News

Ever since it was established nearly six decades ago, the Holy Cross Fund has been a vital part of the College, directly benefiting students and faculty.  Contributions to the Fund have an enormous impact on the financial health of the College and provide essential funding for current and ongoing expenses, including financial aid, library books and periodicals, faculty resources, and maintenance of facilities.

Colleges and universities across the country closely watch alumni participation levels in their annual giving programs.  Only a handful of the nation’s best colleges reach 50% participation, and up until recently, Holy Cross was among that elite group.  Last year, participation in the Holy Cross Fund was just over 48%, and this year the College aims to exceed 50%.

The Holy Cross Fund closes June 30.  A gift—of any size—will help ensure that Holy Cross’ commitment to academics, community, and the Jesuit tradition continues to flourish.

For more information on the Fund or to make a gift online, visit http://www.holycross.edu/alumni/support/gift.html.

Last month, the Holy Cross College Choir traveled to Italy, for a concert tour to churches in Lucca, Florence, Assisi, and Rome. Kara McShane ’07, co-manager of the tour, shares her experiences.

THE BIG DEAL The concert tour was the first time since the 1980s that a Holy Cross College Choir traveled to Italy.

BY THE NUMBERS Forty-five members of an approximately 60-member choir went on the tour. They were accompanied by choir director Pamela Getnick and Jessica Waldoff, associate professor and chair of the music department.

THE DIGS For the first four nights, the group stayed in a hotel in Lucca, “a small medieval city complete with walls. For me and my interest in medieval and Renaissance studies, it was absolutely amazing,” says McShane. “We then spent a night in Assisi, within walking distance of Santa Maria Angeli, which houses the chapel where St. Francis died. I think almost the entire choir willingly went to the church during our free time, which was impressive considering the long days we were putting in.” In Rome, their hotel was about two miles from the Vatican.

THE TOUR ON WHICH NOTHING WENT WRONG “Tons of things can go wrong on a concert tour — last minute changes in venue, delays due to someone missing a bus or getting lost, and much more. In order to get in sightseeing, there’s usually not tons of time devoted to things like sleep. Also, the choir works with very little rehearsal time, which is always frustrating when you’re singing in unfamiliar spaces! It’s a testament both to our tour company and to the choir as a group how well things went; the flexibility and positive attitude everyone brought really made things go smoothly.”

THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE “I think the biggest part of the job — at home or on tour — is enthusiasm in the face of anything. Most of our concerts were at the end of our long days. After four hours of sightseeing, a long bus ride, free time in the hot sun, and a nice big dinner, it can be hard to face a concert starting at 9 p.m. The group was patient and hardworking, which made our job much easier, but I think that Maureen [Gassert ’07, the other co-manager] and I spent most of our ‘on the job’ time keeping up everyone’s spirits and reminding them that we were there to sing and we could handle the challenges that shortened rehearsals and strange spaces gave us.”

LIVING UP TO HISTORY’S DEMANDS “Being surrounded by history and tradition made every concert special. To pause for a moment between songs or before rehearsals and think about everything else that’s happened in the space we’re singing in, in that very moment, was just overpowering. We couldn’t be less than our absolute best with the legacy we had to live up to — and fortunately we lived up that that.”

SING IT, SISTER! “From a musical standpoint, they were all wonderful spaces to sing in, but they differed, so the choir had to be ready for up-to-the-minute changes. In Lucca, at the Chiesa di Santa Maria della Rossa, we sang as part of a sacred music festival which goes on over the course of two months.”

THE GRACIOUS CROWDS “Our audiences were a gift — they were enthusiastic about the music and as grateful to us for singing as we were to them for hosting us. Every night, someone in the audience thanked us. It truly was remarkable.”

