News

WORCESTER, Mass. – The College of the Holy Cross participated in the Yale Invitational Mock Trial Tournament at Yale University November 8 – 9, 2002, earning five top distinctions.

This year four Holy Cross Mock Trial teams were invited to participate in the annual competition. With 62 teams competing, this is the most competitive invitational tournament in the country.

Holy Cross finished the tournament with two team awards. The South Team, captained by junior John O’Donnell was one of only two teams to finish undefeated. They went 5-0 in the tournament, defeating Brown in their last trial. After completing a trial off, which was judged using a deferential scoring method, the team was awarded a trophy for third place. The East Team, co-captained by sophomores Adam Zybulewski and Ruth Demeter, finished in fifth place.

Among individual award winners was John O’Donnell who won a top award as both an attorney and as a witness. Freshman Liz Letak was also presented an award as one of the top attorneys in the competition.

Holy Cross Mock Trial began in 1997. They are led by educating coaches Ed McDermott ’79 and Carey Smith ’79, partners in the Worcester law firm of Morrison, Mahoney, & Miller; and Scott Sandstrom, Holy Cross pre-law advisor and economics professor.

WORCESTER, Mass. – The Gamelan Gita Sari fall concert will be performed on Friday, Dec. 6 at 8 p.m. in Brooks Concert Hall at the College of the Holy Cross. The concert is free and open to the public.

Students in Luce Scholar Desak Made Suarti Laksmi’s gamelan and Balinese dance class will be joined by professional guest artists in this performance beloved for its pageantry and vibrancy. The concert is usually performed before standing-room-only audiences.

WORCESTER, Mass. – On Tuesday, November 19 at 7:00 p.m. in the Rehm Library, the College of the Holy Cross will present “An Evening with the Rich Sisters.” The performance is free and open to the public.

Interpreters Dr. Ogretta McNeil, Holy Cross professor emerita and retired dean; Mary Collins; and Dr. Shirley Carter will explore the life and times of the Rich family of Worcester, Mass. during the mid-19th century. Their performance will address topics related to the African-American experience in central New England.

The Rich family was one of the most prominent African-American families in Worcester. Peter Rich was born a slave in Lancaster, Mass. in 1769. He moved to Worcester as a young adult where he married and had eleven children. Rich was one of only three “colored” property owners in the town. His grandson Benjamin Clough was one of the first men of color to carry the mail in Worcester. His granddaughter Jennie Cora Clough was the first African-American to graduate from a Worcester high school. She went on to graduate from the Worcester Normal School, became a school teacher and married George Busby who, when elected to the City Board of Aldermen, became the first person of color to be part of the Worcester government.

Holy Cross professor and historian Thomas Doughton has done extensive documentary work on the Rich family. His research has facilitated the “Rich Sisters” performances, which have been featured at town historical societies, public libraries and churches.

This event is co-sponsored by Africana Studies, the Center for Interdisciplinary & Special Studies, Women’s Studies, the history department, the Donelan Office of Community Based Learning and the Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture.

WORCESTER, Mass. – Danzy Senna of the English department was awarded the 2002 Whiting Writers’ Award at a ceremony at Pierpont Morgan Library in New York on October 30.

The Whiting Awards, which are $35,000 each, have been given annually since 1985 to ten “emerging writers of exceptional talent and promise.” Among past recipients who have later achieved prominence in their field are Mona Simpson, David Foster Wallace, Jonathan Franzen, Mary Karr, Tony Kushner, Allegra Goodman, Katha Pollit, Suzan-Lori Parks, Mark Doty, Andre Aciman, Michael Cunninghman, Jorie Graham, and Colson Whitehead.

Ms. Senna’s first novel, Caucasia, was published in 1998 by Riverhead Books. It earned her the Book of the Month Club Stephen Crane Award for Best New Fiction, the ALA’s Alex Award, an LA Times’ Best Books of the Year mention, and was a finalist for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and the Orange Prize. Ms. Senna grew up in Boston, attended Stanford University, and has an M.F.A. from the University of California, Irvine. She currently holds the Jenks Chair of Contemporary American Letters at the College of the Holy Cross. She is at work on a second novel.

