News

WORCESTER, Mass. – Acclaimed pianist Sarah Grunstein, assistant professor of music at the College of the Holy Cross, has returned from an exhilarating concert and teaching tour in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.

In Italy on July 6, Grunstein performed Bach’s encyclopedic Goldberg Variations, as part of the series of the XIV International Music Festival at Rocca Grimalda, Alessandria organized by the Comune of Rocca and the Regione Piemonte.

From there she traveled to Durham University, England, presenting a lecture-recital at the conference, “Performing Romantic Music: Theory and Practice.”  Her lecture titled “Playing the Changing Face of Chopin’s Score,” investigated Frederic Chopin as improviser. Her performance-demonstration included her own improvisation between preludes.

In Norway she presented a master-class for the Piano Forum at the Norwegian Academy of Music, Oslo.

In New Zealand, Grunstein was Distinguished Artist-in-Residence at the University of Auckland, where she presented classes, master-classes, studio teaching, piano classes, and a recital featuring Chopin, Debussy, Beethoven,  and Schumann. From there she returned to Australia to give a master-class at Monash University, Melbourne.

Grunstein’s international career has included concerts in the U.S., Austria, Hungary, Italy and the United Kingdom. In Australia, she has appeared as soloist with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the State Orchestra of Victoria, and the Melbourne Musicians.

Grunstein holds a doctor of musical arts degree from the City University of New York, and a bachelor and master of music degrees from the Juilliard School where she held a Teaching Fellowship for four years following graduation.

A member of Holy Cross faculty since 2002, Grunstein has taught at the Juilliard School, the Manhattan School of Music, the City University of New York, Fordham University, the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, and the Victorian College of the Arts. At Holy Cross she founded and leads the monthly student-faculty performance forums, has presented colloquia on her 18th-century fortepiano, founded the Annual Chamber Music Festival, and is co-director of the Chamber Music Program. Grunstein has received acknowledgement from the Carnegie Hall Weill Music Institute as the first professor to bring college students to Carnegie Hall’s Professional Training Program. She has led study tours to the Frederic Historic Piano Collection where she has created and directed festivals featuring Holy Cross students performing on historic instruments. She has also recently been elected as the first board member in performance for the Northeast Region of the College Music Society.

WORCESTER, Mass. – The Office of the Dean at the College of the Holy Cross announces the hiring of 10 new faculty members in tenure-track positions for the 2008-09 academic year. They are:

Chris Arrell (assistant professor, music), comes to Holy Cross from Clayton University in Atlanta, Ga., where he was an associate professor of music and director of theory and composition. He earned his B.M. at the University of Oregon, his M.M. from the University of Texas, and his D.M.A. from Cornell University. His teaching interests include French spectral music (the subject of his dissertation), as well as music history, theory, composition, and technology.  A graduate teaching fellow at Cornell University and the University of Texas, Arrell’s accomplishments include awards from the International Society for Contemporary Music and the Salvatore Martirano Memorial Prize Committee, commissions from the Fromm Foundation of Harvard University and Music at the Anthology (New York), and a Fulbright-Hays grant to Argentina and Chile.

Renée Lynn Beard (assistant professor, sociology and anthropology) received her B.A. in sociology from Boston College and her Ph.D. in medical sociology from the University of California, San Francisco. Before coming to Holy Cross, she was a National Institutes of Health Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Illinois at Chicago and taught at the University of San Francisco, San Francisco State University, and the College of Marin. Beard’s research interests include the sociology of health and aging, illness narratives, and social policy. An expert in Alzheimer’s disease, her empirical work has been published in numerous journals including Social Science & Medicine, Sociology of Health & Illness, Culture, Medicine & Psychiatry, and the Journal of Aging Studies.

Louis A. Beaubien (James N. and Eva Barrett Fellow in Ethics and the Liberal Arts, instructor, economics), earned his B.Sc. and B.A. from Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, his M.B.A. from Sobey School of Business at St. Mary’s University in Halifax Nova Scotia, and will complete his Ph.D. from the Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario in August, 2008. A Certified Management Accountant (CMA), Beaubien previously taught at Providence College, University of Western Ontario and at universities in France and Switzerland. Prior to teaching, he worked as a business process technology integration consultant for Realityclick and worked in corporate banking at the Bank of Nova Scotia.

