News

WORCESTER, Mass. – Timothy Johnson, M.D., medical editor for ABC News will deliver the principal address and receive an honorary degree at the 154th commencement exercises at the College of the Holy Cross on Friday, May 26.

Holy Cross will graduate 659 men and women during the ceremony, beginning at 10:30 a.m. at Fitton Field.  In case of rain, the commencement exercises will be held in the Hart Recreation Center.

Johnson, one of the nation’s leading medical communicators of health care information, has provided commentary on medical problems and answers for viewers since 1975.  In addition to commentary on Good Morning America, Johnson provides on-air analysis of medical news for World News Tonight, Nightline and 20/20.  He consults with ABC News regarding
coverage of medical news.  He is also medical editor for WCVB-TV, Channel 5 in Boston.

Johnson holds joint positions in medicine at Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.  He is the founding editor of the Harvard Medical School Health Letter and co-editor of the Harvard Medical School Health Letter Book.  He is also coeditor of the book, “Your Good Health,” published by Harvard Press, as well as co-author with former
US Surgeon General Dr. C. Everett Koop of the book, “Let’s Talk,” published by Zondervan in 1992.

He originally intended to join the ministry and graduated from the North Park Seminary in 1963.  Two years later he decided to enter medicine.  Johnson, who is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Augustana College, graduated summa cum laude from Albany Medical College and holds a master’s degree in public health from Harvard University.  Johnson is an assisting minister at the Community Covenant Church in West Peabody, Mass.

The following individuals will also receive honorary degrees:

Eavan Boland is an Irish poet and essayist.  The Melvin and Bill Lane Professor in the Humanities at Stanford University, she is also the director of the Creative Writing Program.  She has been writer in residence at Trinity College and University College Dublin and is on the board of the Irish Arts Council and a member of the Irish Academy of Letters.

Boland has published eight volumes of poetry, the most recent being, “In a Time of Violence” (W.W. Norton), and “An Origin Like Water: Collected Poems 1967-87” (WW Norton).  She has received the Lannan Award for Poetry and has published a volume of prose called “Object Lessons: The Life of the Woman and the Poet in Our Time.”

Aaron Lazare, MD, is chancellor of the University of Massachusetts/Worcester and dean of the medical school.  In addition, he is a professor of psychiatry at the medical school.  A graduate of Oberlin College, he earned his medical degree at Western Reserve University.

Lazare taught at Harvard Medical School for nearly 20 years; during that time he was associated with Massachusetts General Hospital.  He has served at UMass since 1982, becoming chancellor in 1991.  Lazare, a renowned psychiatrist, has earned numerous awards.

Sister Mary Rose McGeady is president and CEO of Covenant House, the largest privately-funded childcare agency in the United States, providing shelter and service to homeless and runaway youth.  It was incorporated in New York City in 1972 and has since expanded across the country and outside the United States to Canada, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and Nicaragua.  Covenant House has 1,900 employees and 1,700 volunteers.

Sister Mary Rose has served at Covenant House since 1990.  Previously, she was associate director of Catholic Charities in the Diocese of Brooklyn, N.Y.  She is a member of the Roman Catholic order, the Daughters of Charity.

WORCESTER, Mass. – Jean Kilbourne, an internationally known media critic, lecturer and writer, will discuss alcohol and tobacco advertising and addiction in a talk entitled “Deadly Persuasion.”  The lecture is scheduled for Tuesday, March 28 at 7:30 p.m. in the Ballroom of the Hogan Campus Center.   The event is free and open to the public.

Kilbourne has addressed thousands of audiences about the serious impact of advertising on individual attitudes, values, behavior and on society as a whole.  She argues that although ads may seem harmless and silly, they add up to a powerful form of cultural conditioning.

She is a visiting scholar at Wellesley College and author of numerous publications about addiction and advertising and the image of women in advertising.

WORCESTER, Mass. – Chris Matthews, anchor of “Hardball with Chris Matthews” on MSNBC, will deliver the Hanify-Howland lecture at Holy Cross on Wednesday, April 5, at 8 p.m. in the Ballroom of the Hogan Campus Center.  The title of his talk is, “Freedom.”  The lecture is free and open to the public.

