OVERVIEW: A new fund has been established at Notre Dame, under the auspices of the Center for Ethics and Culture, called “The Notre Dame Fund to Protect Human Life.” Its purpose is to support Right-to-Life activities at both the student and University levels. For purposes of this Fund, the phrase “human life” solely concerns human life in its earliest stages, from conception to the early days of infancy. While the sanctity of human life ought to be protected in all stages, these beginning stages are particularly vulnerable ones in our contemporary culture, and represent points at which human dignity and human life are subject to the most egregious attacks.
WHAT KIND OF FUND IS THIS?: The Fund is an expendable fund, which means that money within the Fund can be spent immediately as needed for purposes deemed worthwhile and within the scope of the purpose and priorities of the fund. We also hope that some donors will choose to establish endowments, which would provide annual funding to the expendable Fund to Protect Human Life. The official fund agreement is a part of the University’s records, and will be used as the guide for the committee to administer the funds in the future. The key provisions of that agreement are reproduced below.
ADMINISTRATION OF FUND: Allocations from the new Fund will be determined by a committee of five pro-life scholars, including the chair, Director of the Center for Ethics and Culture David Solomon. In addition to the chair, the initial Committee members shall be Daniel McInerny and Elizabeth Kirk (Associate Directors of the Notre Dame Center for Ethics & Culture), Rev. Wilson Miscamble, CSC (Professor of History), and O. Carter Snead (Associate Professor of Law and former Chief Counsel for the President’s Council on Bioethics). No Fund expenditures shall be authorized which are disapproved by more than one member of the Committee.
PURPOSES OF THE FUND: The purpose of the Notre Dame Fund to Protect Human Life is to educate Notre Dame students in the rich intellectual tradition supporting the dignity of human life, specifically in its beginning stages, and to prepare those students, through personal witness, public service, and prayer to transform the culture into one where every human life is respected. Secondary purposes of the Fund will be to encourage relevant understanding, support and involvement among the administration and faculty, and to promote activities and projects which will enhance the University’s institutional involvement and reputation as a leader in issues pertaining to the dignity and worth of human life in its beginning stages.
Consistent with these stated purposes, the Fund could be used to support activities such as:
IMPACT ON STUDENT CLUBS: It is important that the creation of this Fund does not take away from the undergraduate and law school student Right-to-Life clubs, but rather supports and amplifies their activities and programs. Those groups currently receive some minimal University funding, and their fundraising efforts have not always been sufficient to support their desired agendas. It is a challenge for students, who have just returned to campus each Fall to start a new school year with a full course load and a panoply of extracurricular activities, to then carry the additional burden of trying to raise funds to support those activities. Each year, funds have to be raised anew. This has made the club activity agenda somewhat “tentative” each year, depending on the success of fund raising, and in some years the full planned agenda has not been completed due to lack of funding. This new fund will not replace student fund-raising activities, but will be available as a backstop to ensure that the full student agenda of Right-to-Life activity gets funded each year.
HOW TO CONTRIBUTE: This Fund provides a vehicle for supporting Notre Dame, with assurance that donations will be used to protect the unborn and to maintain and build the Catholic character of Notre Dame. There are three ways to give:
Bequests: For information about how to include The Notre Dame Fund to Protect Human Life in your Will, contact the University of Notre Dame, Office of Gift Planning, 1100 Grace Hall, Notre Dame, IN 46556-5612, telephone 574-631-5776.
QUESTIONS: If you have any questions about The Notre Dame Fund to Protect Human Life, or want more information concerning the Fund, please contact David Solomon or Elizabeth Kirk, University of Notre Dame, Center for Ethics and Culture, 1047 Flanner Hall, Notre Dame, IN 46556, telephone 574-631-9656, e-mail ndethics@nd.edu.