Ms. Senna maintains a residence in Spencer, Mass. and in N.Y.

WORCESTER, Mass. – On Saturday, November 16 from 9:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. in the Rehm Library, the College of the Holy Cross will host a workshop titled “God Has Called Me to Interpret, Now What Do I Do?” This event is open to the public for a fee of $20. Registration begins November 6.

The workshop will offer an overview of what an interpreter in a religious setting needs to know and what skills he/she needs to develop. Discussion topics will include basic interpreting competencies, understanding and knowledge of religions and religious settings, and the Code of Ethics.

Susan Haggerty, CI/CT, will be facilitating the workshop. She began interpreting in her church 20 years ago and has interpreted in that setting on a regular basis ever since. She attended Northern Essex Community College, graduating in 1997 with an associate’s degree in ASL/English interpreting. Haggerty has worked as an interpreter in the community since 1998.

Made possible by a generous grant from Lilly Endowment, Inc., this event is part of a series of workshops related to religion in the deaf community. It will be presented in spoken English.

This event is co-sponsored by the Holy Cross deaf studies program, Holyoke Community College and the Northeastern University Interpreter Education Project.

WORCESTER, Mass. – There will be an organ concert on Sunday, November 24 at 3:00 p.m. in the St. Joseph Memorial Chapel at the College of the Holy Cross. The concert is free and open to the public.

As part of the Holy Cross Chapel Artists Series, the concert will feature organist Christian Schmitt. The program will include works by German organists Buxtehude, Böhm, Bruhns and J. S. Bach.

Twenty-six year old Christian Schmitt has won prizes in eight international organ competitions, including the prestigious Berlin Competition of 2001. He was only the second organist in the history of the competition to receive the honor. Schmitt has performed in concerts throughout Europe, Russian, Japan, Korea, Australia, the United States and Canada. He has made several recordings and performs regularly with solo instrumentalists and orchestras, including the Luxembourg Symphony Orchestra. Schmitt is currently a candidate for the Artist’s Diploma at The Boston Conservatory.

WORCESTER, Mass. – The 18th Annual Coalition Organized for Health Education in Schools (COHES) Conference will take place in the Hogan Campus Center at the College of the Holy Cross on Thursday, November 7 from 7:45 a.m. – 2:45. The conference titled “The Importance of Comprehensive Health Education: Keeping Tomorrow’s Leaders Healthy,” will address healthy decision making on issues of alcohol, depression, body image and relationships.

The conference will include workshops on college transition; body image and nutrition; family and community involvement funding sources; school nutrition environment depression; and physical activities preparing students for standardized testing.

Workshop “B” titled “Transitioning from High School to College: Increasing Independence and Decreasing Risk,” will be given at 8:15 a.m. by the Holy Cross Students for Responsible Choices and the Holy Cross Relationship Peer Educators. This workshop is being presented in conjunction with Boston College’s Students Talking About Responsibility.

Special presentations will be given by Jean Wiecha, Ph.D., senior research scientist at the Harvard Prevention Research Center and Gayle L. Macklem, M.A., N.A.S.P., licensed educational psychologist in the Manchester Essex Regional School District and past president of the Massachusetts School Psychologist Association.

WORCESTER, Mass. – On Saturday, November 9, Holy Cross ALANA (African-American, Latino, Asian-American, and Native-American) students will participate in Crossing Boundaries Fall 2002 at Clark University. The conference titled “The Power of the ALANA Student Voice: Myth or Reality,” will provide students with an opportunity to meet and share ideas with other ALANA students at colleges and universities in Worcester.