Matthews, a 1967 graduate of Holy Cross, takes a provocative look at the politicians and newsmakers from the business, entertainment and media arenas that have helped shape the country’s political and social landscape.  “Hardball” airs on both MSNBC and CNBC.

In addition to hosting the program, Matthews appears on the “Today” show as a political contributor and is a substitute host for NBC’s weekend “Today.”  Concurrently, Matthews is the Washington Bureau Chief for the San Francisco Examiner and a nationally syndicated columnist since 1987.

Matthews is also the author of two best-selling books.  “Hardball” (Harper Collins), a practical political handbook released in 1988, has become assigned reading at colleges and high schools throughout the country.  “Kennedy & Nixon: The Rivalry That Shaped Post-War America” (Simon & Schuster, 1996), chronicles the early friendship and rivalry between these two political giants.  The A&E network produced a one-hour documentary based on the book.

Matthews worked as a speechwriter for President Jimmy Carter and was a long-time top aide to House Speaker Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill, Jr.

The annual Hanify-Howland Lecture Series honors the late Edward F. Hanify, a 1904 Holy Cross graduate and a Massachusetts Superior Court justice for 15 years, who died in 1954.  The series was started by Hanify’s friend, the late Weston Howland of Milton, Mass., a board chairman of Warwick Mills, Inc., who died in 1976.

WORCESTER, Mass. – Alice Rothchild, M.D., a practicing obstetrician-gynecologist for over 25 years, will discuss the role of women in health care on Thursday, April 13 at 4 p.m. in Room 519 of the Hogan Campus Center at Holy Cross. Rothchild’s lecture is part of the Katherine A. Henry ’86 Memorial Lecture Series on Women’s Health Issues. Henry’s parents endowed the lecture series in memory of their daughter who died in 1997. Rothchild, a clinical instructor in obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive biology, faculty of medicine, Harvard University, graduated from Bryn Mawr College in 1970 and Boston University Medical School in 1974. She completed a postdoctoral clinical fellowship in obstetrics and gynecology at Harvard Medical School. The event is free and open to the public.

WORCESTER, Mass. – Frank Vellaccio, acting president at the College of the Holy Cross, announced the College will break ground in May for a new $19 million, 56,000  square foot building.  Currently known as College Hall, it will house three  key academic departments, an information and technology center and a new Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture.  In  addition, the new facility will provide critical interior and exterior space for social interaction and dialogue.

“This is a most exciting project, crucial to our future and to fulfilling our mission,” says Frank Vellaccio, acting president. “College Hall will satisfy our great need for additional space and provide a signature building as the home for the new Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture.”

The importance of College Hall led Holy Cross to seek the world-class architectural work of Graham Gund Architects.  The architects will develop a beautiful and functional signature building that meets today’s needs while capturing the goals proposed  by the original College architects and planners in the 1880s.

College Hall will be located in the geographic heart of the Holy Cross campus, on the hillside that separates Fenwick and O’Kane Halls from the Hogan Campus Center.  It will connect the lower campus, where much of the academic life occurs, and  the upper campus, where much of the social and residential life takes place.  An ongoing commitment of Holy Cross is to  bridge the academic, spiritual and social lives of students.  By its location and the nature of what it houses, College Hall will clearly serve this vital purpose.

Within the new building, the Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture will serve as a site for dialogue within the Holy Cross community and as a resource for other institutions of higher learning that take seriously the relationship between faith and intellect and between education and service to others.  It will help Holy Cross fulfill its mission by creating a meeting ground for  all educators who are interested in making religion, ethics and moral questions an integral part of undergraduate education.

“It will encourage dialogue about fundamental religious and philosophical questions facing all people of faith, questions at the  heart of liberal arts education, says David J. O’Brien, Loyola Professor of Roman Catholic Studies and director of the new center.

“Holy Cross is uniquely positioned to provide national leadership in a growing national movement to integrate questions of meaning, value and public purpose into undergraduate education, and the Center represents a major investment in this effort,” continues O’Brien.

