The article is about as nebulous as a recent glowing tribute to Fr. Wild, the outgoing president, that was in the Milwaukee Catholic Herald. Hard-hitting it is not. But rest assured the Milwaukee Journal will be featuring whatever Jeff Anderson has to say sometime soon.
From the MJS:
Pilarz has identified bolstering Marquette's academic reputation as his biggest challenge. At Scranton, which has an enrollment of about 6,000, Pilarz oversaw a remarkable turnover in faculty, largely the result of retirements, a change that's bemoaned by leaders of many universities. He said he expects the same thing to occur at Marquette, though he described it as "a tremendous opportunity to look at trends - where to hire." Marquette's enrollment stands at about 11,800.Pilarz's predecessor, Father Robert A. Wild, faced questions about his commitment to academic freedom last year after the university's decision to withdraw an offer to hire Seattle University professor Jodi O'Brien, a lesbian who is a gender studies scholar, as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.Wild said the school pulled the offer to run Marquette's largest college after he and other university leaders read academic writings by O'Brien that troubled them. The dean's position remains unfilled.Pilarz said he hasn't revisited the O'Brien controversy in conversations with faculty, but he has told them where he stands."I've never experienced any conflict between commitment to academic freedom and the university's identity as Catholic and Jesuit," Pilarz said. "There might be a little bit of tension that keeps us on our toes. But we are committed to academic freedom."
Read the whole thing here. What he never says is exactly WHERE he stands on the O'Brien topic. Nor on whether academic freedom will win out over Catholic teaching.