The schedule is as follows:

12:30 p.m. – sign in, Tilton Hall, 2nd floor, Higgins University Center

1:00 p.m. – Ice breaker

1:30 p.m. – Reading, Framing of Program Focus

2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. Workshops
(1st floor Conference Rooms, Higgins University Center )

* · Who/What gives ALANA Students “Voice”?
(Grace Conference Room)
This workshop will discuss leadership issues affecting minority communities. Who are the ones doing all the talking? How do we identify and choose our leaders? Who do ALANA students turn to for a voice in society? To entertainers? Business people? Athletes? Politicians?
* · Who Really has the Power to Speak?
(Lurie Conference Room)
This workshop will address questions about the politics of power. Who has the power to speak and whose voice holds weight? Is it just politicians? If this is so, how well are minorities represented in elected positions both locally and nationally? What other ways do ALANA students have the power to speak?
* · How do ALANA Students Empower Each Other to Speak? (Rosenblatt Conference Room)
This workshop will deal with building the ALANA voice. How do ALANA students support each other? How do we hold those in power responsible for their actions? How is this work done on all levels – local, national, community and school?

3:30 p.m.- 5:00 p.m. Workshops Repeated (students rotate)

5:00 p.m.-5:30 p.m. Full Group Wrap-up Discussion

5:30 p.m. – Dinner – Tilton Hall, 2nd floor,
Higgins University Center

Crossing Boundaries is sponsored by the Worcester ALANA Consortium Support Network with the goal of developing a stronger connection between all the ALANA students in the Worcester Consortium. Crossing Boundaries Fall 2002 is the fourth conference sponsored by the Network; it is offered as part of an effort to expand support and resources for ALANA students and provide opportunities for them to meet and develop genuine supportive relationships with each other.

WORCESTER, Mass. – On Saturday, December 7 from 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. in the Rehm Library, the College of the Holy Cross will host a workshop titled “Media Analysis of Audiocentric Churches ‘for’ the Deaf: Deaf Peoples’ Relationship with Power in the Churches, and Interpreters’ Role in It.” This event is open to the public for a fee of $30. Registration deadline is November 26.

This open-ended group discussion will cover various relevant subtopics including the communication and cultural problems of church architecture, liturgy, hymns, and many other media. The interpreters’ roles in dealing with these problems will also be addressed. The major goal of the discussion is to raise awareness of these issues and to strategize for possible solutions to problems. Remaining time will be devoted to hands-on problem solving activities and creative use of interpreters in potential ASL-culture affirmative arts including ASL poetry, gospel storytelling, role playing skits, and ASL Choir with body movements for greater expression in churches. All activities will be facilitated by the workshop moderator. Deaf participants are strongly encouraged to attend and participate.

Patrick “Pax” McCarthy will be facilitating the workshop. McCarthy is a native user of ASL. He earned his B.A. in psychology from Gallaudet University and his M.S. in Deaf Education from Western Maryland College. In his youth, he was an altar boy at the Baltimore Catholic Deaf Church. He is currently practicing yoga meditation with Christian ethics.

Made possible by a generous grant from Lilly Endowment, Inc., this event is part of a series of workshops related to religion in the deaf community. It will be presented in American Sign Language (ASL) only.

This event is co-sponsored by the Holy Cross deaf studies program, Holyoke Community College and the Northeastern University Interpreter Education Project.

WORCESTER, Mass. – Holy Cross senior Jonathan Favreau has been selected by the College’s Center for Interdisciplinary and Special Studies as the 2001 spring semester’s Maurizio Vannicelli Washington Semester Away program award winner. He will present his thesis, “The Politics of Abandonment: White Working Class Defection from the Democratic Party,” on Thursday, November 7 and 4:00 p.m. in the Rehm Library.

The Vannicelli Prize is awarded each semester in honor of the late Holy Cross political science professor and Washington Program director, Maurizio Vannicelli, for the best research paper produced in the Washington Semester Away program. The recipient of the prize is accorded the opportunity to give a public lecture at the College on his or her thesis. In addition, the winner receives a bound copy of the thesis and is presented with a book award during Commencement exercises.