The academic departments that will be housed in College Hall are philosophy, religious studies and the Center for Interdisciplinary and Special Studies.  Other departments focused on student academic services that will find a home there include admissions, the pre-medical and pre-dental office, class deans’ offices, graduate studies, study abroad, the registrar’s office and information and educational technology services.

Construction is due to begin in May  with a completion date in the summer of 2001.

WORCESTER, Mass. – In October of 1998, a college student named Matthew Shepard was brutally attacked and murdered because he was gay. Since then, his family created a foundation to carry on his legacy by fighting for social justice, speaking out about hate crimes and working for gay and lesbian equality. Matthew’s mother, Judy Shepard, will discuss the work of the foundation in a lecture at Holy Cross on Tuesday, March 21, at 7:30 p.m. in the Ballroom of the Hogan Campus Center. The event is free and open to the public. Judy Shepard is determined to use the grief over her son’s death to make a difference – to do what she can to ensure that no other parent will have to endure what she did. She has made the prevention of hate crimes the focus of her work and is speaking to audiences nationwide about what can be done to make communities safer for everyone. The lecture is sponsored by the Holy Cross Campus Activities Board and Allies.

WORCESTER, Mass. – There will be a number of musical events during the month of April and (on May 1) at Holy Cross.  All concerts are free and open to the public.

The schedule is as follows:

Saturday, April 8 at 2 p.m.-Flutist and Fenwick Scholar Bethany Collier, a member of the Class of 2000 at Holy Cross, will give her senior recital in the Brooks Concert Hall.

Wednesday, April 12 at 8 p.m.-The Holy Cross Chamber Orchestra and the Holy Cross Brass Ensemble will give a concert in the Brooks Concert Hall.

Thursday, April 13 at 8 p.m.-Sopranos Meghan Aherne and Meredith Lavender, both members of the Class of 2000 at Holy Cross, will give their senior recital in the Brooks Concert Hall.

Saturday, April 15 at 8 p.m.-The world premiere of Chitra – A Dance Drama will take place in the Fenwick Theatre at Holy Cross.  Presented by the Holy Cross Chamber Players and Holy Cross Theatre Department.

Sunday, April 16 at 3 p.m.-Soprano Carey Conniff, a member of the Class of 2000 at Holy Cross, will give her senior recital in the Brooks Concert Hall.

Wednesday, April 26 at 8 p.m.-The Holy Cross Brass Ensemble will give a concert in the Ballroom of the Hogan Campus Center.

Thursday, April 27 at 8 p.m.-During his senior recital, Ryan Malone, a member of the Class of 2000 at Holy Cross, will present his compositions in the Brooks Concert Hall.

Friday, April 28 at 8 p.m.-The Indian Hill Symphony and the Holy Cross College Choir will perform Beethoven: 9th Symphony in the St. Joseph Memorial Chapel.

Sunday, April 30 at 3 p.m.-Organist Heinrich Christensen will give a concert in the St. Joseph Memorial Chapel.

Monday, May 1 at 8 p.m. – Gamelan Gita Sari in the Brooks Concert Hall.

WORCESTER, Mass. – Jim Keady, former assistant coach for the St. John’s University men’s soccer team, will discuss the stand he took against that university’s relationship with Nike.  The lecture will take place on Thursday, March 16, 2000 at 8 p.m. in the Hogan Campus Center at Holy Cross.  The event is free and open to the public.

Keady refused to wear Nike advertising and, when asked by the University, refused to end his opposition to the company.  He was, subsequently, forced to resign from one of the most successful NCAA soccer programs in the nation. “I asserted, that as a Catholic university, we should not be benefiting from, nor be a marketing agent for, a company whose business practices are unethical and promote injustice,” says Keady.

He is currently involved in a high profile law suit against St. John’s University.

The lecture is sponsored by  the Holy Cross Student Labor Action Committee, a student group committed to making Holy Cross a “sweat-free” campus, the Center for Interdisciplinary and Special Studies, and Peace and Conflict Studies.

WORCESTER, Mass. – Ethan Nadelmann, director of The Lindesmith Center, will give a lecture entitled “Too Bad for Colombia: Living and Dying With the U.S. War on Drugs,” on Wednesday, March 15 at 7 p.m. in Room 328 of the Hogan Campus Center.  Admission is free and open to the public.