OH, THE SIGHTS THEY SAW “We toured St. Ignatius’ rooms while in Rome, which was a special part of the tour for us and our particular heritage at the College. We have quite a few Classics major in the choir who enjoyed the Coliseum and the Roman Forum. I’m an English major, with a potential medieval and renaissance studies minor, so I would have been content to stay in Florence and Lucca for the entire tour! A group of us climbed the only remaining tower in Lucca, which gives you a marvelous view of the city and its surroundings, and several of us visited the Cathedral in Siena, an amazing Gothic Cathedral complete with mosaic floors. Going in was possibly the most rewarding three euros I spent in Italy; it was awe-inspiring to look around and think of the people who worked to construct such a space — their faith, their love, and their skill! It’s easy to understand how medieval people saw the cathedral as a reflection of God’s city.”

DELIVERING KNOCK-OUT PERFORMANCES “I think the tour helped us grow musically. We took the music we’d prepared all year and gave it our energy and passion — and that’s what separates good performances from great ones.”

A TRAVELING TROUPE? “There’s been discussion of an international tour every two years with a domestic tour in between. Becoming a touring choir may also help us with recruitment since touring can help interest new members. Our 60 voices are wonderful, but the choir does want to grow.”

Related information:

# Holy Cross College Choir Prepares for Italy Tour

“Life-changing experience” may be an overused expression, but it’s difficult to come up with a more accurate description of what students experience when they participate in Holy Cross’ Arrupe Immersion Program.

For nearly 20 years, the program has provided Holy Cross students the opportunity to witness first-hand the reality of life in Mexico, Jamaica and Kenya by visiting with and learning from people in poor and marginalized communities.

Students participating in the Mexico program May 31 through June 14 will share their experiences through this online diary. Read about the people they meet and the places they visit, and journey with them as they reflect and pray about how the experiences touched and challenged them. Students will be accompanied by Katherine M. McElaney ’76, director of the Office of the College Chaplains.

Related information:

# Reflections from Mexico

Opening in conjunction with Reunion 2006 Weekend, the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery at the College of the Holy Cross will present the exhibition Visual Studies: Artists from the Class of ’56, from June 9 to June 30.

Visual Studies: Artists from the Class of ‘56 will include a selection of New England landscapes and architectural renderings in both watercolor and oil paint by Tom Heinsohn, as well as “tour” sketches that Heinsohn has been making for more than 30 years while traveling with the Boston Celtics. Heinsohn, best known as a basketball player, coach and currently a broadcaster for the Boston Celtics, is also a well-recognized artist.

Since 1999, Hugh Kelly, has been actively learning the processes of stone carving and sculpture, through the DeCordova Museum School in Lincoln, Mass. Kelly has produced an array of abstracted figurative sculptures that are based on historical Inuit and Navaho sculptures as well as his own designs in various colored specimens of North American alabaster.

Dick O’Brien has been actively painting, studying the painter’s craft, and showing his work for many years. O’Brien uses primarily oil paint to capture realist impressions, on location, of coastal landscapes near Boston as well as rural scenes in the Mount Washington Valley area of New Hampshire. O’Brien has studied at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts School, the Massachusetts College of Art and participated in numerous workshops in greater Boston and New England.

The show will also feature a selection of drawings and cartoons by Jack Rice and watercolors by Dick Durnan, both from the class of 1956.

Gallery Information

The hours for the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery are Monday – Friday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.; closed weekends. Located in O’Kane Hall, 1st Floor, College of the Holy Cross, 1 College Street, Worcester, MA, 01610. Admission to the gallery is free. Public parking is located on Linden Lane, gate 2, off College Street.

For more information, call the Cantor Art Gallery at 508-793-3356 or visit the Gallery’s Web site at: www.holycross.edu/departments/cantor/website/index.html

“I came to Holy Cross thinking I wanted to be a lawyer, and freshman year I took political science classes and realized that that was not where I wanted to go,” Blaise Carino ’06 recently recalled.

Carino was in a sculpture class with one of his friends, Katie Mahoney ’05, who had designed her own major in architectural design. After talking with Joanna Ziegler, professor of visual arts, he decided that he, too, would build his own major. Three years later he has presented his thesis “Principles of Architectural Design,” for which he designed a 900 sq. foot apartment.

