The Spire

Ben Lepper ’25 and Nathan Howard ’25

Editors-in-Chief

On Wednesday, April 9th, The Spire had the privilege of speaking with President Rougeau for our monthly interview. Our first question for the President concerned the variety of high-profile and accomplished individuals who have spoken at Holy Cross throughout the past few weeks, including Secretary of State John Kerry, Dr. Anthony Fauci, as well as Dr. Christine Grady. We specifically asked President Rougeau about how these visitors have positively impacted the campus community as a whole. President Rougeau responded by explaining that “I’m very pleased that we’ve been able to share our campus with these prominent individuals and to hear from them. In particular, these are three people who have devoted their careers to public service and I think, given our mission and our core values, for our students to hear from highly accomplished individuals who made a decision early on to devote their careers to the service of their country and the service to the world, is just particularly compelling. I’m also just incredibly thankful for their willingness to offer so much of their time. Dr. Fauci and Dr. Grady were here for two days and really spent a lot of time with students and really offered this entire community a real meaningful opportunity to engage with them and talk to them, including the student papers, which is just another demonstration of the commitment they have to being open and engaged about the work that they do. And I think Dr. Fauci’s case is just a wonderful representation of his commitment to and his desire to be in an ongoing conversation with members of this community, the community that shaped him since his graduation in 1962. And that’s a commitment we want to have as an ongoing one. Our campus should be a place of dialogue and exploration and engagement for our students and the entire community to hear from people who can offer real perspectives on different pathways in the world.”

Next, we decided to ask President Rougeau about the College’s decision to publicly sign on to an amicus brief in support of a lawsuit brought by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP v. Rubio) over the federal government’s efforts to arrest, detain, and deport noncitizen students and faculty members who participate in protected First Amendment activities. In regards to this topic, President Rougeau shared that “We’re going to sign onto the amicus brief as our way of just showing that the issues that are being raised in this litigation are important to us. And we think it’s very important that we demonstrate our commitment to the idea of our universities and colleges in this country being places of engagement for people from all over the world and to allow for those people who join us to feel that they can participate freely in the discourse of higher education in this country.” President Rougeau added that “This country has established probably the best system of higher education in the world. It’s something that we should really be proud of. And one of the reasons we have been able to do that is because we have been so welcoming. We welcomed refugees from Nazi Germany who became some of our greatest leaders, scientists, Nobel Prize winners, and they didn’t do that by having their voices silenced. We did that by allowing them to fully engage with us in free dialogue and free inquiry. Now, obviously there are circumstances in which someone being here as a noncitizen means that there are some limitations to what they can do, but we are concerned, particularly as a Jesuit Catholic institution, that we, as members of a global church, feel it critical for us to be a place of global encounter. And we would hate to see a situation where people feel chilled in their ability to participate once they are here or, more damagingly, who decide not to come here. And the other important part of this litigation is that we are concerned about the long term damaging effects of American higher education being perceived as a place that is unwelcoming to those from abroad and I think the news is making it clear that that’s already starting to happen. So, this is really about preserving excellence in American higher education and preserving our commitment to the values of global engagement and human dignity.”

The conversation with President Rougeau also included a discussion about the decision by the Board of Trustees to raise tuition again for the next school year. While this raise in tuition is very similar to what is seen at other private liberal arts colleges in the area, we asked President Rougeau about this decision as well as his message to students who may be concerned about their finances at this time. President Rougeau explained that “We always take the tuition increase very, very seriously. We spend a lot of time thinking about it and trying to model it out to make sure that what we’re doing is the best way for us to provide the highest quality of education we can to our students and also meet our commitments to other members of this community, such as faculty and staff. So, in this economic environment, we’re trying to put this institution in the best possible position. I think students should know that the things that we are trying to fund go directly to their learning and we’re looking closely at making sure we’re compensating faculty fairly. Additionally, we also look to make sure that we are providing the best possible physical plan that we can. We’re doing some exciting things like the acquisition of Rotmans, which has nothing to do with the tuition, but which I just think is a demonstration of our commitment to making sure that we are strategic and trying to create a campus here that provides the best possible learning. Additionally, through financial aid, we are always committed to helping students who are here meet whatever financial need they have and we encourage all students to go to the financial aid office if they have any issues around their ability to pay for their education.”

We then asked President Rougeau about this year’s admissions cycle, as it has since been announced by the College that the Class of 2029 officially had a 17% acceptance rate with over 10,000 prospective students applying. We specifically asked President Rougeau if the College noticed any interesting trends in applicants this year, especially when compared to the previous admissions cycle. President Rougeau explained that “To put that in context, in the last five years we’ve seen a 40% increase in applications, which is pretty awesome and pretty incredible! And I think we should acknowledge the students who do so much to help us recruit students and of course the admissions team who make this possible. I would say in terms of some trends, we’re seeing more applications from different parts of the country that traditionally have not sent a lot of students here. We’re also seeing more students coming here who are coming to us from high schools that have never sent a student to Holy cross before. We’re doing more and more outreach and the admissions office is doing more programming of all kinds. Additionally, we have this beautiful new admissions center which I think is definitely helping us. So as you all know, this community knows what a wonderful place this is, but we have an obligation to make sure that other people know about us and understand why this place is so special. And when we do that well, we get the kinds of applications we’re receiving. And to conclude, we don’t work to make sure that the admissions rate is low just for the sake of it being low. But what it’s saying is that we have this wonderful opportunity to create an incredibly interesting community on this campus of really bright, young people who all want to be here. This is increasingly people’s first choice of school and that’s something we should all be proud of.”

We then acknowledged that members of the Class of 2025 are nearing the conclusion of their journey at Holy Cross and we asked President Rougeau if he had any specific advice for our graduating seniors. President Rougeau explained that it is important to “Focus on every day you are here because this is a really special time as you approach commencement and you’re going to look back on it very fondly.” He added that “You still have a few weeks where if there’s something you didn’t get a chance to do, a place you didn’t get a chance to see, or a person you didn’t get a chance to spend time with, make sure to do that. Also, take a moment for some gratitude for what you’ve had here and for the people you’ve met here. These are going to be lifelong friends, and of course, everyone will be here for you for the rest of your life and we’re looking forward to having that alumni relationship with you where you can still be a part of what happens here from that perspective. So yeah, it’s always a bittersweet moment when commencement comes, but it’s a natural part of life’s transitions. But I know there are other great things that lie ahead for all of you and this is your chance, too, to really dive into that great Holy Cross network wherever you go. Wherever you end up and whatever you end up doing, you should know that Holy Cross people are ready to connect with you and reach out to you.” 

Seeing as our meeting with President Rougeau is occurring during the season of Lent and Easter is rapidly approaching, we decided to conclude our conversation by asking President Rougeau if he could speak about something that he is particularly thankful for, either on or off campus. President Rougeau responded by saying that “Something that I’m really thankful for is I had a chance this season to get back to doing something I love as part of the liturgies here on campus. Specifically, I got to sing. I just felt that it was a really wonderful way for me to just reconnect with my faith personally but also to connect with the faith community here and to share something that I’ve always enjoyed doing. And I’ve always felt it’s been a gift for me to be with this community. My wife and I are going to be at Palm Sunday Mass too, and so for me, it was a particularly special chance to really be part of the campus and its spiritual community in a way that I hadn’t had a chance to do previously and hope to do more.”

Featured image courtesy of Michael Ivins/College of the Holy Cross