Nadelmann, the founder and director of The Lindesmith Center, a leading drug policy and research institute created in 1994, is a well-known critic and commentator on U.S. and international drug control policies.  He has spoken to audiences throughout the world and has appeared on numerous television and radio programs.

While an assistant professor of politics and public affairs at Princeton University from 1987 to 1994, he created and chaired the Princeton Working Group on the Future of Drug Use and Alternatives to Drug Prohibition.

He is the author of Cope Across Borders: The Internationalization of U.S. Criminal Law Enforcement; his writings on drug policy have appeared in Rolling Stone, National Review, Foreign Policy, Science and American Heritage.

Nadelmann earned his bachelor’s degree, juris doctor and Ph.D. from Harvard University and a master’s degree from the London School of Economics.

WORCESTER, Mass. – “An Evening with Madame F,” a one-woman show based on a Holocaust survivor’s true story, will be performed at Holy Cross on Thursday, March 16, at 8:00 p.m. in the  Brooks Concert Hall.  The event is free and open to the public.

The performance explores the life and death experience of music performance in concentration camps, drawing on survivor accounts, including that of Fania Fenelon, who performed in the Women’s Orchestra at Auschwitz.  The performance also deals with the dilemma of treating the Holocaust as a subject for art and theatre.

The piece is performed by Claudia Stevens, a musician, actor and playwright.  She has toured across the country since 1998 and the piece was produced for television by PBS.  Stevens is on the faculty of the College of William and Mary.

WORCESTER, Mass. – Approximately 280 Holy Cross students will depart from Worcester on March 4 to spend their spring break participating in the Appalachian Service Program and Habitat for Humanity.

Students involved in the Appalachian Service Program (a program created at Holy Cross more than 20 years ago) will travel to 12 sites in Appalachia, Maine, Camden, N.J., and Philadelphia, Pa., to assist with home repair, visit the elderly, work in soup kitchens, help the disabled and tutor school children.  This year’s program is being led by Chris Kearns-Barrett, a 1983 graduate of Holy Cross.  (His wife, Marybeth Kearns-Barrett, is an associate director in the chaplains’ office at Holy Cross and a member of the Class of 1984.)  Erin Wallace and Matt Dowgert, both members of the Class of 2000, are the student coordinators.

A chapter of Habitat for Humanity was established at Holy Cross this academic year.  The students, now active within the larger Worcester organization, participate in choosing the sites.  Groups will travel to Washington, D.C., West Virginia, Michigan, Florida, Louisiana, Georgia and Virginia to build houses.  Katie Boland ’01 and Matt Schnaars ’00 are the student coordinators.

WORCESTER, Mass. – The second annual Holy Cross Ballroom Dance competition will be held on Sunday, Feb. 20 in the Ballroom of the Hogan Campus Center.

The day will include competitions in several dance categories, including American Smooth and American Rhythm, solo exhibitions and an informal dance competition.  The day will conclude with a ballroom dance gala.

Registration for competitors is $15 and will begin at 8:30 a.m.  Tickets are $10 and will be available at the door.  Admission is free for students with a valid I.D.

WORCESTER, Mass. – Poet Jessica Care Moore will give a lecture at Holy Cross on Wednesday, Feb. 16 at 8 p.m. in Crossroads, in the basement of the Hogan Campus Center at Holy Cross.  The event is free and open to the public.

Moore, the first five-time winner on the television program “It’s Showtime at the Apollo” and author of The Words Don’t Fit in my Mouth, has been featured in a variety of musical platforms.

The Detroit native brought her poetry to the off-Broadway musical “Born to Sing Mamma 3.”  Her poem “The Words Don’t Fit in my Mouth” was featured on Antonio Hart’s jazz album.