Carino, from Greenville, S.C., is one of 34 students currently at Holy Cross who have developed their own multidisciplinary major through the Center for Interdisciplinary and Special Studies. In consultation with two faculty members from different departments, students select 10 to 14 courses from at least three different departments that are relevant to the theme of their majors. They provide curriculum pages showing which courses they will take when, along with a rationale statement describing their major. The curriculum must be appropriate as a liberal arts major (rather than a vocational major) and CISS only approves multidisciplinary minors and majors (rather than disciplinary programs of study).

“It’s been very challenging and a great experience,” says Carino, who has taken classes in the visual arts, science and philosophy departments. “It’s been a fiercely independent program but one of the great things about it is that you forge some really great relationships along the way. It really gave me an opportunity to explore all that Holy Cross had to offer because I was able to take such a wide range of classes and it taught me how to be self-motivated.”

This past semester, Carino interned with Pawlowski Associates, an architectural design firm located in Providence, R.I., that Ziegler had introduced him to.

“I went in to talk about architecture, working, plans for the future, and what was originally going to be a 45 minute meeting turned into five hours of talking about architecture,” says Carino about his first discussion with owner Paul Pawlowski. “We worked out an internship and recently he talked about bringing me on full time after graduation.”

Carino’s responsibilities have increased steadily. He started the internship doing research, filing and other paperwork duties. Most recently, he’s been creating digital 3-D models of proposed buildings. The firm’s location in Providence, which is undergoing a renaissance, turned out to be a perfect match for Carino’s interests.

“I’m very interested in the revivalist movement going on in Providence right now. Providence is a similar city to how Worcester is now — very industrial, lots of old mills and factories. And there’s some really great architecture there, like amazing buildings with exposed brick, hardwood floors, huge industrial windows and large wooden support beams overhead. I’m particularly interested in renovating these brick buildings and turning them into apartments and condos.”

Carino’s thesis on designing small spaces is what initially attracted him to pursue an architectural design major.

“I’m very interested in small space design and the fact that it really pushes the architect to think about and contemplate every design decision they make. Every aspect of the design needs to be pushed two or three times over in terms of functionality. Any decision I made, I would try to make a particular space serve as two functions. For example, in the apartment I designed for my thesis, I have a partition area, which serves as a foyer before you enter the main space in the apartment. But it also serves as a functional purpose to allow people to drop off groceries in the kitchen, for instance.”

Why is he interested in small spaces when the national trend is to build excessively large homes?

“I’ve seen a slight turning point in contemporary architecture away from McMansions to small spaces,” he says. “Decades ago, there was a flight from the cities to suburbia. I’m finding young people in my generation — young professionals — are moving back to the city and because of inflation, limited space, and strict budgets, living in a relatively small space is a practical solution. In terms of architecture, it forces you to think about your design more as opposed to these larges mansions where you have room to put whatever you want. In small spaces, you have to consider every cubic inch of space to utilize it the best you can.”

Although his newfound job may not allow him to work with strictly small spaces, Carino says he’ll likely pursue his dream of working with residential spaces. After gaining some field experience, he will apply to graduate school to earn a master’s degree in architectural design.

“He follows in a line of outstanding students in architectural studies, each of whom have designed the major in his or her own way, with the guidance of faculty such as Jody Ziegler and Virginia Raguin and Chris Dustin,” says Richard Matlak, director of the Center for Interdisciplinary and Special Studies. “All have gone on to grad school in architecture.”

For someone who’s retiring in less than two months, Matthew Toth certainly doesn’t let on he’s about to slow down.

Sitting in his office in early May, Toth, associate dean for student development, still has the same passion for his work at Holy Cross as the day he started 36 years ago — the same kind that has earned him national recognition in his field. He came to Holy Cross after receiving his Ph.D. in counseling and counseling education from Ohio University and has spent his entire professional career improving the lives of, teaching, and counseling students.

“One of the things that makes us unique is our commitment to religious issues — issues beyond ourselves,” he says. “It means all of us working to understand that students are much more than just a mind that is disconnected from who they are as human beings. When you look at our mission statement, we talk about all of that. We don’t talk about just graduating very smart people who have very clear academic information. We’re talking about graduating very special people. You don’t develop that by only working in the classroom.”

