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It’s nearly impossible to imagine Mount St. James without the iconic spires of Fenwick and O’Kane halls, but that’s exactly what a 1955 master plan predicted — and argued was inevitable.

A Dec. 15, 1955, story published in The Crusader outlines the campus’ future via a master plan devised by architect Cornelius W. Buckley ’29 and presented to the public by Rev. William A. Donaghy, S.J., the College’s 27th president (1954- 1960).

“It is necessary,” Fr. Donaghy said, “to have a specific plan for all future building if the campus is to have any proportion.” The article stated the “dream campus” would “be cruciform with the main axis along Linden Lane to the chapel, and the minor axis from Kimball Hall to Dinand Library.” With nothing beyond Dinand, save for the already 8-year-old Field House, this proposal would have eliminated today’s upper campus, which has been home to the majority of new construction for past decades.

Under the eye-catching statement “O’Kane Will Tumble,” the article explained why the College’s most famous buildings would not see much of the 21st century. “These buildings contain no steel, and as Fr. Donaghy put it, ‘we have to face the reality that they won’t stand forever,'” wrote author Bill Kennedy ’58. “We do expect them to last for another fifty or sixty years, however.” The plan called for Fenwick and O’Kane to be replaced by two residence halls and an administration building (numbers 9, 10 and 11).

The article noted a student union was “the most pressing need.” “The natural location for the structure would be the area between Kimball Hall and Fitton Field,” Fr. Donaghy said. It would include “a gymnasium, student recreation facilities and probably either a swimming pool or a skating rink.” Also slated to be built near the proposed student union — a new field house. The plan called for the Field House to be replaced by an “intramural The Plan for a Holy Cross Without Fenwick and O’Kane I gym” in the same footprint.

However, despite a student union being viewed as a priority, that didn’t mean it would be built first due to “the increasing need for science facilities.” According to the article, “a new science building is proposed, modeled after the Biology Building (editor’s note: You know the “Biology Building” as O’Neil Hall; it was renamed in 1959). A new science building would be located between Biology (O’Neil) and the Field House. Both the science building and the student union are planned for the near future.”

The “student union” arrived 12 years later in the form of Hogan Campus Center, notably on the opposite end of campus from the plan and beyond the proposed map. The “science building” would be realized in 1959 as Haberlin Hall, named after Monsignor Richard J. Haberlin, class of 1906, former vicar-general of the Archdiocese of Boston and president of the College’s then General Alumni Association at the time of his death. Swords Hall would follow in 1985 and Smith Laboratories in 2009, with the entire Integrated Science Complex opening in 2010.

The article noted: “The new campus is a long-range project. Although work may begin within a few years, Fr. Donaghy noted that all of the proposed buildings will not be completed ‘in my lifetime and perhaps not in yours.'”

For a further description of Fr. Donaghy’s building plans and more history behind them, see Pages 323-324 in “Thy Honored Name: A History of the College of the Holy Cross (1843-1994)” by Rev. Anthony J. Kuzniewski, S.J.

Written by Melissa Shaw for the Winter 2019 issue of Holy Cross Magazine.

About Holy Cross Magazine
Holy Cross Magazine (HCM) is the quarterly alumni publication of the College of the Holy Cross. The award-winning publication is mailed to alumni and friends of the College and includes intriguing profiles, make-you-think features, alumni news, exclusive photos and more. Visit magazine.holycross.edu/about to contact HCM, submit alumni class notes, milestones, or letters to the editor.

The newest members of hockey’s toughest conference prepare to take the ice at the team’s Hockey East home opener vs. Boston College in October. Photo courtesy of Holy Cross Athletics

Life is a lot different for head coach Peter Van Buskirk and the Holy Cross women’s ice hockey team this season. One day they’re facing the sixth-ranked team in the country, and the following week they’re right back at it, battling another top 10 squad filled with some of the nation’s best players.

It’s quite the change of pace for the team, one that just last year was playing in Division III. Now they’re a member of the toughest division in the sport: Hockey East.

The heralded 10-team conference is home to teams that regularly appear in the weekly national rankings. (Hockey East members include Northeastern University, Boston College, Merrimack College, Providence College, the University of Maine, the University of Connecticut, Boston University, the University of Vermont and the University of New Hampshire.) Last year, the Crusaders started the transition, playing a schedule that included a mix of Division I and non-Division I teams while increasing the number of games from its previous 27 to 32. This season, the team is slated to play a full 34-game Division I schedule.

The transition to Division I is a hallmark moment. “This move puts the team on the level of all other sports teams at Holy Cross,” Van Buskirk says. “This puts us at the top level of college hockey.”

