Holy Cross to Welcome 725 Incoming Students

WORCESTER, Mass. – Members of the College of the Holy Cross Class of 2009 will arrive on the Mount St. James campus Saturday, Aug. 27.

The 725 students represent 32 states and two countries other than the U.S. Forty-five percent are male and 55 percent are female. Fifty-one percent come from public schools, 31 percent from Catholic schools, 10 percent from private schools and eight percent from Jesuit high schools.

Rev. Michael C. McFarland, S.J., president of the College, will be on campus to greet the first-year students and their families, and returning students will help first-year students move into their residence halls.

In what has become a signature Holy Cross tradition, Fr. McFarland will preside at the Mass of the Holy Spirit at 4 p.m. on the Hart Center Lawn. During the Mass, faculty in academic regalia, administration, and staff welcome the new students with blessings, and their parents and families wish them well as they begin their new journey.

All first-year students are entering Holy Cross having read over the summer A Vanished World: Medieval Spain’s Golden Age of Enlightenment (Free Press, 2005). The book by Chris Lowney, is a history of Spain and the complex interactions among Jews, Muslims and Christians.

Like many colleges across the nation, Holy Cross asks incoming students to participate in an online alcohol education course/survey offered by www.alcoholedu.com and designed to promote responsible behavior. Unlike many other colleges, however, Holy Cross students showed a remarkably high level of participation: nearly 95% of the incoming class have taken the course.