Since 1970, Toth has served in various roles at the College: from director of the counseling center to professor of psychology courses. Throughout his career, he says it’s been the students — especially those he has been able to counsel — who have continued to fuel his enthusiasm and keep him inspired.

“It’s the hundreds and hundreds of students with whom I have been privileged to work and helped lift whatever they were carrying that interfered,” he says, when asked what his biggest accomplishment has been. “To me, still, the most amazing thing is that students allow you to participate in their lives. There’s no question in my mind. That interaction — watching that growth and development take place — there’s just nothing like that. That is a real privilege.”

It’s one that he’s glad he was able to offer. Holy Cross was “way ahead of the curve” by offering psychological services as early as 1960.

“There’s no question that people run into barriers,” he says, pointing out that not all students need counseling. “What do you do with that? Does it become something that destroys you or is there a way to look at that barrier and talk to someone?”

Perhaps his most visible singular achievement was developing an emergency response program at the College in 1988, a time when most schools went without one. The program led to a book of protocols which serves as an overall template the community can use to compassionately manage crises by restoring a state of balance as quickly as possible.

“Until the late 1990’s, very few schools had something like that,” he says, stressing its importance. “People were just not worried about that. The trouble is, if you don’t have that kind of system in place you can make a real mess out of an emergency and there’s no reason that you shouldn’t have that in place.”

The program has been used as a model for other colleges and universities nationwide and Toth has delivered talks about the need for this development, including one at the Student Affairs division of last year’s Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities conference.

Toth’s dedication to other student issues has been no less fervent. He has developed and oversees the area of disability services and heads an assessment program across all departments in the Office of Student Affairs to “gauge the impact of what we’re doing and seeing if it matters and if we should be doing something else.” He has also worked tirelessly to educate students on the harmful effects of heavy drinking.

“Holy Cross has not been afraid to approach issues concerning alcohol and talk about it publicly,” he says. “We’re very active even though it’s a very difficult job to deal with. It’s so normalized — drunk behavior, not just drinking. We do a lot of work with students who have gotten themselves in pretty serious community standards trouble. We do alcohol education, we do follow ups in alcohol education, we do programming in dormitories, we have wellness events, we hold non-alcoholic alternative events — we do all of that.”

But despite dealing with enough thorny issues for even the most battle-hardened of players, his biggest challenge may lie ahead — leaving the job he loves. So why retire now? Toth, who lives in Auburn, says he’d like to spend more time with his four children — including a Holy Cross alumnus — and nine grandchildren and leave while still on top.

“I have a lot of fun doing what I do. It’s not going to be easy at the end of June to walk away. I know that.”

Last fall, the City of Worcester announced plans to begin its “No Place for Hate” campaign, an initiative created by the Anti-Defamation League, one of the leading civil rights and human relations agencies in the United States. At the time, Kolt Bloxson ’06 was working for the city as a Student Programs for Urban Development (SPUD) intern, and she watched as the “No Place for Hate” campaign, which promotes inclusion and respect for people’s differences while combating hate and bigotry, was taking shape.

Intrigued, Bloxson suggested to Mable Millner, assistant dean and director of multicultural education at Holy Cross, that the College join the city in its efforts. On March 22 at 4 p.m. in the Rehm Library, Holy Cross will formally announce its collaboration with the City of Worcester. Titled “Hate: Not Here!,” the anti-bias initiative will promote individual and collective responsibility for building campus community. Rev. Michael C. McFarland, S.J., president of Holy Cross, Congressman James P. McGovern, Mayor Timothy P. Murray, and Frances R. Manocchio, director of human rights for the city who initially introduced Bloxson to “No Place for Hate,” will be in attendance. The event is free and open to the public.

We recently interviewed Bloxson, who is also the director of diversity for the Student Government Association, a classics and philosophy major, and member of the women’s ice hockey team, about the new plan.

When you saw the “No Place for Hate” campaign coming together, why did you become interested in implementing it at Holy Cross?
I saw the program and I thought, wow, this is something completely amazing! Something that not only benefits the entire Worcester community, but as part of the community, Holy Cross could support this effort and we could have our own mini-program, too. This is something that we needed. Since I’ve been a freshman I’ve seen different things — Break the Silence rallies, vigils, different demands for diversity discussions. But they’ve all been separate ideas, so I thought we could give it one unified, proactive push.

