Before an audience of 400 alumni, parents and friends at the annual President’s Council dinner, the College of the Holy Cross announced that the Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture will be named in honor of Rev. Michael C. McFarland, S.J., the College’s 31st president, who is stepping down at the end of the year after a 12-year tenure. The change in name is effective immediately.
The naming of the Rev. Michael C. McFarland, S.J. Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture was made possible by a gift from Michael and Maureen Ruettgers, the parents of two Holy Cross graduates.
The Center was formally established in 2001 and is housed in Smith Hall on the campus. It sponsors a wide range of interdisciplinary conferences and lectures on important issues of meaning and morality today.
The naming announcement also coincided with the news of the launch of an ambitious scholarly initiative on global Catholicism at the McFarland Center. Since no other program with this scope currently exists, the initiative—Catholics and Cultures—will give Holy Cross the opportunity to take the lead in the scholarly study of Catholic life and practice around the world.
“Through Catholics and Cultures and the ongoing work of the McFarland Center, Holy Cross intends to make a special mark in Catholic education in the 21st century,” said Frank Vellaccio, the College’s senior vice president, in making the announcement. “Although the Center was at its early development when Fr. McFarland arrived on campus 12 years ago, he immediately embraced it, seeing it as important to the College’s Jesuit mission and as fundamental to how Holy Cross could better articulate Jesuit liberal arts education in today’s secular and global world.”
Vellaccio also said that the many alumni and friends of the College who wish to honor Fr. McFarland on his 12 years of leadership will be encouraged to make a gift in support of the Catholics and Cultures initiative.
Thomas M. Landy, director of the McFarland Center, said the initiative will significantly increase the Center’s ability to understand how religion, ethics and culture are interrelated. Catholics and Cultures will draw scholars from around the world to explore how Catholic practices, beliefs, trends, and ethical concerns are manifest in very different cultural settings. As part of its program offerings, the initiative will offer web-based resources, scholarly conversations, international conferences, and publications, including a scholarly e-journal. It will also sponsor postgraduate or visiting fellows who will develop their scholarship at Holy Cross, offer a wide array of new courses to students, and create summer immersion and research opportunities for students in church settings worldwide.
“Catholics and Cultures will host programs to bring the global church to Holy Cross, and to send Holy Cross students and faculty out to meet it firsthand,” Landy said. “Faculty and students from many departments at Holy Cross are excited about this opportunity, and eager to help develop unique scholarly resources on world Catholicism that will be useful for Catholic education everywhere.”
Fr. McFarland, a computer scientist with extensive liberal arts teaching experience and a special interest in the intersection of technology and ethics, was named president of Holy Cross in July of 2000. Since that time, he has led the College through rapid and progressive change. The many accomplishments during his tenure include:
- More than 400,000 square feet of new building space, including the acclaimed Integrated Science Center, and two student residences, Williams Hall and Figge Hall.
- A 61 percent increase in the College’s endowment, which now stands at nearly $617 million.
- The record-setting $216.3 million “Lift High the Cross” campaign, which concluded in 2006, surpassing its goal of $175 million and raising funds for financial aid, faculty resources, and other critical campus priorities.
- Financial aid initiatives, including a program whereby Worcester students admitted to Holy Cross whose families earn less than $50,000 per year receive free tuition.
- An expanded applicant pool (applications have increased about 50 percent to more than 7,000) and the simultaneous increase in the diversity of the student body. The number of students of color entering Holy Cross has doubled: Today, African American, Latin American, Asian-American, and Native American students represent 20 percent of the student body, compared to 10 percent 11 years ago.
- Significant community partnerships in Worcester, such as establishing the Nativity School of Worcester (a Jesuit middle school for boys from Worcester’s most vulnerable neighborhoods); giving the Worcester Tornadoes professional baseball team a rent-free summer home on the Holy Cross campus; expanding the community-based learning opportunities for Holy Cross students; and fostering an affordable housing program in cooperation with the South Worcester Neighborhood Improvement Corporation.Fr. McFarland will step down from his post at Holy Cross at the end of the year. Rev. Philip Boroughs, S.J., formerly vice president for mission and ministry at Georgetown University, will succeed him as the 32nd president of Holy Cross.
