CAMPUS NOTEBOOK
Holy Cross Rises in Annual Rankings
H
Mulledy/Healy Legacy Committee Report
oly Cross landed at No. 25 among liberal arts colleges and No. 51 overall on Forbes’ annual lists of America’s Top Colleges.
Among 650 colleges and universities nationwide, Holy Cross also ranked No. 42 among private colleges, No. 29 in the Northeast and No. 52 in Grateful Grads. The College rose in the rankings across the board, and also received a Forbes Financial Grade of A+ for fiscal soundness. Forbes ranked schools based on students’ ultimate ROI, with special emphasis on post-graduate success, student debt, student satisfaction, graduation rate and academic success. Holy Cross also made an appearance on Money Magazine’s list of “The 50 Best Liberal Arts Colleges,” at No. 16, and at No. 65 overall on the publication’s list of “Best Colleges.” Money, a subsidiary of Time, Inc., ranked institutions based on educational quality, affordability and alumni success. Stacked against 705 colleges and universities across the country, Holy Cross rose in the rankings from No. 18 among the liberal arts colleges and No. 85 overall in 2015. Money highlighted the College’s need-blind admissions policy; need-based scholarships and grants; and engaged and active alumni base as factors in the ranking. ■
— Maura Sullivan Hill
dan vaillancourt
D
uring the 2015-2016 academic year, Holy Cross, like many other colleges and universities in the United States, spent time reflecting on its historical connection with the institution of slavery. The history and legacy of Rev. Thomas F. Mulledy, S.J., founder, and the Healy family of Georgia, whose four biracial sons were among the first graduates of Holy Cross, played a distinguishing role in the College’s early years. Their individual and interrelated connection to slavery is complex, and both Fr. Mulledy and Bishop James Healy, the College’s first valedictorian, have residence halls named after them. In mid-November 2015, Rev. Philip L. Boroughs, S.J., charged a committee of faculty, staff and students to review our history, so that we as an educational community might engage the consequences of that history in our own time.
Drawing from that committee’s report, Fr. Boroughs has decided that Mulledy Hall be renamed BrooksMulledy Hall. The year after founding the College, Fr. Mulledy accepted and nurtured the Healy brothers as students, fully aware of their legal status as slaves in their native state of Georgia. Consequently, Fr. Mulledy’s history at Holy Cross is worth remembering, without ignoring his sale of slaves five years earlier when he was the Jesuit provincial. His story, in both its shame and in its growth, plays a part in our institutional narrative. At the same time, we include the Brooks name as a way of signaling another transformative moment in the history of the College. Rev. John E. Brooks, S.J., president from 1970 to 1994, actively recruited a number of remarkable AfricanAmerican men in a deliberate effort to integrate our campus in 1968, while he was a faculty member of the theology department. Shortly thereafter, in the early days of his presidency, Fr. Brooks opened the college to women. Linking the names of these Jesuit presidents and the evolving openness to racial inclusiveness they promoted, creates a bridge between our more recent history and our past, and sets the stage for engaging ongoing issues of inclusivity now and in the future. The full report from the Mulledy/Healy Legacy Committee can be found on the committee website at http://www. holycross.edu/mulledy-healy-legacycommittee/final-committee-report. ■
JUN E LAY OF THE LAND June saw the arrival of members of the Class of 2020 and their parents for the Summer Gateways Orientation Program. The sessions gave attendees their first taste of life on The Hill and opportunities to meet the faculty, administrators and students who will help shape their Holy Cross experience. During the summer, incoming first-year students read the memoir When Breath Becomes Air, written by the late Dr. Paul Kalanithi. Orientation programming continued after Move-In Day with Fall Gateways. 2 0 \ H O LY CROS S M AG A ZINE \ FA L L 2016
ti c kertap e ph oto s b y to m r e t t ig