A Look Back at the News That Defined Holy Cross in 2006

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

• WCHC 88.1 FM, the College’s student-run radio station, started live Web streaming of its broadcast content, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

• Curated by Virginia Raguin, visual arts professor at Holy Cross, the Cantor Art Gallery presented Catholic Collecting, Catholic Reflection 1538-1850. The exhibit, which drew media coverage from across the region, contained more than 60 objects, most from Jesuit institutions across the United States and in England, and centuries-old and extremely rare stained glass, liturgical vestments, paintings, books, sculpture and other works of art important to Catholic culture and worship.

• Holy Cross received a record 6,700 applications for admission to the Class of 2010 — a 41 percent increase from the previous year.

• City officials joined Rev. Michael C. McFarland, S.J., president, to announce Holy Cross’ partnership with the City of Worcester’s “No Place for Hate” campaign in March. Initiated by Kolt Bloxson ’06, the anti-bias initiative promotes individual and collective responsibility for building campus community.

• Renee Laverdiere ’07 won a Goldwater Scholarship, one of only 323 undergraduates nationally to receive the award from the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation.

• The Holy Cross hockey team finished its most successful season ever with a 27-10-2 record and their first win in the NCAA Tournament.

• Justin Parrella ’06, who received a degree in chemistry and physics, was one of only 1,000 students nationwide to receive the prestigious Graduate Research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation to study atmospheric science at Harvard University’s Division of Engineering and Applied Science.

• The College celebrated its 30th anniversary partnership with Abby’s House, a non-profit shelter for women and children, with a fundraising concert by the Holy Cross Chapel Choir titled “An Afternoon of Song.” The event raised $1,000 for the agency.

• The Holy Cross women’s lacrosse team concluded the 2006 season — its most successful in school history — with a 14-7 mark.

• Kathleen Derrig ’06 received a Fulbright grant to work and study in Germany. She is a teaching assistant of English in what is a German equivalent of a high school.

• Several seniors during spring 2006 received teaching assistantships. Kathleen Seltzer '06 received an assistantship to teach English at a secondary school in the Versailles region of France. Moira O’Neil ’06 received an assistantship to teach English at a secondary school in La Reunion, a small island off the East Coast of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean.

• Following Stephen C. Ainlay’s appointment as president of Union College, Timothy R. Austin, Ph.D., was named the new vice president for academic affairs and dean of Holy Cross.

• The Holy Cross College Choir traveled to Italy in May for a concert tour.

• Three paintings on display through the end of the year at the Worcester Art Museum celebrate the founders of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) and the continuing presence of Jesuits in the city of Worcester, especially at Holy Cross.

• The College announced that it had concluded the most successful campaign in its history, raising a total of $216.3 million — surpassing its original goal of $175 million.

• Holy Cross partnered with the Redfeather Theatre Company in mounting a Shakespeare festival during the summer. Shakespeare’s As You Like It at Green Hill Memorial Grove Amphitheatre at Green Hill Park was directed by Edward Isser, associate professor and chair of the theatre department at Holy Cross.

• The first home games for the Holy Cross men’s and women’s soccer teams took place on the new Linda Johnson Smith Stadium. The stadium features a top-quality grass surface, permanently-installed aluminum stands with seating capacity for 1,320, and lights for night games.

• On the fifth anniversary of Sept. 11, the College invited the campus community to remember the day in a variety of ways.

• Stephanie E. Yuhl, associate professor of history, was awarded two prizes for her book A Golden Haze of Memory: The Making of Historic Charleston (University of North Carolina Press, 2005): the 2006 Historic Preservation Book Prize and the 2006 Willie Lee Rose Prize from the Southern Association of Women’s Historians.

• Wangari M. Maathai, founder of the Green Belt Movement in Kenya and winner of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize, drew from 30 years of grassroots empowerment work to share her inspirational message to a crowd of more than 500.

• An estimated 250 students registered or applied for an absentee ballot in order to cast their vote in this year’s midterm elections as a direct result of an on-campus Voter Registration Drive.

• The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation made an unprecedented $1 million commitment to the art gallery at the College.

• Faculty, staff, and students at Holy Cross have shown their holiday spirit with generous donations of time and other resources to many charities and other causes.

Related information: Holy Cross in the News