Caner Dagli (assistant professor, religious studies) received his B.A. from Cornell University in Near Eastern studies, his M.A. from George Washington University in religion with a specialization in Islam, and his Ph.D. from Princeton University in Near Eastern studies. An assistant professor at Roanoke College in Virginia since 2005, he took a sabbatical from June 2006-07 to be an interfaith affairs consultant at the Royal Hashemite Court of Jordan. While in Jordan, he provided consultative support to HM King Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein and his special advisor HRH Ghazi bin Muhammad and performed tasks related to interfaith and Islamic affairs for Jordan’s vision of interfaith understanding and cooperation. Recipient of a Fulbright Grant to study in Turkey and an Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship in the Humanities, his publications include The Ringstones of Wisdom (Kazi Publications/ABC International Group, 2004) and a forthcoming book titled The Study of Qur’an.

Bryan Engelhardt (assistant professor, economics), earned his B.A. from Oberlin College and his Ph.D. from the University of Iowa. Before coming to Holy Cross, he taught at the University of Iowa and Cornell College. His research interests include labor economics, macroeconomics and the economics of crime.  Recent research includes a study on how long it takes released inmates to find a job, and when they find a job, how their incarceration rate changes; and a study on the effects of various labor market and crime policies.

Raphael Falk Jones (assistant professor, mathematics and computer science) received his B.A. from Amherst College, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in mathematics from Brown University. Before coming to Holy Cross, Jones was the Vigre Van Vleck Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin and a teaching fellow at Brown University. While at Brown, he received the Mathematics Department Outstanding Teaching Award and was awarded the Allendoerfer Prize for mathematical exposition by the Mathematical Association of America. He was recently selected as a Fellow for Project NExT, a nationally renowned professional development program in the mathematical sciences.

Brian R. Linton (assistant professor, chemistry), earned his B.A. from Allegheny College and his Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh. He previously held positions at Yale University and Bowdoin College, and was a visiting scholar at Boston College. He has been published in numerous journals including the Journal of the American Chemical Society, Journal of Organic Chemistry, Chemical Reviews and the Journal of Chemical Education.  Linton’s research, focused on the role of hydrogen bonding in protein structure and function, has resulted in numerous presentations throughout the U.S., and has involved over 25 students through independent studies and summer research projects.

Munya Bryn Munochiveyi (instructor, history), received his B.A. (honors) from the University of Zimbabwe in economic history and his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in history. Having taught at the University of Minnesota and the University of Zimbabwe his research and teaching interests include the history of liberation struggles in Sub-Saharan Africa, African social and environmental history, precolonial and modern African history, world/global history, and comparative colonial history. At the University of Minnesota he was the recipient of the Doctoral Dissertation Fellow, Compton Fellow Dissertation/Research Grant, and the MacArthur Fellow Pre-dissertation Field Research Grant.

Anil Sathia Nathan (assistant professor, economics) earned his B.S in economics and mathematics and his Ph.D. in economics from Duke University. He previously taught at Duke University, Elon University and was an instructor at Kaplan, Inc., where he taught GRE and GMAT test preparation. He specializes in applied microeconomics (research and labor, demography, and health) and econometrics. At Duke, he was named a Preparing Future Faculty Fellow, a National Institute of Health (NIH) Pre-Doctoral Fellow, and the Economics Department Tuition Scholarship.

Justin D. Poché (Alexander F. Carson Faculty Fellow in the History of the United States, assistant professor, history), received his B.A. from Louisiana State University and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame. Before coming to Holy Cross he taught at Valparaiso University in Indiana, Tulane University, the University of Notre Dame, and Our Lady of Holy Cross College in New Orleans, La. A recipient of a Post-Doctoral Fellowship from the Lilly Fellows Program, a dissertation-year fellowship from the Louisville Institute, and the Vincent P. DeSantis Prize for best unpublished paper by a graduate student at Notre Dame, his research interests include American religion and 20th-century U.S. intellectual and social history.

WORCESTER, Mass. – Faculty experts in a wide range of disciplines from the College of the Holy Cross are available to offer distinctive perspectives on issues related to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China.  For more information, or for assistance scheduling an interview, please call Kristine Maloney at 508-793-2419. Experts listed below may also be contacted for comment directly.

