News

Holy Cross men’s basketball (15-13, 9-5 PL) opens up play in the 2012 Patriot League Tournament on Feb. 29, when it plays host to Lafayette (12-17, 7-7 PL) in the quarterfinals at 7 p.m. at the Hart Center. The Crusaders are the fourth seed in the tournament, while the Leopards are seeded fifth. The Crusaders enter the Patriot League Tournament having won its last six games.

The winner of the Holy Cross-Lafayette game will move on to face the Bucknell-Navy winner in the semifinals on March 3, with the championship game set for March 7.

Women’s basketball (16-13, 7-7 Patriot League) will play as the No. 5 seed in the league tournament, matching up with No. 4 seed Army (14-15, 8-6 PL). The Crusaders will travel to West Point, N.Y. for a 7 p.m. contest at Christl Arena on March 1.

For the sixth straight year, all games in the Patriot League Tournament will be played on the campus of the higher seed.

Update: Crusaders Fall To Lafayette 84-76

For more information, visit GoHolyCross.com.

The Holy Cross Chaplains’ Office reports that 280 students — or one in 10 students at the College — will spend their spring break, March 5 to 9, doing community service.

Students will work in 26 different locations in 12 states across the country, including sites in Appalachia, New Orleans, Colorado, New Mexico, and El Paso, Texas as part of the 37th annual Spring Break Immersion Program.

For the second year in a row, 38 students will spend the week in immersion experiences at L’Arche communities in six cities across the country. L’Arche is a faith-based international federation of people with and without intellectual disabilities.

Students will work on a range of activities depending on the site. They assist communities with home repair, clean up and paint; work in schools, soup kitchens and women’s shelters; call on the elderly or disabled people, and learn about the various cultures of the regions.

“We are in awe at the large numbers of Holy Cross students who seek this type of experience year after year,” says Martin Kelly, assistant chaplain and director of the Spring Break Immersion program. “I truly feel that the program’s success is in the experience of real community that students have during the week — both with their peers from Holy Cross and with their hosts in cities and small towns across the country.”

As in past years, student leaders have been organizing program details since September, including securing sites and student participation. This year’s co-chairs are Katie Giardino, of Cranston, R.I., Sara MacKenzie, of Westwood Mass., and Michael Rogers, of East Providence, R.I.

Students who take part in the program gain a lot from the experience.

“It is a meaningful way to spend a week — they meet new friends, they provide service to communities in need, they form relationships with people from many walks of life, they explore faith together, and they ask larger questions about social justice which arise from their experiences,” says Kelly.

The Chaplains’ Office received financial support from the Student Government Association, the President’s Office, Holy Cross Alumni Association, Holy Cross’ Jesuit Community, and the McFarland Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture.

Related Information:

• Chaplains’ Office

Her story is one of adversity and inspiration. As a young girl, Lenore Montanaro ’12 courageously battled cancer on three occasions, losing her right leg to an amputation when she was just 11 years old. Even as she underwent years of treatments and hospital stays, Montanaro was compelled to help other sick children who “weren’t as lucky” as she was.

At the age of five, she started raising money and collecting toys for Hasbro Children’s Hospital near her hometown in North Kingstown, R.I. Her passion for service continued in high school and at Holy Cross, where she has been active in several service organizations. But it was the passing of her younger brother, John, who died last spring from Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, that motivated her to expand and promote the fund created in his honor—one of several projects for which she was recently recognized by Citizens Bank.

Chosen from a pool of nearly 1,800 applicants, Montanaro was named the $5,000 second place winner of the bank’s TruFit Good Citizen Scholarship—which was created as a way to recognize students whose volunteer efforts have made a difference in their communities. “In the spirit of the College’s Jesuit mission, Lenore has proven to be a true ‘woman for others,’ through her service work both on and off campus,” says Jacqueline Peterson, vice president for student affairs and dean of students. “We are proud of her accomplishments and know she will continue to inspire and serve her community.”

