[religion, hist] Buying the Religion out of US Universities
Huh. Fascinating. From Justin Fox at Bloomberg View (h/t MarginalRevolution): A less-familiar story that Zunz recounts in his book is how the Carnegie Foundation for the Enhancement of Teaching used its wealth and clout to pressure existing private institutions to move away from their sectarian roots as training academies for ministers and shift to a more scientific approach.
To participate in the faculty pension plan created by Carnegie, which has since evolved into giant asset manager TIAA-CREF, colleges had to remove all requirements that administrators, trustees, faculty or students belong to a particular religious denomination. After much grumbling -- from Brown, Northwestern and Princeton in particular -- the colleges fell in line.
I hadn't heard about that before. Anybody here know more about this?
To participate in the faculty pension plan created by Carnegie, which has since evolved into giant asset manager TIAA-CREF, colleges had to remove all requirements that administrators, trustees, faculty or students belong to a particular religious denomination. After much grumbling -- from Brown, Northwestern and Princeton in particular -- the colleges fell in line.
I hadn't heard about that before. Anybody here know more about this?