Ancient Olympics/History of the Games
Thomas Martin, professor/chair, classics
508-793-2550 (office)
tmartin@holycross.edu
Martin specializes in ancient Greek and Roman history and has specific expertise in the history of the Olympics.  He can provide insight on the differences between the ancient and modern games, the origins of the marathon, and the stories behind some of the best-known Olympic victors of ancient times. Author of Ancient Greece from Prehistoric to Hellenistic Times (Yale University Press, 2002), he has served as an expert commentator in several publications and as a consultant to numerous television programs. During the 2004 Olympics, he appeared on NBC’s Today Show; and most recently, he was featured in “The Dark Ages,” a History Channel special exploring the period spanning the fall of the Roman empire and the Renaissance.

Economic Impact on Beijing
Victor Matheson, associate professor
508-793-2649 (office)
vmatheso@holycross.edu
Matheson specializes in sports economics, specifically the economic impact of “mega-sporting events” on host cities and can comment on how hosting the Olympics will affect Beijing.  His research, which dispels the notion that major events (such as the World Series and Super Bowl) equal large economic dividends for host cities have made him a widely sought-after expert. He has provided expert commentary to several media outlets including Forbes Magazine, Time Magazine Europe, ESPN Magazine, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Business Week Online, The Washington Times, The Los Angeles Times, and MSNBC.com, among others.

Modern Chinese Culture
Claudia Ross, professor of Chinese
cross@holycross.edu
Ross specializes in Chinese language, linguistics and modern Chinese culture and can provide insight on how the Chinese see their country.  Having split her time between China and the U.S. since 1985, she can put into perspective specific Chinese social issues including pollution, restrictions on travel and Internet usage, and media censorship.  Ross is currently serving as vice president and president elect of the Chinese Language Teachers Association, the national organization representing Chinese language teaching in the US.  She is the author of several textbooks on Chinese linguistics and grammar.

WORCESTER, Mass. – Marty Dudek, assistant director of dining services at the College of the Holy Cross, has added another line to his resume, having recently been elected the president of the North East Region of the National Association of College & University Food Service (NACUFS).

Dudek, who has been on the North East Regional Council of NACUFS for the last six years and has served as the culinary challenge chair for the last four, says he has been involved with NACUFS since he started at the College 12 years ago.

“Over that time I have continued to gain knowledge and growth through the vast wisdom of the professionals within the organization,” explains Dudek. “The opportunity to be president will allow me a chance to give back to an organization that in a short time has allowed me to get involved, meet inspiring people and has helped me with my growth both professionally and personally.”

In his four-year term, he will be working with volunteers on the Council to plan educational opportunities, conferences, and seminars that get college and university dining professionals together to share information and insight on what is being done across the world of collegiate dining.

NACUFS has approximately 600 schools as members; the North East region, which is Dudek’s territory, includes more than 125 colleges and universities in New England, New York, and the five most Eastern provinces in Canada.

This year the current president gave Dudek the President’s Award, which is given to a NACUFS volunteer who is a dedicated member of the association exhibiting a high degree of professionalism in the college and university foodservice community.

Dudek grew up in Belchertown, Mass. and graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y. in 1989. Before coming to Holy Cross, he worked in restaurants and catering operations as a chef.  He helped to open a 250-seat Italian restaurant in Norwood, Mass. and worked in Disney World.

“One of the biggest reasons I chose culinary is because the food service industry is always changing and I never want to be bored with my job,” says Dudek. “I love to cook but I did not want to stop at being a chef in the food service industry, I wanted more!”

Through training, seminars and classes he has been able to move within the food service world.  “Becoming a chef was just the start,” explains Dudek.

But classes aren’t the only way he learns. Dudek meets with the Student Government Association (SGA) and the Environmental Concerns Organization (ECO) on campus to get their insights and find out what dining services can do better.

His advice to other aspiring chefs, “have a goal and stick to it.”

He says being a chef is hard work with long hours, but it can vary rewarding.  “When you do a dinner for 800 people and they are all happy and the meal goes off with out incident — that is instant gratification.”

Being a chef is more than being able to cook great food, you need to be a great leader.  “I feel that anyone can be taught to cook but being able to lead a team of cooks every day to produce the meals that are required is the real challenge.”

His favorite meal:  “A thick and juicy medium rare bacon cheese burger,” says Dudek. “It’s nice to have something simple once and a while.”

