white paper regarding the subject matter in October last year. Entrikin is incidentally the university's associate provost for internationalization. The paper, which circulated in the university's faculty, was co-authored by Jonathan Noble, the assistant provost for Asia.
Earlier in January, Notre Dame's independent school journal, "Irish Rover," reported that several faculty members voiced out their doubts about the partnership during a Dec. 5 town hall meeting.
One reason pointed out is the conflict between the Notre Dame's Catholic identity and China's anti-Catholic policies.
"I wonder if we'll be able to be ourselves in China," theology professor John Cavadini argued.
"Can we have a chapel there in which Mass is celebrated and in which there are no restrictions on who can come to Mass? Or are we going to censor ourselves and the Holy Mass? I wonder if Catholic theology will be taught and will be available and open to all students," Cavadini further emphasized.
When asked about the progress of this concern, Entrikin directed reporters from "The College Fix" to university spokesman Dennis Brown. Brown, however, declined to comment.