Have you ever seen anything at Holy Cross that this program will be able to combat?
Specifically? Yes. Just in the last year alone as SGA’s director for diversity, I’ve had reports about individual attacks and group attacks that have happened as early as the first week of school — writing on walls that target different groups and homophobic statements. They’ve all been acts of cowardice. This program will challenge that kind of intolerance and ignorance.

Here’s another example. A few years ago there was an openly gay male student and he got a lot of personal attacks, at his job at Kimball and notes left in his mailbox. The thing with him is that he came out and he was public about it — he said this has happened to me and people didn’t stand for it. People set up vigils, they had people standing outside his door. He got a lot of support and there was a lot of discussion. But at the same time, there was no forward discussion, there was no campaign behind it – just a lot of different people just saying “We support him.” This program will allow unified groups to rise tall and say, “We don’t stand for this.” It’s not going to happen after the fact, but it’s going to be proactive. It’s going to be put out there throughout the entire year – not just when a hate crime happens. It will encourage people to talk about diversity.

Why are you so passionate about this initiative?
“Hate: Not Here” comes from a simple desire for not merely tolerance but acceptance. Something I’ve realized recently is that tolerance isn’t enough anymore. I think it’s time we take responsibility for our actions; that we have to understand that there are issues of multiculturalism and other forms of diversity that need to be addressed. In the classroom and outside the classroom, I think these issues of diversity should be more accessible to us. This is a way for the College to be able to do that — in a positive way. A lot of things happen after negative circumstances: The Diversity Task Force, midnight vigils, Break the Silence, letters to the Crusader. Diversity is something positive. It should be just as much a part of an education as other issues. So I’m passionate about this program because issues of diversity are so much a part of life. People shouldn’t feel uncomfortable talking about these things.

Why is talking about diversity important?
Diversity covers all types of things: sex-gender issues, race issues, inter-religious issues. I think that in order for people to be successful in a global society, they must be aware of issues of diversity. They have to be aware of multiculturalism, and as college students we should be educated on this. And I haven’t seen that done sufficiently. All this stuff is on the backburner. It’s not out in the open. Let’s put it all together and make one big fist and make a huge punch and say, “Tolerance is not enough.” It’s just not enough anymore. You need to be open and you need to be comfortable with issues of diversity and we need to get over the fact that diversity is “controversial.” We need to get over the fact that multiculturalism is a taboo topic and we need to just discuss these things because this is life. This is what you’re going to encounter in the workforce. This is what you’re going to encounter when you go to the supermarket. This is what you encounter on a daily basis. So why are these topics so sticky and so stepped over? Let’s talk about them.

Along those same lines, what are your goals for this initiative? What would you like to see happen in say, two or three years?
I hope that we won’t be talking about diversity issues with just close friends. No, you should feel comfortable with these issues in a classroom environment. You should feel comfortable talking to them with your professor, to your coach, with your teammates. These issues are part of our daily life. They aren’t meant to be controversial. They’re only controversial because we don’t know how to talk about them. If we learn how to talk about them, then where’s the controversy? I would like to see open dialogue about certain things in a positive light.

What about your own experience with intolerance and bias?
I experience it just being a college student, by being an African American female. For example, I play ice hockey. Growing up female in a predominately white male sport, was not easy. It’s not easy for girls to begin with and then being an African American it’s even harder. When I first wanted to play at age four, they told my mother that I wasn’t going to go anywhere, not only because I was a girl but because African Americans just don’t play hockey. They said this is fun for now, but after she turns eight this isn’t something she’s going to be able to pursue and my mother said, “That’s absolutely ludicrous. My daughter will show you one day.” Like I said, it’s just intolerance and ignorance. Hockey’s going to be part of my life until the day I die.

Related information:

# ‘Hate: Not Here!’ Press Release

The creation of new faculty positions — which has contributed to bringing the student to faculty ratio to nearly 10:1, among the best in the country — is an example of the excitement and strong momentum Holy Cross is experiencing, according to the academic dean’s report to the faculty.

