The Green Revolution by Ralph McInerny Read Free Book Online Page A

.”
    â€œGeez.”
    â€œIt’s the last thing sung over the grave of a member of the Congregation.”
    Rimini sat back and gave his chair a push. He pointed to another chair. “Just put those things on the floor.” In profile, the huge hearing aid that seemed to plug up his ear was visible. “You’ve been there for the singing?”
    â€œSeveral times.”
    â€œI’ll go to the funeral of the last of them.” Having said this, though, his lips spread in a smile, displaying huge very white teeth.
    â€œYou’ve been here a long time.”
    â€œMy junior colleagues take my pulse every morning. One actually held a mirror to my mouth. They’re dying to hire my replacement.”
    â€œWhen do you retire?”
    â€œNever!”
    His office did not seem a place anyone would want to cling to tenaciously: a little box of a room, a wall of books, the desk a built-in affair, a computer, a strange concrete ceiling that looked like an egg carton. At least the window gave on a pretty slice of campus.
    â€œSo what’s on your mind? Football?”
    â€œWould you like to say something about that?”
    â€œNot for publication.”
    â€œActually, I’d like to ask you about the concern expressed by the administration about the percentage of Catholics on the faculty.”
    Rimini threw back his head and laughed joylessly.
    â€œAnything for publication?”
    â€œLook, put away your notebook. Let me give you some background. I’ve been here since just after the glacier went through. I’ve heard that kind of crap from the beginning. It’s all PR, aimed at a certain kind of alumnus or alumna—geez, what a word—graduates, and at donors, too.”
    â€œYou don’t think the concern is genuine?”
    â€œOf course not. Look, this place is still in the grip of the Irish drive for upward mobility. We want to be loved. At least they do. The administration. Look at the places they call our peer institutions. You think anyone at Stanford regards Notre Dame as a peer institution? It’s peering, all right, peering through the window of the candy store. It’s pitiable, calling this place a Catholic research university. Excellence.” He sputtered the word.
    â€œBut you say that things are better here now.” Bartholomew had brought along a sheaf of Rimini’s letters to the Observer .
    â€œThings are better. Because of the departmental hiring committees. We’ve been selecting good candidates for years. Do you think they really cared over there that few of them are Catholic?”
    â€œThere’s a group of alumni who predict that the percentage of Catholics on the faculty will continue to drop.”
    â€œOf course it will.”
    â€œThat doesn’t bother you?”
    Rimini rubbed his bald head. “Look, I was here when nearly everyone was Catholic.”
    â€œAre you?”
    Rimini’s eyes narrowed, then again the great false smile. “I don’t make a career of it.”
    â€œYou’re in economics.”
    â€œFor my sins.” Rimini’s eyes widened. “Now where did that come from? As the twig is bent.”
    â€œHow many in the economics department are Catholic?”
    â€œWho cares? What has being Catholic got to do with economics?”
    â€œNothing?”
    â€œNot if you want the department to rank high.”
    â€œIn one of your letters you say some pretty witty things about this obsession with rankings.”
    â€œYou want consistency, go talk to a philosopher. Besides, I was talking of football. The coaches are out recruiting kids who rank high on the basis of some national scale. Those rankings are about as reliable as rankings of colleges and universities by U.S. News & World Report . Who made them the bureau of standards?”
    â€œIf I understand you, you’re saying that the percentage of Catholics on the faculty is