According to Holy Cross Director of Athletics Nathan Pine, the move to Division I and Hockey East has been in the works for years. The process began with a look at the team’s options; Hockey East was an appealing choice based on the level of competition. Pine knew that having an association with the elite league would have numerous benefits for the program. “We wanted to elevate the women’s program and this was the first step,” he says.

The move was announced in 2016, and in order to become a member of the conference, the College had to meet a number of requirements, including increasing its scholarship limits, Van Buskirk says. Though the transition has been a lot of work, he notes it will pay off in a variety of ways, such as increased exposure, which will help with recruiting.

If you’ve ever been to Mississippi in the summer, you know it is no place for the faint of heart, and you might wonder what brings me back year after year. It’s exactly that — heart — in the form of bright, fierce young women and the community we’ve built together through Girls Write the World, a girls-only literacy and youth development nonprofit.

The program was born out of my Teach for America experience. When I left Holy Cross and arrived at Delta State University following my graduation in summer 2012, I was eagerly joining hundreds of other soon-to-be teachers at Teach for America’s summer training institute in Cleveland, Mississippi. I had no idea that even the rigor of Holy Cross would not have prepared me for the challenges I faced as a first-year teacher in a community completely unfamiliar to me.

As I struggled through my first two years of teaching seventh grade English in Greenville, Mississippi, my emotions ran the gamut from despair to elation, from hopeless to optimistic. I lost and regained faith in my teaching abilities and fell in love with the community and my students. Along the way, I couldn’t help but notice my students’ lack of resources — not just books and school supplies — but spaces to grapple with sexism, racism and the challenges of girlhood; creative outlets; inspirational and informative literature; leadership opportunities; sex and health education; and college preparatory information.

At the end of my Teach for America commitment, I knew there was more work to do in Greenville. Girls Write the World was a way to address many of the concerns I was unable to tackle as a teacher and create a new, alternative space for my female students. In summer 2015, full of renewed energy, my three co-founders and I (all former English teachers) launched our inaugural summer program.

My memories from that first summer come in bursts. Sleeping in a house with no air conditioning because a gracious friend offered it for free. Hand-painting invitations to our first poetry showcase because we didn’t have access to a color printer. Driving all around town each morning and afternoon to pick up and drop off campers because we were afraid if we didn’t, they might not come.

All of those memories don’t begin to capture the overwhelming feelings of awe and gratitude when I look back at that first bumpy summer. Gratitude for the parents who trusted us, the campers who jumped in with both feet and community members who provided a free space for our campers to gather. Awe that our three essential rules — be kind, supportive and brave — and a lot of love created an incredible community that is continuing to grow.

We’ve come a long way in terms of organization and capital since that first summer, but our goals have not changed. First and foremost, we aim to create a safe space for our eighth-through 12th-grade female campers to create, explore and grow, a place where they are supported and celebrated. We do this through morning poetry workshops, where we read, discuss and analyze poetry written by women of color and write and share our own poetry. Second, we aim to provide specific, tangible resources to help our campers navigate their high school years. We do this through a variety of afternoon workshops. In the past, we’ve covered topics such as healthy relationships, mental health, sex ed, college 101, financial literacy and self-defense. We end the week with a college field trip and poetry showcase, in which campers perform their original work for family, friends and community members.

As the program continues to grow, we have turned our sights on more leadership and ownership opportunities for our campers. This past summer, we introduced two new elements: a G-Lead role, which creates a pathway for students to develop from camper to counselor, and a community day, which provides an opportunity for campers to act as counselors for a day and guide their family, friends and community members through a part of Girls Write the World’s curriculum.

Robin Jensen speaks during a lecture on the meaning behind the imagery of the cross. Photo by Hui Li

Today, images of the cross and crucifixion are synonymous with Christianity — but that has not always been the case.

“Art historians have been unable to identify an explicitly Christian crucifix prior to the fourth or even the fifth century, and then only a few rare examples before the sixth. Even a plain Christian cross symbol is virtually missing in Christian art much before the middle of the fourth century,” shared Robin Jensen, Patrick O’Brien Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame, at a lecture examining the history, art and meanings behind the College’s namesake a few days after the Feast of the Holy Cross.

Some scholars believe the lack of cross or crucifix imagery implies that Christians of the first three centuries were not as focused on the matter, purpose or meaning of Christ’s crucifixion, but rather on his message of love, justice and a promised paradise. Jensen disagrees.

