2007: The Year that Was

A chronological look back at major campus accomplishments and news of the past year:

• In January, Holy Cross announced plans to launch the first phase of construction of a new $60 million state-of-the-art integrated science complex.

• Music professor Osvaldo Golijov won two Grammy awards for his opera Ainadamar (Fountains of Tears).

• The number of students applying to the Class of 2011 increased by 5 percent from the previous year.

• Students at Holy Cross got a taste of the Slow Food movement, which advocates the value of sitting down and enjoying your meal with company.

• Numerous members of the Holy Cross men’s and women’s basketball teams were honored by the Patriot League in February.

• A feature story in BusinessWeek focused on a small group of young African Americans — star litigator Theodore V. Wells Jr. ’72, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas ’71 and Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Edward P. Jones ’72 — who arrived at Holy Cross during a racially tense time in the nation’s history.

• The men’s and women’s basketball teams captured Patriot League Tournament titles, earning automatic berths in the NCAA tournament.

• Holy Cross was cited as the only college playing in NCAA tournament with 100 percent graduation rates for both the men’s and women’s teams.

• Three members of the Class of 2007 received prestigious Fulbright awards: Victoria Rodrigue, a music major with a German minor from Bolton, Conn.; Denise Riordan, a Spanish major with a concentration in Latin American and Latino Studies from Rutland, Vt.; and Anna Vannucci, a psychology major with a Women’s and Gender Studies concentration from Enfield, Conn.

• After nearly 40 years of teaching American Catholic history and Catholic social and political thought in Holy Cross classrooms, David O’Brien retired at the end of the 2006-2007 academic year. A conference titled “Shaping American Catholicism” in April at the College’s Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture explored the major themes in the life and work of the noted scholar.

• Leila Philip, assistant professor of English, received a Guggenheim Fellowship for 2007, which she will use to continue her work on a book exploring the life of Hawaiian-born potter Toshiko Takaezu.

• Jon Landry ’07, a defenseman on the ice hockey team, signed a two-year contract with the Columbus Blue Jackets in March.

• John G. Roberts Jr., Chief Justice of the United States, addressed graduates at Commencement Exercises, held at Fitton Field on May 27.

• Bucking national trends in higher education fundraising, participation in this year’s annual giving program was 53.2 percent — up four points from 49.2 percent the previous year.

• Osvaldo Golijov, Loyola professor of music at Holy Cross, served as first composer-in-residence for Lincoln Center’s 2007 Mostly Mozart Festival held in August. Under Goljiov’s auspices, 16 Holy Cross students were the first “outside” singers ever to join conductor Maria Guinand’s acclaimed Schola Cantorum de Caracas in performing Golijov’s St. Mark Passion.

• The Class of 2011 is the most diverse first-year class in history, with approximately 19 percent African-American, Latin American, Asian-American, and Native American heritage (ALANA) representation.

• Holy Cross announced plans for a new program designed to better integrate the academic, co-curricular and residential experiences of first-year students.

• At a press event, Holy Cross announced that basketball legend Bob Cousy ’50 will be honored with a life-size bronze statue to be located in front of the Hart Center.

• The Holy Cross community celebrated the College’s vibrant spiritual and intellectual Jesuit heritage with a series of programs as part of its Jesuit Heritage Week in September.

• The Holy Cross community raised nearly $18,000 in the ninth annual Walk to Cure Cancer. The College is a flagship sponsor of the fundraising event.

• The National Science Foundation awarded a grant of $586,509 to Holy Cross for support of a scholarship program that will aid academically promising students from low income families who are interested in studying the sciences.

• A “topping out” ceremony was held for the new science complex where one of the final steel beams was bolted into place. At the event, Rev. Michael C. McFarland, S.J., president, announced that in honor of Park B. Smith’s $10 million donation to the advancement of science education at Holy Cross, the new building will be named the Linda and Park B. Smith Laboratories.

• Largely driven by the Student Government Association, the College signed a deal with Zipcar, a car sharing company, to bring two cars on campus.

Related Information:

• Holy Cross in the News