James M. Kee, Ph.D., interim vice president for academic affairs and dean of the College, delivered remarks at a recent faculty assembly.

Kee said he was largely reporting upon events and accomplishments that took place thanks to Stephen Ainlay, most recent vice president for academic affairs and dean of the College, who left after 23 years at Holy Cross to become president of Union College.

“As many of our senior colleagues have retired, we have hired more new faculty than ever before in the history of the College,” he said. “The departments have done a fine job rising to the challenge of this transition, and we’ve all worked hard to introduce our new colleagues to the mission and ethos of Holy Cross.”

Kee reported on the Trustees’ approval of a salary initiative. “These actions bespeak the Trustees’ respect for the work of the faculty, and their recognition of how important it is for the College to establish and maintain a competitive salary structure,” he said.

Other building and curriculum projects were also reported on, including renovation of the science buildings on campus and programs for first-year students.

“Never before have resources of this magnitude been allocated simultaneously to projects of such significance,” he said. “Taken together, and with the cooperation of the faculty, they mark the beginning of a new chapter at Holy Cross.”

A peek into the future, however, wouldn’t be complete without the reflection of outstanding faculty achievements in the past year.

Matthew Koss, assistant professor of physics, led the first of a series of three annual summer professional development workshops for the Worcester Public Schools; Catherine Roberts, associate professor of mathematics, along with Kathleen Robertson of the President’s Office, helped coordinate the annual Blackstone Heritage Symposium; Virginia Raguin, professor of visual arts, mounted the extraordinary exhibition, Catholic Collecting, Catholic Reflection, 1538-1850, a collection of extremely rare Catholic religious objects from early modern England and America, in the Cantor Art Gallery.

“Our success in acquiring grants was again striking,” Kee said, mentioning the $795,000 grant Ken Mills, assistant professor of chemistry, and the $1.07 million grant Amy Wolfson, associate professor of psychology, received. “All told, 17 Holy Cross faculty members, working with our superb director of grants, Chick Weiss, were awarded grants in 2005-2006.”

Appropriately, a “Celebration of Faculty Scholarship” followed the assembly, recognizing 28 new books authored or edited by faculty, 97 essays and articles, seven chapters, five encyclopedia entries, seven exhibitions and productions, 15 performances and premiers, two abstracts and 56 reviews.

In presenting Thomas Worcester, S.J., associate professor of history, with the Mary Louise Marfuggi Faculty Award, Kee said, “Tom was a key player in creating the highly acclaimed exhibition Hope and Healing: Painting in Italy in a Time of Plague, 1500-1800 at the Worcester Art Museum last year. The exhibition brought a great deal of favorable coverage to the city, to the museum, and to Holy Cross, and the exhibition was also a great critical success, reviewed favorably by, among others, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Christian Science Monitor, and National Catholic Weekly.”

Made possible by a generous gift from Richard A. Marfuggi, M.D., ’72, in honor of his mother, the award recognizes faculty with an exemplary record of scholarship and outstanding achievement in the creation of an original work in the arts and sciences.

Also at the gathering, Edward Thompson, professor of sociology and chair of the sociology and anthropology department, was named the 2006 Holy Cross Distinguished Teacher of the Year. The Distinguished Teaching Award was established to recognize the dedicated faculty members at the College and carries with it a $1,000 honorarium. He will be presented his award at the annual Faculty Convocation in the fall.

WORCESTER, Mass. – The NCAA Division I Committee on Athletics Certification announced this week that the College of the Holy Cross has been granted athletics certification status.

The purpose of athletics certification is to ensure integrity in the institution’s athletics program and to assist institutions in improving their athletics departments. Legislation mandating athletics certification was adopted in 1993.

The certification process, which involves a self-study process led by a school’s president or chancellor, includes a review of these primary components: governance and commitment to rules compliance; academic integrity; equity; and student-athlete well-being. A designation of certified means that an institution operates its athletics program in substantial conformity with operating principles adopted by the Division I membership.

