In a recent essay in The Observer, Law School Professor Emeritus Charles Rice examines several troublesome by-products of the University’s drive to be recognized as a top tier research institution. All of them – for example, a “diminished emphasis on undergrad teaching” – are of interest. In terms of Catholic identity, the truly alarming consequence is the “decrease of Catholic faculty” already experienced and to be anticipated. Before introducing Professor Rice’s essay, we briefly describe as background several of the key factors we have analyzed at length in prior newsletters. When the present slender 53% arithmetical Catholic faculty majority is discounted to account for nominal and dissident Catholics, there is no longer the majority of committed Catholics that the Mission Statement declares to be necessary to the school’s Catholic identity.