For a number of personal and professional reasons, Michael O’Brien’s 1998 biography of former Notre Dame president Theodore Hesburgh has occupied a significant portion of my side reading time. While wrapping up the chapter covering his final years as president (in office from 1952 to 1987), I noticed that O’Brien utilized the Gourman Report as a reference for assessing the university’s progress under Hesburgh. The Report ranked Notre Dame’s law school as #36 in the country and its undergraduate business program as #39.[1] I questioned why O’Brien selected law and undergraduate business as his marker points, and that led me Read more