The second round of athletics certifications is being completed on a 10-year cycle rather than the five-year cycle used during the initial certification process. All 326 active Division I members participate in the certification process.

“Naturally, we’re delighted with the certification,” said Richard M. Regan, Jr., director of athletics. “Our self-study clearly showed that the Holy Cross athletics program meets or exceeds NCAA standards. The official affirmation is testimony to the ongoing work of our student-athletes and coaches, as well as to the faculty and administrators who participated in the steering committee.”

Rev. Anthony J. Kuzniewski, S.J., professor of history, who served as chair of the self-study steering committee, said: “Because close to 25 percent of our Holy Cross students participate in varsity athletics, maintaining the full and authentic ideal of the student/athlete is an institutional priority, consistent with the Jesuit mission in American higher education. We have appreciated the opportunity offered by this re-certification process to examine our record in expressing this goal, and to explore ways of further strengthening our athletic program within the context of an outstanding academic environment.”

In addition to Regan and Father Kuzniewski, members of the Holy Cross NCAA self-study steering committee included: Rev. Michael C. McFarland, S.J., president; John F. Axelson, professor of psychology; Christina B. Chen, director of academic services and learning resources; Esther L. Levine, assistant dean; Rosemary A. Shea, associate director of athletics and compliance officer; and Ann M. Zelesky, associate director of athletics.

The Division I Committee on Athletics Certification preliminarily reviews an institution’s certification materials and provides a list of issues identified during the evaluation. The university then hosts a visit by peer reviewers who file a report regarding the institution’s resolution of those issues before a final certification decision is rendered. An institution’s failure to satisfactorily respond to the committee may negatively impact certification status.

The certification process is separate from the NCAA’s enforcement program, which investigates allegations of rules violations by NCAA member institutions. A decision of certified does not exempt an institution from concurrent or subsequent enforcement proceedings.

The NCAA Committee on Infractions may ask the Committee on Athletics Certification to review an institution’s certification status as a result of the completed infractions case.

The members of the Committee on Athletics Certification are: McKinley Boston, New Mexico State University; Shonna Brown, Mid-American Conference; Rita Hartung Cheng, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee; Rich Ensor, Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference; Kevin Hatcher, Colgate University; Pat Howey, University of North Carolina, Wilmington; Gerald M. Lage, Oklahoma State University; Leo Lambert (chair), Elon University; Fred Mims, University of Iowa; Gloria Nevarez, West Coast Conference; Frank Pergolizzi, Southeastern Louisiana University; Mary Ann Rohleder, Indiana University, Bloomington; Greg Sankey, Southeastern Conference; and John Steinbrecher, Ohio Valley Conference.

Through May 27, the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery at the College of the Holy Cross is presenting PRECIPICE: Works from the Senior Concentration Seminar. Paintings, drawings, installations, photography, and other artwork by seven graduating seniors — the culmination of a year’s work — are featured in the group exhibition.

Each spring semester the Cantor Art Gallery mounts an exhibition of work by graduating seniors enrolled in the senior seminar offered by the visual arts department/studio art faculty. The two-semester course is designed to provide students the unique opportunity to work for extended periods of time, producing artwork that reflects their own vision and technical abilities.

Instructor for the 2005-2006 Concentration Seminar is Cristi Rinklin, assistant professor of visual arts.

PRECIPICE includes works by graduating seniors: Jenna Cook, Matthew Dugan, Karyn Folino, Bethany Miczek, Leslie Mignin, Jason Schuster and Katherine Wood. Senior Concentration Seminar provides each student with a private studio space, opportunities to travel to exhibitions in the New England region, to meet with professional curators and artists and to have their work regularly reviewed by Holy Cross faculty and guest artists.

For more information on the artists and to view samples of their work, visit the Cantor Art Gallery Web site.

Gallery Information

The hours for the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery are Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.; Saturday, 2 p.m. – 5 p.m. Located in O’Kane Hall, 1st Floor, College of the Holy Cross, 1 College Street, Worcester, Mass., 01610. Admission to the Gallery is free and open to the public.