WORCESTER, Mass. – The second annual Black & Gold Dinner and Fashion Show will take place on Friday, Feb. 25 at 7 p.m. in the Ballroom of the Hogan Campus Center at Holy Cross. The event, held during Black History Month, is a celebration of Black history and culture. The semi-formal event will include a “soul food” dinner and a fashion show. The 21 models, Holy Cross students who auditioned in November, will wear the latest urban, casual, formal, seasonal and career wear donated by stores in the local malls, including the Auburn and Greendale malls, Solomon Pond and the Worcester Fashion Outlets. The event is sponsored by the Black Student Union at Holy Cross.

WORCESTER, Mass. – There will be a number of musical events during the month of March at Holy Cross.  All concerts are free and open to the public.

The schedule is as follows:

Wednesday, March 1 at 8 p.m.-The Holy Cross Chamber Orchestra will perform a concert in the Brooks Concert Hall.

Saturday, March 18 at 2 p.m.-Pianists Laura Sales and Ryan Malone, both members of the Class of 2000 at Holy Cross, will give their senior recital in the Brooks Concert Hall.

Tuesday, March 21 at 8 p.m.-Organist James David Christie, distinguished artist-in-residence at Holy Cross, will give a concert in the St. Joseph Memorial Chapel.

Thursday, March 23 at 8 p.m.-The Holy Cross Chamber Players will give a contemporary music concert in the Brooks Concert Hall.

Sunday, March 26 at 3 p.m.-The Pittsburg State University Choir will give a concert in the St. Joseph Memorial Chapel.

Tuesday, March 28 at 8 p.m.-The Seniors of Schola Cantorum will give a concert in the St. Joseph Memorial Chapel.

Thursday, March 30 at 8 p.m.-Soprano Kimberly Harrison, a member of the Class of 2000 at Holy Cross, will give her senior recital in the Brooks Concert Hall.

Friday, March 31 at 8 p.m.-The Holy Cross Chamber Singers will give a concert in the Brooks Concert Hall.

WORCESTER, Mass. – Chuck D, leader and founder of the rap group Public Enemy, will speak on Monday, Feb. 14 at 7 p.m. in the Ballroom of the Hogan Campus Center.  The lecture, entitled “Fight the Power: Chuck D on Rap, Race and Reality,” is free and open to the public.

Chuck D, a former radio disc jockey from Long Island, has produced three multi-platinum albums, three gold albums and four gold singles.  He also negotiated a prototype label, Slam Jamz, with Sony Music, created Rapp Style, a clothing line and began development of Rapp Station – Hip Hop Nation, a multimedia Web site.

In addition, he provides commentary on the Fox News Channel and is involved with various national organizations, community groups and public services campaigns, including MTV’s “Rock the Vote,” the National Urban League, the Campaign for National Peace and Partnership for a Drug Free America. He is the author of Fight the Power: Chuck D on Rap, Race and Reality (Dell Publishing, 1997).

The lecture is sponsored by a number of organizations at Holy Cross including the Black Student Union and the Campus Activities Board.

WORCESTER, Mass. – David Ferry, a well-known poet and translator, will give a reading on Feb. 23 at 4 p.m. in the Browsing Room in Dinand Library at Holy Cross.

Ferry, the Sophie Chantal Hart Professor of English Emeritus at Wellesley College, is the author of several books of poetry, On the Way to the Island; A Letter, and Some Photographs; Strangers: A Book of Poems; Dwelling Places: Poems and Translations; and Of No Country I Know: New and Selected Poems and Translations.  He is also the author of The Limits of Morality: An Essay on Wordsworth’s Major Poems.

He has translated The Odes of Horace and The Eclogues of Virgil and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1993 for his translation of Gilgamesh: A New Rendering in English Verse.

Ferry has been the recipient of several awards, including the Teasdale Prize for notable poetic achievement by an American Poet and the 60th Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets for distinguished poetic achievement.

He earned his bachelor’s degree from Amherst and received both his master’s degree and Ph.D. from Harvard University.

The reading is free and open to the public.

WORCESTER, Mass. – The musical Grease will be performed Feb. 11-12 at 8 p.m.
in the Ballroom of the Hogan Campus Center at Holy Cross.  Matinee performances will take place Feb. 12-13 at 2 p.m.

The production, presented by the Holy Cross Class of 2000, is co-directed by Jenn Gauvin ’00 and Jim McCann ’97, an admissions counselor at Holy Cross, and produced by Sarah Principe ’00 and Neil O’Brien ’00.

