Argument and the Purpose of the Catholic University

The telos, or end, of a university, what makes it different from a Scout summer camp, Bell Labs, Human Rights Watch, Dairy Queen, and the Notre Dame football team, is the search for truth. The condition that enables the search for truth is freedom. Freedom means that a student, professor, or anyone at all in the university may pose a question, express a view, or pursue an argument without suffering, or fearing that she will suffer, a material penalty -- a lower grade, censorship, a loss of job or position, a demotion, the denial of tenure or promotion, or any other sort of sanction.