“As a historian who works in both early Christian texts and material culture, I cannot avoid the evidence that ancient Christian writers in fact regarded the cross and Christ’s crucifixion as a core event in salvation history,” she explained. “We have extensive evidence that early Christians went about explaining, defending and even proclaiming the crucifixion.”

It wasn’t until the middle of the fourth century that an unambiguous Christian cross began to make a frequent appearance, alongside the Christogram, a symbol made up of the interlocked Greek letters chi and rho, the first two letters of Christ’s name.

Without question, the Christogram was initially associated with the Emperor Constantine, to whom the symbol appeared in a dream or waking vision just before a major military victory, Jensen shared. The use of the images spread under Constantine, who regarded the cross as his personal protective insignia. “Both the Christogram and the simple cross now start to appear in a variety of contexts that are clearly imperial and specifically military in character,” she said.

Within a few years, however, the cross and Christogram were included in scenes of the Passion story — still not showing Jesus’ crucifixion — as symbols of Christ’s victory over death, completely removed from any imperial context.

“If the cross hadn’t had the association with Constantine’s victory, it wouldn’t necessarily carry the meaning of victory,” she noted, pointing to this as a strong example of how images transform themselves.

Images of the crucifixion come into prominence after Constantine’s mother, Helena, identified the site of the crucifixion and relics of the true cross were discovered. The earliest depictions of Jesus on the cross were found within Constantine’s shrine of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, built on the site identified by his mother.

From then on, cross and crucifixion images became steady motifs within Christian visual culture. In the few centuries that followed, their presentation and associations continued to evolve. Some depictions linked Jesus’ cross to the Edenic tree of life, bringing the story of original sin full circle to salvation, while crucifixion depictions shifted from an emphasis on Christ’s victory over death to his participation in human suffering.

This changing, enriched visual repertoire, said Jensen, “expanded the possibilities and potentialities of the Holy Cross as a rich and incredibly complicated Christian symbol.”

The lecture was presented as part of the College’s ongoing celebration of its 175th anniversary and one of the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity, sponsored by the Rev. Michael C. McFarland, S.J. Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture.

Written by Evangelia Stefanakos ’14 for the Winter 2019 issue of Holy Cross Magazine.

About Holy Cross Magazine
Holy Cross Magazine (HCM) is the quarterly alumni publication of the College of the Holy Cross. The award-winning publication is mailed to alumni and friends of the College and includes intriguing profiles, make-you-think features, alumni news, exclusive photos and more. Visit magazine.holycross.edu/about to contact HCM, submit alumni class notes, milestones, or letters to the editor.

For more photos, history and events celebrating Holy Cross’ 175th anniversary, visit the anniversary website.

Schone Malliet coaches athletes training with the National Brotherhood of Skiers at Aspen Snowmass. Photo by Andre Horton

A city kid, Schone Malliet ’74 didn’t strap on his first pair of skis until he was an adult. He’s since made up for lost time, becoming a prominent figure in the winter sports scene and taking on a mission to give all youth the outdoor winter opportunities he never had.

Bolstering a resume that could be optioned as a feature film (U.S. Marine pilot, ski-racing coach, CEO), Malliet leads a group that turned a dormant New Jersey ski area into a nonprofit whose goal is to expose urban, suburban and rural children in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut to snowboarding, as well as Nordic and alpine skiing. Malliet believes “every kid should have access — for the outdoor activity, the opportunity to excel and, hey, just for fun.”

While winter fun is a noble goal in its own right, there’s a lot more to Malliet’s National Winter Activity Center (NWAC) mission than schussing and hot chocolate. Participation in winter sports helps reduce the incidence of childhood obesity, which has reached epidemic proportions in the U.S. and is linked to diseases such as Type 2 diabetes. This form of diabetes is growing alarmingly among children and teens, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Exercise is a key weapon in the fight against the disease, and experts say too many youth stop traditional outdoor play once winter sets in.

Persistence Pays Off

Raised in the South Bronx, Malliet notes, “I grew up on asphalt sports.” (He eventually played basketball at Holy Cross, making the team as a walk-on.) His initial exposure to skiing was less than glorious — and that’s putting it mildly. The introduction came during Marine Corps leave, when a buddy took him skiing in Park City, Utah.

How’d that go? “I had a terrible time,” Malliet says. “Promised I’d never do it again.”

But he’s hard-wired for persistence. He joined a ski club, practiced and “went from being really bad to a little better.” He got good enough to coach, eventually founding and chairing the National Winter Sports Education Foundation (NWSEF), an “enabling foundation,” as Malliet puts it, focused on gathering resources (including financing, best practices and partnerships) to introduce 100,000 urban children to winter sports.