Among the actors, two Worcester residents, Pedro Figueroa ’00 and Julie Virzi ’00, are in the performance.

Tickets are $8 and will be available at the door.

This year all proceeds will be donated to local charities, including Abby’s House, the Mustard Seed, AIDS Project Worcester and Hope House.

WORCESTER, Mass. – Jean-Pierre Leguay, organist at the Cathedral of Notre Dame, Paris, will perform a concert on Friday, Feb. 25 at 8 p.m. in the St. Joseph Memorial Chapel at Holy Cross.

The program will include organ works of Johann Sebastian Bach, in commemoration of the 250th anniversary of his death, and will end with an improvisation.

Leguay, who has been blind since birth, is Professor of Organ at the Dijon Conservatory.  He was the organist for the funerals of French President Francois Mitterand and explorer Jacques Cousteau.  One of France’s most distinguished composers, he has won prizes for interpretation, improvisation and composition.

Holy Cross’ award-winning Taylor and Boody Organ, a 52-foot high, 10-ton instrument designed in the tradition of 16th and 17th century Dutch and north German organs, was built in a two-year period by a team of craftsmen led by George K. Taylor and John Boody.  It was dedicated in March 1985.

Admission to the concert, part of the Holy Cross Chapel Artists Series, is free and open to the public.

WORCESTER, Mass. – Four faculty members at Holy Cross have been promoted to the rank of associate professor with tenure.

Mary E. Hobgood, of the religious studies department, earned a bachelor’s degree from Fordham University, a M.A.R. from Yale Divinity School and a Ph.D. from Temple University. A member of the Holy Cross faculty since 1994, Hobgood has served on the Committee for Interdisciplinary and Special Studies and the Committee on Faculty Affairs.  She is also a member of the faculty/student/chaplain advisory committee of the New England Welfare Reform Initiative (NEWRI), housed at Holy Cross.  Hobgood is the author of the forthcoming Dismantling Privilege: An Ethics of Accountability (Pilgrim Press, 2000) and Catholic Social Teaching and Economic Theory: Paradigms in Conflict (Temple University Press, 1991) and co-editor of Welfare Policy: Feminist Critiques (Pilgrim Press, 1999).  She is a resident of Cambridge.

Jane M. Van Doren, of the chemistry department, received a bachelor’s degree from Colgate University and a Ph.D. from the University of Colorado at Boulder.  She conducted post-doctoral research at Boston College and Awrodyne Research Inc.; she also was an Air Force geophysics scholar at Phillips Laboratory and a research chemist (on contract) at Hanscom Air Force Base.  Van Doren is the recipient of several awards and fellowships.  A member of the Holy Cross faculty since 1993, Van Doren has served on several committees at Holy Cross, including the Committee on Fellowships, Research and Publication, the Environmental Studies Minor Committee and the selection committee for the Avon Scholarship.  She resides in Acton.

Rev. Thomas Worcester, S.J., of the history department, earned his bachelor’s degree from Columbia University and his Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge.  He received a Master of Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School, a Licence en Philosophie from the Institut Supérieur de Théologie et de Philosophie de la Compagnie de Jésus, Paris, and a Licentiate in Sacred Theology from the Weston School of Theology.  Fr. Worcester was one of five co-curators of the recent exhibition at Boston College, Saints and Sinners: Caravaggio and the Baroque Image.  An assistant professor at Holy Cross since 1994, he is active in several professional associations.  Fr. Worcester is the author of Seventeenth-Century Discourse: France and the Preaching of Bishop Camus (Mouton de Gruyter, 1997).  He is a resident of Worcester.

De-Ping Yang, of the physics department, earned his bachelor’s degree from Nanjing University, China, and both a master’s and Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut.  Before joining the faculty at Holy Cross in 1994, he was an assistant professor in residence at the University of Connecticut’s department of pharmaceutical sciences.  He is a member of the American Physical Society, Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Pi Sigma and the Society of Physics Students.  He is currently a member of the Study Abroad Committee and has served on the Committee on Faculty Affairs.  He resides in Auburn.