Montanaro credits her affinity for helping others to her brother, who despite being 14 months younger, always set a positive example for her. She recalls John constantly encouraging her to “do the right thing” a simple adage that inspired Montanaro’s commitment to volunteer work and exemplifies her compassion for the less fortunate. “His memory continues to inspire me in all that I do,” she shares. “He and I were best friends.”

An active member of the Holy Cross community, Montanaro spent last summer working as a Student Programs for Urban Development (SPUD) disability law intern with Community Legal Aid, a local organization that assists low-income and elderly residents who are unable to afford legal services. In addition, Montanaro spent more than 100 hours over the past three years working with Worcester Public School students on the brink of leaving school. Montanaro enjoys keeping in contact with her students who now email for advice on college—something they say they never considered until she entered their lives.

In addition to her service work through Holy Cross, Montanaro spends her time promoting the John Montanaro Fund. Founded in his honor by the Ocean State Veterinary Hospital in East Greenwich, R.I., after his death, the fund raises money for oncology treatments for pets suffering with cancer—a cause that he was passionate about.

An English major, creative writing concentrator, and member of the Prelaw Program, Montanaro plans to attend law school to study trial and civil rights litigation with the goal of fighting against legal injustice. Montanaro remembers her brother telling her she would be a great lawyer someday and she attributes much of her success to his constant encouragement and support. “My main goal is to continue efforts regarding memorializing my brother John,” she says. “I know that I have a lot to give, as I continue to follow the advice of my loving brother.”

Rev. Anthony Kuzniewski, S.J., professor of history, drew on the lessons of the early civil rights movement to encourage students “to accept the vocation of being men and women for others” during a homily he delivered at a Feb. 19 Mass in Mary Chapel.

Inspired by Black History Month, he explored the vocations and callings of Abraham Lincoln, Rosa Parks, and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Fr. Kuzniewski described his homily as a sort of prelude to the story of “Fraternity,” about African American men at Holy Cross in the late 1960s and early 1970s — a time of racial tension. “As men and women of the Cross, we can’t just ignore these things,” he said. “To retreat into ignorance on these issues, or to go on as if they didn’t matter, would be to act like lost souls, to sell out our birthright as daughters and sons of Holy Cross, to conceal our light under a bushel, just like the man who buried his master’s funds instead of investing them.”

***

Feb. 19, 2012
Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

See, I am doing something new! Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? In the desert I make a way, in the wasteland, rivers. The people I formed for myself, that they might announce my praise. (Isaiah 43)

Brothers and Sisters in the Lord:

February is Black History Month, and we are blessed here at Holy Cross that this year’s commemoration of African-Americans’ contribution to the nation occurs while we are still basking in the glow of the publication of “Fraternity” and of the events surrounding the honorary degree awarded to Clarence Thomas ’71. “See, I am doing something new,” says God in today’s first reading. When and how the making of God’s newness comes to pass, has everything to do with the willingness of human beings to accept the vocation of being men and women for others.

Consider Abraham Lincoln, whose 203rd birthday we celebrated earlier this month. One of my favorite moments in his life is at the second inaugural in March of 1865. The war was almost won, and he talked about God. Both sides invoke God’s aid in this war, he said. The prayers of both cannot be answered, and the prayers of neither may be. The war, he suggested, was America’s punishment for the sin of slavery; and if God willed that the war should last 200 years to atone for the 200 years in which blacks had been held under the lash, and until the blood spilt in war came up to the measure of the blood spilt in slavery, still nobody could argue against the justice of God. God may be on our side, as our T-shirts proudly proclaim; but God is never exclusively with us because all of us are imperfect, which was Lincoln’s point. Getting ourselves on God’s side is the challenge of our lifetimes.

Consider Rosa Parks. For a good part of my life, I assumed that she was simply a well-intentioned black woman who sat down on a bus. But once you get to know her story, it becomes clear that far more was at stake.