Look for Dudek in the latest Dixie Smart Stock Cutlery Dispenser (the dispensers on campus that hold the silverware) advertisement.

WORCESTER, Mass. – Two faculty members at the College of the Holy Cross were awarded 2008 Catholic Press Association Book Awards for recently published works.  Joanne M. Pierce, associate professor of religious studies at the College of the Holy Cross, was recognized with two awards for A Commentary on the General Instruction of the Roman Missal (Liturgical Press, 2007); and James B. Nickoloff, associate professor of religious studies at the College earned an award for An Introductory Dictionary of Theology and Religious Studies (Liturgical Press, 2007). The Catholic Press Association awards program recognizes accomplishments and contributions of those who go above and beyond to spread the word of God.

A Commentary on the General Instruction of the Roman Missal, co-edited by Pierce; Rev. Edward Foley, Capuchin, professor of liturgy and music at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago; and Nathan D. Mitchell, an associate director at Notre Dame Center for Liturgy, received first place in the Liturgy category and an Honorable Mention in the Professional Books category.

Two dozen liturgical specialists contributed to the book, which was created for bishops and others charged with implementing the church teachings and history, so that they could understand its historical background, theology, and specific directives more clearly.

Pierce says she hopes the book will contribute to a shared understanding of this on-going process of liturgical renewal in American Catholicism during the early decades of the 21st century.

A member of Holy Cross faculty since 1992, Pierce teaches historical and sacramental/liturgical theology and was recently appointed the divine cluster director for Montserrat, the College’s new universal program for first-year students designed to integrate more effectively academic, co-curricular and residential experiences. She received her Ph.D. in theology (liturgical studies) from the University of Notre Dame, and specializes in medieval liturgy. She is co-editor of Source and Summit: Commemorating Josef A. Jungmann, S.J. (Liturgical Press, 1999). She served as a member of the Anglican-Roman Catholic Consultation in the United States from 1992-2007, and was a member of the editorial board for the publication of the Proceedings of the North American Academy of Liturgy from 1998-2008. She received the Arthur J. O’Leary Faculty Recognition Award at the College in 2003.

An Introductory Dictionary of Theology and Religious Studies, co-edited by Nickoloff and Orlando Espín, professor of theology and religious studies at the University of San Diego, took first place in the Reference category.  It includes entries authored by many Holy Cross faculty in the religious department: Alan Avery-Peck, professor and chair of the department; Rev. William Clark, S.J., associate professor; Gary DeAngelis, lecturer and associate director of the Center for Interdisciplinary and Special Studies; Mary Hobgood, associate professor; Alice Laffey, associate professor; Todd Lewis, professor; Rev. William Reiser, S.J., professor; Mathew Schmalz, associate professor of religious studies and director of the College Honors Program; and Pierce. Rev. Thomas Worcester, S.J., associate professor of history, and Rosemary Carbine, former assistant professor of religious studies, also contributed to the book.

The 1,500 page volume covers all of the larger and many of the smaller religions of the world and took 11 years to complete. The aim is to provide undergraduate and general readers with basic information about concepts, terms, and names encountered in religious studies and theology.

Nickoloff earned his A.B. at Stanford University, his M.Div. at Weston School of Theology, his S.T.L. at the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley and his Ph.D. at the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley. Nickoloff hails from Los Angeles and has spent extended periods abroad living and working in Korea, Jamaica, and Peru.  Since 1989, he has taught Catholic theology at Holy Cross.  He specializes in the theologies of liberation as these have developed in North America and Latin America.

WORCESTER, Mass. – Former Holy Cross rower Rebecca Smith, a member of the class of 2002, won a bronze medal at the 2008 FISA World Rowing Championship, which took place from July 22-27 in Linz, Austria. Smith rowed for Team USA in the lightweight women’s quadruple sculls, with teammates Libby Peters, Wendy Tripician and Hannah Moore.

In the lightweight women’s quadruple sculls, the U.S. crew was out in front through the middle 1,000 meters of the course, but could not keep up with the charge of defending champion Australia in the final stretch. Australia clocked a time of 6:36.41 for the gold medal, with Poland coming in second for the silver in a time 6:39.38. The U.S. crossed the line in third place with a time of 6:40.77 for the bronze, followed by Great Britain in fourth at 6:41.56. Germany and Denmark finished in fifth and sixth, respectively.