Favreau’s thesis, based in part on his work in the office of Senator John Kerry, was an assessment of the changes in the voting constituency of the democratic party over the last few decades, in particular the tendency for working class white men to vote republican candidates rather than democratic candidates in national elections. Favreau offers an insightful critique of how the interaction of race, class and gender have played a significant role in this defection, while also examining how larger cultural values have often framed the specific issues.

WORCESTER, Mass. – On Monday, November 11 at 4:30 p.m. in the Rehm Library poet Elizabeth Alexander will read from her collection of poems. The reading is free and open to the public.

Elizabeth Alexander is the author of three poetry collections, Body of Life, The Venus Hottentot and her latest, Antebellum Dream Book. Her poetry and essays have been widely published in magazines including the American Poetry Review, Callaloo, Fence, the Paris Review, Ploughshares, and Poetry, and in anthologies including By Herself: Women Reclaim Poetry; American Poetry: The Next Generation; and The Vintage Book of African American Poetry. She currently teaches at Yale University.

This event is being sponsored by the College’s English department.

WORCESTER, Mass. – The Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture at the College of the Holy Cross continues its “Last Lecture” series on Tuesday, November 12 at 7:30 p.m. in the Rehm Library with a lecture by Vickie Langohr, assistant professor of political science. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Funded by the Lilly Endowment Vocation Initiative, the pretext of the lecture is that the speaker is about to retire and has been asked to sum up in a final lecture to students what they believe has made the work they’ve dedicated themselves to meaningful and worthwhile. Given a “last” chance, what’s worth saying? What wisdom would be most important to pass on? What challenges have to go unfulfilled?

Langohr earned her Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University. The recipient of several research awards and fellowships, she has been a member of the Holy Cross faculty since 1998. Langohr is an expert on Middle East politics. She writes and lectures on democratization in the Arab world, the Middle East peace process and religious movements in the Middle East and South Asia.

WORCESTER, Mass. – Beginning at 4:00 p.m. on Thursday, October 31 in the Hogan Campus Center Ballroom, members of the community are invited to participate in chaperoned “trick-or-treating” through the residence halls at the College.

4:00 – 4:45 p.m. – Decorate a “trick-or-treat” bag! (ballroom)

4:45 – 6:15 p.m. – Chaperoned “trick-or-treating” in the residence halls! (departing from the ballroom)

6:15 – 7:00 p.m. – Fun and games! (ballroom)

This event is being sponsored by Residence Life, S.A.D.E.R. (Student Ambassadors Developing External Relations), and S.P.U.D (Student Programs for Urban Development).

WORCESTER, Mass. – On Thursday, November 7 at 7:30 p.m. in the Rehm Library at the College of the Holy Cross Cynthia Donnelly will perform “A Woman in Love” a play on the life of Catherine Doherty. This event is free and open to the public.

Catherine Doherty is the founder of Friendship House and the Madonna House Apostolate. She is considered a saint and a prophet by some; a tyrant and a fraud by others. In the play “A Woman in Love” Catherine challenges the audience to decided for themselves who she is.

This one-woman play is written and performed by Cynthia Donnelly. She has worked professionally with the Indiana Repertory Theatre, The Hartford Stage Company and The New York Shakespeare Festival and has appeared in numerous Broadway and off-Broadway productions. Her film credits include work with directors Milos Foreman and Woody Allen. After a 13 year break from the Catholic Church, Donnelly joined the Madonna House community in 1980.

WORCESTER, Mass. – On Thursday, October 24 at 7:30 p.m. in the Rehm Library Paul E. Peterson will give a lecture titled “What do we know about school vouchers?” The lecture is free and open to the public.

Paul E. Peterson is the Henry Lee Shattuck Professor of Government and director of the Program on Education Policy and Governance at Harvard University. He also serves as Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford and as editor-in-chief of Education Next, a journal of opinion and research on education policy.

A prominent figure in American education, Peterson has written and edited numerous articles and twenty-two books including The Education Gap: Vouchers and Urban Schools and Charters, Vouchers, and Public Education. Three of his books have received major awards from the American Political Science Association.

This event is sponsored by the political science department.