For starters, she had a high school education — only a small percentage of Southern black women in her generation were so well educated. She was an officer in the Montgomery chapter of NAACP. She tried three times before she succeeded in registering to vote. She was a woman of deep faith, active in her church and taught Sunday School to children. Shortly before the bus episode in Montgomery, Alabama, in1955, she attended a workshop on racial equality in Tennessee; and there, as a fully mature adult, she had her first experience of sitting down to dinner and being waited on by a white person. She had a history with the driver of that bus on which she was arrested. A dozen years earlier, following the segregation laws, she had paid her fare at the front door, then made her way to the rear door to enter the bus, only to have him close the door in her face and take off. Ever since, she had refused to ride a bus he was driving, but on this day she was so tired that she didn’t notice the driver until after she had boarded. And when they arrested her, she said, “You may do that.” She gave them permission; she, and the God she believed in with all her strength, allowed the arrest to happen.

Do you see what was at stake here? Called to be a woman for others, Rosa Parks sat down on a bus. That was her vocation — not an act of stubborn defiance, but staking the claim to a human right she had prepared and prayed for, all her life. With that gesture, she launched a new phase in the struggle for human equality. “See,” says God, “I am doing something new.”

Another illustration occurred in November of 1962, when Martin Luther King Jr. visited Holy Cross. His lecture was widely advertised at local campuses and in the press. Before the lecture, he dined as a guest of the Jesuit community in their dining room in Fenwick Hall. At the Field House, 1500+ were waiting to hear what he would say.

“Segregation may be on its deathbed, but the guardians of the status quo are on hand with oxygen to keep it alive.” He asked for “reasonable calmness but no slowing down.” “Social progress does not come by itself.” He spoke here three years before the Voting Rights Act of 1965 guaranteed black voter registration. There were still “intelligence tests” to black would-be black registrants: “How many bubbles do you find in a cake of soap?” (Trivializing a fellow citizen’s humanity in such callous fashion.)

After the lecture, there was an unsigned article in The Crusader. It was descriptive, but cautious — no enthusiastic endorsement of the message in those still early days of the civil rights movement — just a report. (The events depicted in Diane Brady’s book had not yet come to pass.) There was a caption under King’s picture: “Big, but humble.” So a seed was planted here, fragile to be sure, but grew by the end of the decade into the crusade that diversified our campus with minority students and the Black Student Union, and eradicated forever the narrow limits of imagination and experience that threatened this place — our place — with irrelevance and hypocrisy.

For me, the single most powerful line in Dr. King’s address was this: “Too many whites and Negroes hate each other because they fear; they fear because they don’t know; and they don’t know because they are separated.” And for all the truthfulness that insight carried about American segregation in the early sixties, it speaks to us now. When we work out of fear to separate ourselves from other human beings, to castigate them for being different or having opposing insights, in public or private life, God’s not on our side.

As men and women of the Cross, we can’t just ignore these things. To retreat into ignorance on these issues, or to go on as if they didn’t matter, would be to act like lost souls, to sell out our birthright as daughters and sons of Holy Cross, to conceal our light under a bushel, just like the man who buried his master’s funds instead of investing them.

Brothers and Sisters: Truly, God is always doing something new. We are called to live as seekers after that newness. We all know life can be complex. February alone offers us Valentine’s Day (romantic love), Presidents’ Day (the responsibility of dutiful service), Black History Month (MLK’s plea for breaking down barriers); and in today’s Gospel, the story of Jesus and the paralytic who was healed in body and soul. We are invited to put these elements into the blender of our minds and hearts. Stir them up; shake them together. Taste the contents, with all their sweet and bitter elements. Somewhere in this crazy combination is a lesson about the possibility of living as men and women for others by positioning ourselves with God, until we can understand where the next possibility of newness — of God’s creative newness — is taking place. In this context, living our vocation may be as ordinary — and as profound — as sitting down on a bus.

A. J. Kuzniewski, S.J.

Related Information:

• Learn more about “Fraternity,” read an excerpt, and see reviews and media coverage
• Read Fr. Kuzniewski’s blog
• History

The Oberlin Conservatory of Music recently announced that Jacob Street ’10, of North Reading, Mass., is the recipient of the first $10,000 prize of its new biennial Stephen and Cynthia Rubin Institute for Music Criticism.