The gallery will be closed to the public on May 13 and 20.

Recognizing that students stay up late studying during finals period, administrators at the College of the Holy Cross volunteer each semester to serve the scholars breakfast late into the night.

The menu includes scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage links, assorted bagels, Belgian waffles and topping bar, assorted juices and nightly specials.

The first of the five events will kick off May 7 following the Community Mass at St. Joseph Chapel. Kimball Dining Hall will open at 10 p.m. and administrators, donning aprons, will serve until midnight.

Sunday, May 7
Thomas Cadigan ’02, Assistant Director of the Holy Cross Fund
Margaret Devine ’99, Development Writer
Maggie Hayden Bramley ’98, Associate Director of the Holy Cross Fund
Erin Mooney ’04, Assistant Director of the Holy Cross Fund

Breakfast for the remaining four nights will take place in Crossroads in the Hogan Campus Center from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. The lineup follows:

Monday, May 8
Rev. Michael C. McFarland, S.J., President
Frank Vellaccio, Senior Vice President

Tuesday, May 9
Christine Bernard-McNamara, Director of Public Safety
Kristine Cyr Goodwin, Associate Dean for Student Life
Mable Millner, Assistant Dean and Director of Multicultural Education
Jacqueline Peterson, Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students

Wednesday, May 10
Mark Freeman, Assistant Dean, Class of 2007
Margaret Freije, Associate Dean of the College
Esther Levine, Assistant Dean, Class of 2006
G. Earl Peace, Jr., Assistant Dean, Class of 2009
Victoria Swigert, Assistant Dean, Class of 2008

Thursday, May 11
Katherine Aubrecht, Assistant Professor of Chemistry
Ronald Jarret, Professor of Chemistry
Jane Van Doren, Associate Professor of Chemistry

Thomas Doughton, lecturer in the Center for Interdisciplinary and Special Studies at the College of the Holy Cross, will give a talk titled “Notorious Arthur, An African American Executed at Worcester in 1768: Black Criminals and the Fellowship of Thieves in Colonial New England” on May 2 at 4 p.m. in Hogan, Room 408. The talk is free and open to the campus community.

The Notorious Arthur, Arthur Toby, executed in Worcester in October 1768, was, by far, one of the better known of 18th century slaves of central Massachusetts. A typically large crowd gathered at Worcester to watch him die, Westborough minister Ebenezer Parkman noting in his diary that he missed what was an event. While awaiting execution, Arthur produced a brief account of his crime-filled life. Reverend Thaddeus Maccarty of the towns First Church delivered a sermon on the day of the young man’s execution, the text including Arthur’s last words later published at Boston. On the Sunday after the execution, Reverend Aaron Hutchinson of Grafton delivered a lengthy reflection on Arthur’s life and crimes, a text which was also printed. Despite the attention his case attracted, Arthur was, however, one among a number of rogues, rascals, malefactors and infamous criminals of the 1760s who found their way to gallows in New England. Isaac Frasier, who in 1767 was incarcerated at Worcester when he and Arthur broke out of jail together, was known as the abominable or notorious Frasier. A month before Arthur’s execution in 1768, Frasier was hanged at Fairfield, Conn., for multiple burglaries. Like Arthur, Frasier distributed a brief account of his life. Similarly, a sermon by Reverend Noah Hobart of Fairfield was preached on the day of Frasier’s execution and was also published.

Ironically, Arthur was executed for an alleged rape rather than for his innumerable thefts and burglaries. Both Arthur and Frasier were, nonetheless, among an odd collection of thieves, burglars, counterfeiters and other miscreants of various ethnicities and cultural backgrounds. They formed themselves into bands of felons at a time of social and economic instability for New England communities. They became what historian Daniel Cohen called a fellowship of thieves, an underworld of 18th-century criminals.

This presentation will explore the lives and deaths of Arthur and other African Americans who were participants in a quasi-criminal subculture that gradually emerged in New England at the seamy margins of law abiding society, black felons whose life stories are detailed in surprisingly rich detail.

The event is sponsored by the Africana Studies Concentration and the Center for Interdisciplinary and Special Studies.