During her time at Holy Cross, Smith served as team captain for the 2001-2002 season, and was a member of the varsity eight that placed first the ECAC National Invitational. She also received the Honorable John P. Cooney Memorial Award, as the senior letter winner who performed beyond all expectations with courage, loyalty and dedication. Earlier this year, Smith placed first in the lightweight women’s single event at the U.S. Rowing National Selection Regatta.

WORCESTER, Mass. – The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery at the College of the Holy Cross presents Changing Identity: Recent Works by Women Artists from Vietnam, the first major exhibition of contemporary Vietnamese women artists in the U.S., from Monday, Aug. 25 through Saturday, Oct. 4.  The Cantor Art Gallery is the only New England venue to host the exhibition.

Changing Identity provides an opportunity to see Vietnam through the eyes of women artists offering unique perspectives on their homeland and their gender roles in society.  The exhibition explores what it means to be a woman living in Vietnam today and brings to light a viewpoint often marginalized in Vietnamese culture. Previously overlooked by the international art world, the 10 artists featured in Changing Identity challenge their traditional roles through drawing, painting, photography, performance, sculpture, and video.

To be a woman, an artist and Vietnamese is, in the words of filmmaker and scholar Trinh T. Minh-Ha, a “triple bind.” They are restricted not only in their own culture, which presupposes that women are to remain devoted to their fathers, husbands and sons, but also by the West’s perceptions of Vietnamese women as victims of war and subjects of the male gaze made familiar by such icons as Miss Saigon and the servant girl in the film A Scent of Green Papaya.

For the past two decades, since Vietnam opened its doors to the West, a booming art business has brought economic prosperity to many of the country’s artists.  Most of this success, however, seems to have been bestowed upon men. Today, in light of economic changes sweeping over the country in the era of globalization, a younger generation of women find themselves in a position to critique prevailing norms and to question the status quo. The artists in Changing Identity are such women: independent and complex, their outlook on Vietnamese society displayed in their artwork is challenging and honest.

Nora Taylor, Ph.D., curator for the exhibition, is Alsdorf Professor of South and Southeast Asian Art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago specializing in modern Vietnamese art. In 2004-05, she was a Fulbright Scholar in Hanoi, Vietnam conducting research on Vietnamese visual culture in the era of globalization. She has written for many publications and lectured on this topic throughout the world.

A full-color catalogue of the same name accompanies Changing Identity: Recent Works by Women Artists from Vietnam.

Changing Identity is toured by International Arts & Artists in Washington, D.C., a non-profit arts service organization dedicated to increasing cross-cultural understanding and exposure to the arts internationally, through exhibitions, programs and services to artists, arts institutions and the public. It is supported in part by the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation and the Henry Luce Foundation. The educational program is supported by a grant from the Ford Foundation, Hanoi Office, and fiscally administered by the Institute of International Education.

A series of lectures and events will be held at Holy Cross in conjunction with the gallery exhibition.  All events are free and open to the public.

Thursday, Sept. 4, 4:30 – 5:30 p.m., Rehm Library
Talk by Ann Marie Leshkowich, associate professor of anthropology at the College of the Holy Cross; Finances, Family, Fashion, and Fitness: The Changing Lives of Urban Middle-Class Vietnamese Women.

Thursday, Sept. 11, 5 – 6 p.m., Rehm Library
Talk by Ken MacLean, assistant professor of international development and social change at Clark University; The Rehabilitation of an Uncomfortable Past: Remembering the Everyday in Vietnam During the Subsidy Period (1975-1986).

Thursday, Sept. 18, 4:30 – 6 p.m. Kimball Theatre
Talk by the curator of Changing Identity, Nora Taylor, professor and Alsdorf Professor of South and Southeast Asian Art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.; Changing Identity: Reflections on Women in Vietnamese Art History, followed by a conversation with artist Ly Tran Quynh Giang.

Thursday, Sept. 18, 6 – 7 p.m., Cantor Art Gallery
Reception honoring the curator, Nora Taylor, and artist Ly Tran Quynh Giang.

Monday, Sept. 22, 5 – 6 p.m., Rehm Library
Talk by Hue-Tam Ho Tai, Kenneth T. Young Professor of Sino-Vietnamese History at Harvard University; From Sheltered Daughter to Vietnam’s First Female Political Prisoner: Nguyen Trung Nguyet (1909-1976).

