In the latest issue of a campus newspaper, alumnus John Madigan says the University of Notre Dame is still “deeply conflicted.” Notre Dame is “torn between its yearning for academic and worldly respect and its mission of service to the Church.” Madigan provides the example of a platform given by the University to Cathie Black, the President of Hearst Magazines, whose success is largely due to the “fleshy” and “lurid” Cosmopolitan. Black’s talk, given on October 2, was sponsored by Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business's Center for Ethics and Religious Values in Business.

“She fairly bragged that Cosmo and other Hearst titles sell with sex,” writes Madigan about the talk, of which Notre Dame provides an online video. She “displayed several covers specifically to make that point - then proudly identified the Russian language edition of Cosmo as the most widely read publication among young women in Western Europe. Incredibly, she called Cosmo a ‘bible’ there, one that ‘even the guys look to’ as a ‘playbook.’ A follow-up quip that she'd spoken enough about sex, something ‘we know Notre Dame students never, ever think about’ added a touch of insult to the injury.” Sources: The Observer and Notre Dame