In Erikson's terms, she writes about ways dissenting Catholics resolve identity crises. The mission of the college would have to be to preserve one or more distinctively Catholic traditions and most members of the college would have to embrace the collective mission as a personal vocation. The college would try both to select conforming employees and to indoctrinate those whose conformity to its particular version of Catholicism was deficient. Diversity of belief might be tolerated, but could not be encouraged, for the greater the diversity, the weaker the Catholic identity of the college. A retreat from this vision can be found in the qualifying statements that this condition should be met as far as is possible.
Further retreats are in the affirmations of diversity and academic freedom that are in the text.
In spite of these qualifications, however, the vision of collective Catholic identity remains strong. This vision is an impossible dream. It is impossible because the members of contemporary Catholic colleges and universities are too committed both to diversity and to academic excellence to promote the kind of doctrinal uniformity implied by the dream. Excellence in higher education depends upon faculty members who are dedicated to their disciplines. They embrace the traditions within their disciplines, and seek to teach them in their integrity.