Street will use the prize to support further study or internships in the field of music criticism over the next two years. Oberlin Conservatory of Music Dean David H. Stull, and Stephen Rubin, president and publisher of Henry Holt & Co. and benefactor of the Rubin Institute awarded Street the Rubin Prize. He was selected by Rubin and a panel of prominent national critics following a week-long series of public events, including performances, keynote addresses by journalists, critical reviews and discussion panels.

He reviewed performances by The Cleveland Orchestra, pianist Jeremy Denk, the baroque orchestra Apollo’s Fire, and the Internal Contemporary Ensemble, which included the world premier of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang’s new work, “my international.”

Street was one of 10 students chosen to participate in the Rubin Institute from Oberlin Conservatory’s new course, Introduction to Music Criticism. He worked with some of the nation’s most respected writers in the field, including Alex Ross, New Yorker magazine critic and author; Anne Midgette, Washington Post critic and author; Heidi Waleson, Wall St. Journal critic; John Rockwell, writer and arts critic; and Tim Page, professor of journalism and music at the University of Southern California and author.

Street is realistic about making a career out of music criticism, but is excited to apply his newly-honed skills in his future endeavors.

“It’s tough to make it as a music critic these days; there are incredibly few full time music critics in the United States today. I’d love to make some form of criticism a part of my career, though, and for now I’m just very excited to have the chance to travel and hear all kinds of music with this extremely generous award,” he says.

As the organ scholar of the Holy Cross class of 2010, he studied with James David Christie, distinguished artist in residence and College organist. Street is pursuing a master of music in historical performance at Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where he has studied organ with Christie and Olivier Latry, harpsichord with Webb Wiggins, and clavichord with David Breitman. Currently, he holds the position of minister of music at Pilgrim United Church of Christ in Cleveland.

“I developed my critical listening skills at Holy Cross — Prof. Jessica Waldoff’s classes [associate professor of music] and the music department’s many student, faculty, and guest artist recitals come to mind,” he says. “My time as the organ scholar also had me working with many international organists as they prepared and gave concerts, which was an excellent window into the creative musical processes of great musicians.”

This is not the first time Street has received recognition in the field of music. He has been a prizewinner in national and international organ competitions, and was recently accepted as a semifinalist in the upcoming Jurow International Harpsichord Competition. He has had the opportunity to study, compete, and perform in Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Luxembourg and Estonia. In 2006, under the direction of Gennady Rozhdestvensky and Julian Kuerti, Street played the organ with the Boston Symphony Orchestra for about three and a half measures in the last two minutes of a Tchaikovsky symphony.

He plans to pursue a doctoral degree in early music after completing his master’s.

Read Street’s prize-winning reviews:

• The Cleveland Orchestra’s concert, Jan. 18
• Jeremy Denk, pianist’s concert, Jan. 19
• Apollo’s Fire’s concert, Jan. 20
• ICE’s concert, Jan. 21

Related Information:

• Music

There comes a time in everyone’s life, says Eddie Jenkins ’72, when you have the opportunity to make a stand in the service of society. Jenkins made such a stand in 1968 when he joined a group of black students to attend Holy Cross. They were not the first African-Americans on the Hill, but as a group, they began breaking down the racial barriers that had separated white students from a handful of blacks on campus.

“You have to recognize that it’s your moment,” says Jenkins, 61, chief diversity and civil rights officer at the Massachusetts Department of Transportation. “Martin Luther King did his part. Students put themselves on the line at Jackson State. It was our chance to stand up for what was right.”

Jenkins, who lives in Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood, was among five black students profiled in Diane Brady’s new book, “Fraternity,” which chronicles their lives at Holy Cross in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The book highlights how the mentorship of Rev. John Brooks, S.J., ’49, who later served as the college’s president, helped them persevere in their undergraduate careers, and beyond.

FOOTBALL SUCCESS

Jenkins’ success running the football for Holy Cross caught the attention of pro scouts, and he was drafted into the National Football League, where he played for three seasons. His prowess in the classroom, meanwhile, led him to law school, and a legal career in both the public and private sector.

