When Marty Rodgers arrived at the University of Notre Dame for his freshman year, he felt disappointed by the level of diversity on campus — and considered transferring. Over winter break, he wrote an editorial on the subject for the student newspaper, challenging the status quo.
“I’d like to tell you that it was a very thoughtful piece and well-argued and well-articulated,” Rodgers says. “But instead now that I look back at it as an adult, it was filled with the hubris of a freshman that thought he knew it all.”
Rodgers was in for a shock when he saw his piece printed in the paper calling out Notre Dame’s then-President Father Theodore Hesburgh, an iconic civil rights leader. “It has this bold headline: ‘Father Hesburgh’s commitment to civil rights has waned,’” he says. “I thought, ‘Wow, I am going to get kicked out of school, and my parents are going to kick me out of the house.’”
He soon got a call in his dorm room. It was Hesburgh’s office.
“One…
Read the full story from the Washington Business Journal.
