The saga around Notre Dame’s overlapping ethics centers is notable not just as an intra-academic dispute, but as an indication of how university administrators are implementing their ambitious “Notre Dame 2033” strategic plan.

The Jenkins Center is a specific application of the plan’s “Ethics Initiative,” which aims to establish Notre Dame as “a premier global destination for the study of ethics.” Critics like Father Miscamble have contended that the initiative’s ethical vision is not sufficiently rooted in a Christian anthropology and is pursuing questions that are no different than the kinds posed by secular schools.

The administrators’ decision to pursue their ethics goals by creating the Jenkins Center — rather than amplifying the already-existing de Nicola Center — is likely to raise concerns that “Notre Dame 2033” may be led by a different vision of Catholic identity than the one that has guided campus initiatives like the de Nicola Center.