In his first NFL season, Jenkins played on the 1972 undefeated Miami Dolphins team and has a Super Bowl ring with 17 diamonds to prove it. Jenkins, who also suited up for the New York Giants, Buffalo Bills and New England Patriots, was in Indianapolis at Super Bowl XLVI, rooting for New England. He and his wife, Linda, are close to Patriots defensive back, Patrick Chung, who is engaged to his wife’s niece. Jenkins says he has taken Chung under his wing, and provides mentoring for the young athlete.

“Patrick has a lot coming at him,” says Jenkins. “I do what I can to help.”

Known for his tackling prowess on kick-offs and punt returns, Jenkins recalls a game between the Dolphins and Cincinnati Bengals. On the game’s kick-off, he raced down field, making a beeline for the fleet-footed Bengals kick-returner. Fielding the kick was none other than Joe Wilson ’73, who was Jenkins’ roommate in what was known as the “black corridor” in Healy Hall, where many African-American students lived.

“Joe fielded the kick-off and I knew he was going to try to run over me,” recalls Jenkins. “But I tackled him and got him down. Then I told him:  ‘Welcome to the NFL.’ ”

NOTABLE LEGAL CAREER

Jenkins knew well that football was a young man’s game. He had a plan, enrolling at Suffolk University Law School three days after his gridiron career ended. His legal career began in public service at the U.S. Department of Labor, playing an important role in a landmark decision, Pasula V. Consolidated Coal Co., in which the department backed a coalminer’s right to refuse to work in what he perceived as unsafe working conditions.

He was a prosecutor in the Middlesex County, Mass., district attorney’s office, then opened a private law office in Boston at Washington Street and Massachusetts Avenue, where he practiced for 15 years.

His heart for racial justice drove him into the political arena in 1990, when he challenged Suffolk County District Attorney Newman Flanagan. The DA had ignited racial tensions in Boston that year over the Carol Stuart murder investigation. Stuart’s husband, who later committed suicide, had fabricated the story of a black gunman.

“The police were banging on doors, looking for that phantom black suspect,” says Jenkins. “We couldn’t take the abuse anymore. So I ran, and even though I was hugely outspent, I got 39 percent of the vote.”

COMMITMENT TO PUBLIC SERVICE

He came up short in subsequent runs for Boston City Council and Suffolk County DA. But his commitment to public service, and the law, remained strong. For the past 16 years, he has served as an adjunct professor at Suffolk Law, teaching courses in employment discrimination and pretrial criminal litigation.

In 2003, he was named chairman of the state’s Alcohol Beverage Control Commission, which handles licensing of liquor stores, breweries and wineries and works with municipalities to license bars and restaurants. After five years, he became chief of enforcement at the Registry of Motor Vehicles, where his duties included dealing with fraudulent licenses and those convicted of drunk driving.

His latest appointment — as MassDOT’s chief diversity and civil rights officer — brings him face-to-face with the regulatory framework that was just getting developed when he came to Holy Cross in the fall of 1968, a few months after Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination. At the top of his agenda is combining the civil rights departments from the state Department of Transportation, MassPort and the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.

Diversity in the workplace remains a potent issue in America. And Eddie Jenkins says he has yet another opportunity to make a stand for the common good.

“Encouraging a diverse workforce is one way to recognize the strengths and talents of all,” he says. “It’s a way to be more inclusive. And it’s very, very American.”

By David McKay Wilson

Related Information:

• Learn more about “Fraternity,” read an excerpt, and see reviews and media coverage
  
• Read profiles of the other men featured in “Fraternity:”
• Stanley Grayson ’72
• Edward P. Jones ’72
• Clarence Thomas ’71
• Theodore Wells Jr. ’72

Scientists throughout New England will join Holy Cross students, faculty and staff to hear a talk by David Montgomery, a 2008 MacArthur Foundation Fellow and one of the nation’s most accomplished environmental scientists, on Feb. 17 at 4:30 p.m. in O’Neil Hall, Room 112. He will discuss some of the findings from his book, “Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations,” which examines the role of soil in the evolution of ancient and modern societies and offers a number of solutions to contemporary soil degradation worldwide. His talk is free and open to the public.