Thursday, Sept. 25, 4:30 – 6 p.m. Rehm Library
Talk by Karen Gottschang Turner, professor of history at the College of the Holy Cross; Into the Light: Representing Vietnamese Women’s Struggles. To be followed by a film showing: Hidden Warriors: Women on the Ho Chi Minh Trail by Turner and Hanoi-based journalist Phan Tranh Hao.

Thursday, Oct. 2, 4:30 – 5:30 p.m., Cantor Art Gallery
Talk by Diane Niblack Fox, visiting assistant professor of history and anthropology at the College of the Holy Cross; Speaking with Women in Vietnam on the Consequences of War – Writing Against Silence and Forgetting.

Gallery Information
Founded in 1983 through the generosity of Iris & B. Gerald Cantor, the Cantor Art Gallery serves both as a venue for a changing series of historical and contemporary public exhibitions, as well as a vital resource for Holy Cross faculty and students, linking exhibitions to the broader liberal arts curriculum.  This year marks the Gallery’s 25th anniversary.

The hours for the Cantor Art Gallery are Monday – Friday 10:00 a.m. – 5:00p.m., Saturdays 2:00 – 5:00 p.m. Located in O’Kane Hall, 1st Floor, College of the Holy Cross, 1 College Street, Worcester, MA, 01610.  Admission to the gallery is free.

WORCESTER, Mass. – The College of the Holy Cross has announced ticket information for the 2008 football season. The schedule has the Crusaders playing host to five games at Fitton Field, beginning with the Homecoming contest on Sept. 6 against Massachusetts at 1 p.m.

Other home contests during the 2008 season come against Brown (Oct. 11, 1 p.m.), Lehigh (Family Weekend, Oct. 25, 1 p.m.), Bucknell (Nov. 1, 12:30 p.m.) and Fordham (Nov. 8, 12:30 p.m.).

Season tickets for this year are priced at $55 for adults, $35 for senior citizens (62 and over) and $15 for children (under 18). Individual game tickets can also be purchased. For more information, contact the Holy Cross Ticket Office at (508) 793-2573.

WORCESTER, Mass. – The Redfeather Theatre Company at Holy Cross presents the fifth annual Worcester Shakespeare Festival at the Memorial Grove Amphitheatre in Green Hill Park.

The show opens on Wednesday, July 23 and runs through Sunday, August 17.  Shows are Wednesday through Sunday at 7 p.m. Tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for students and senior citizens, and $5 for children under 12. A Midsummer Night’s Dream runs July 23 – Aug. 3, and Aug. 14 and 16. Twelfth Night runs Aug. 6-13 and Aug. 15 and 17.

“A Midsummer Night’s Dream is extremely funny, the language is beautiful and we’re doing fun things with the script that include adding singing and dancing,” exclaims Edward Isser, professor and chair of the theatre department at the College and director of the production. “We’ve assembled an extraordinary group of actors and a first-rate production team.”

Many of the team members are Holy Cross students. Isser says students are involved both on and off stage, serving as actors, designers, managers and technicians.
“This enables students to make connections in the New England theatre community as well as enhance their professional portfolios,” says Isser.

Mel Cobb, who has just come on board as the new artistic director this year, will direct Twelfth Night. “He is an extraordinary actor and director with almost forty years of knowledge and experience,” says Isser.

Cobb will also play the role of Nick Bottom in Isser’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Check out recent coverage:

Telegram & Gazette (August 9, 2008)
Redfeather has a ‘Night’ to remember

The Pulse (August 4, 2008)
Shakespeare For The Masses

Telegram & Gazette (July 27, 2008)
Course of true love runs smooth

Telegram & Gazette (July 24, 2008)
A ‘Dream’ come true

The Holden Landmark (July 10, 2008)
Bringing the Bard to the great outdoors

Telegram & Gazette (June 6, 2008)
Redfeather is making ‘Dream’ come true

WORCESTER, Mass. – Tom Sullivan ’70  has announced his retirement as the head men’s rowing coach at the College of the Holy Cross. Sullivan has been an integral part of the Crusader rowing program for more than three decades, serving as the Crusaders’ head coach for the last 33 years.

