Hesburgh: still in control after twenty-five years

SOUTHBEND, Ind. [AP] Practic­ ing the virtue of hum ility, the Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh submits his resignation as president of the University of Notre Dame once a year. But it hasn’t been accepted yet and isn’t likely to be accepted soon. Now in his 25th year at the helm of the nation’s best-known Catholic university, Hesburgh qualifies as dean of university presidents across the country. “ The cemeteries of the world are fu ll o f indispensable men and women, but somehow the world goes on. So does the world of colleges and universities,” he said recently. Still, while other university pres­ idents have come and gone during the last quarter-century, Hesburgh remains in firm control at Notre Dame. And the 8,800-student university, once known almost exclusively for its football program, is now an academic institution of growing prestige. P u litze r P rize -w in n in g a u th ­ or Norman M ailer, a Jew, was quoted in 1974 as saying he would send his 10-year-old son to the Catholic school i f the child were the proper age. “ I t ’s a great college," Mailer said. “ I can use the word ‘soul’ there and they don't snicker.” So while Knute Rockne’s reputa­ tion still may be alive on the 1,200-acre campus located incon­ gruously in northern Indiana a state where Catholics make up only 13 percent of the population so to are social science departments that *The o