Dr. Montgomery is a professor of earth and space sciences at the University of Washington, studying geomorphology, the evolution of landscapes. Sara Mitchell, assistant professor of biology, is serving as Dr. Montgomery’s host for the event.

In his book, Dr. Montgomery makes the case that humans are using up Earth’s soil. Once bare of protective vegetation and exposed to wind and rain through agriculture, cultivated soils erode bit by bit, faster than they can be naturally replenished. The erosion is slow enough to be ignored in a single lifetime but fast enough over centuries to limit the lifespan of civilizations.

Soil erosion should be seen as a threat to the planet as serious as climate change, contends Dr. Montgomery. Civilizations don’t disappear overnight. They don’t choose to fail. More often they falter and then decline as their soil disappears over generations. Although historians are prone to credit the end of civilizations to events like climate changes, wars or natural disasters, the effects of soil erosion on ancient societies were profound, he writes.

Dr. Montgomery also points to the recent rise of organic and no-till farming in bringing hope for a new agricultural revolution that might help the world avoid the fate of previous civilizations.

The event is sponsored by Environmental Studies, biology department, and the McFarland Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture.

Read more about Dr. Montgomery on the MacArthur website.

Chad Desharnais ’12, of Salem, N.H., recently presented his psychology research at a highly selective conference at Harvard University. His research, which he has been working on for two years, investigates how the use of images in science education can enhance student learning. The inaugural National Collegiate Research Conference received 130 applications and Desharnais was one of 12 selected to present his findings.

A psychology major in the College Honors Program, Desharnais has been working with Benjamin Jee, visiting assistant professor of psychology, to explore how images can be used in the instruction of the basic concepts of structural geology in order to boost student learning. Their research has focused on applying a theory of comparison and analogy to the presentation of images. They have found that providing visually similar images in geoscience instruction is a powerful educational tool for enhancing students’ comparison and learning.

Desharnais developed an interest in cognitive psychology in Developmental Science and Education, a course taught by psychology Professor Diane Bukatko. She suggested that Jee and Desharnais meet and conduct research together. Their work continued as part of last year’s Summer Research Program and as part of the psychology honors thesis program.

“Chad has been instrumental in all phases of the project, from designing the instructional and test materials, to collecting and analyzing the data,” Jee says. “Following his summer 2011 research, Chad developed an honors thesis project that extends our work on science learning to a classroom environment. Chad recruited a local high school to participate in his study and singlehandedly collected data from about 100 students.”

The National Collegiate Research Conference was held at Harvard University from Jan. 19 to Jan. 21.

“It was a great experience to be able to present my research to a multi-disciplinary group of undergraduate researchers from across the country,” Desharnais says. “This conference was my first experience giving a formal presentation on a stage to a large audience and it was an excellent opportunity to receive feedback on my presentation skills and research methodology.”

Desharnais credits the Holy Cross curriculum and programming for his early success as a researcher: “Being able to develop a thesis through the Honors Program has given me an opportunity to do a research project of this magnitude and participating in various colloquiums on campus like the Summer Research Symposium has given me great experience presenting my findings to fellow students and faculty.”

He also cites the College’s close professor-student relationships as a major contributor to his success. “The guidance and support I have received from my advisor, Assistant Professor Jee, has also played an enormous role in any success I have seen with this research so far,” he says. His recommendations and encouragement have been instrumental in this project.”

Of Desharnais, Jee says, “I have enjoyed working with Chad as his research mentor and I am excited to see him develop into a promising independent scholar. This most recent achievement reflects his hard work at Holy Cross.”

Jee continues, “I am grateful to have the opportunity to work with such bright and motivated students and for programs like Summer Research that help develop their talents.”

By Rachel Salemme ’12

Related Information:

• Psychology