“The name of Tom Sullivan is synonymous with Holy Cross crew,” said athletic director Richard M. Regan, Jr. “He has had a tremendous impact on the Holy Cross men’s rowing program in his many years of service to the college. Not only was he an integral part of building the team’s foundation, but in recent years he has brought the program to new levels of competition and success. We are confident that the program will continue to grow thanks to the traditions he worked to establish.”

Under Sullivan’s leadership, Holy Cross won the Patriot Challenge Regatta in six of the last eight years. The Crusaders have also participated in the Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges Championship in each of the last four seasons, while receiving four consecutive invitations to the Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championship Regatta. In 2005, Sullivan’s team had one of its most successful seasons, as the Crusaders were ranked 15th in the nation among Division I schools. Holy Cross also had an outstanding year in 2002, as the Crusaders won the men’s team trophy and the varsity eight race at the New England Rowing Championship.

The 2002 New England Coach of the Year in men’s rowing, Sullivan has also served as a guest speaker at the U.S. Rowing National Convention and at the U.S. Olympic Training Center, as well as being a member of the U.S. Rowing Grievance Committee. He was also the regatta director for the Eastern Sprints, a co-founder of the Avaya Collegiate Championship and an honorary steward of the New England Interscholastic Rowing Association. Sullivan was an Olympic torch bearer for the 2002 winter Olympics, in honor of his service to the sport of rowing.

Sullivan began his coaching career as the Crusaders’ men’s junior varsity coach in 1974, before assuming the head coaching duties in 1975. A 1970 graduate of Holy Cross, he was a four-year member of the rowing team during his time as a student, serving as co-captain during his senior year. Sullivan was inducted into the Holy Cross Varsity Club Hall of Fame in 1996.

WORCESTER, Mass. – Former Holy Cross hockey player Patrick Rissmiller ’02 has signed with the New York Rangers as announced by the team’s president and general manager Glen Sather.

Rissmiller, who was an unrestricted free agent, had 18 goals and 27 assists for 45 points in 180 NHL games with the San Jose Sharks. Last year, he recorded eight goals and nine assists for 17 points in 79 games with San Jose. In the 2006-2007 season, Rissmiller scored seven goals and had 15 assists for a career-best 22 points. He has played in 30 career NHL playoff games with three goals and four assists for seven points.

As a four-year Crusader (1998-2002), Rissmiller recorded 53 goals and 90 assists for 143 points in 131 games. He is second on the Holy Cross Division I all-time points and assists lists, while he is tied for fourth in goals. In his senior season, Rissmiller led the Crusaders in assists (30) and points (46) as he was named the MAAC Offensive Player of the Year.

WORCESTER, Mass. – A Pilgrim’s Journey: The Autobiography of Ignatius of Loyola (Ignatius Press, 2001), introduction, translation, and commentary by Rev. Joseph N. Tylenda, S.J., will be the summer reading for enrolling first-year students at the College of the Holy Cross.

Every year, the first-year class dean asks all incoming students to read a common text before they arrive for orientation.

Ronald Jarret, dean for the class of 2012 and professor of chemistry, has selected the autobiography to mark the first year of Montserrat, the College’s new universal program for first-year students designed to integrate more effectively academic, co-curricular and residential experiences.

“In the book, we learn about Ignatius’ search for meaning in life through his devotion to God.  Montserrat, an ancient monastery almost a mile above sea level, was the place where he chose to lay down his soldier’s weapons and begin a new life devoted to study, teaching, service, faith, and purpose,” explains Jarret. “In time, he established a new religious order, the Society of Jesus.  Its members, the Jesuits, founded Holy Cross, shaped our mission statement, and continue to be leaders in the community.”

The autobiography of Ignatius, the founder of the Jesuit order, traces his conversion.  The transformation grew out of what he read as he recovered from a painful battle wound, but most of the account traces what followed. In his sickbed he realized that he wanted to follow God, but the years afterward were the hardest part – figuring out how best he specifically was called to do so.  The process of discernment, figuring out what God wants for each person and how to find it, was Ignatius’ great gift to all future generations.

The autobiography relates the many ways that Ignatius learned how to discern, long before he ever imagined a Jesuit order.  Teaching students how to cultivate habits of discernment is one of the key goals of a Holy Cross education, and it begins from the time students arrive at the College.