We catch up with Marco Clark, President of Holy Cross College at Notre Dame.
Catholic Herald: To start with, could you just give me a thumbnail sketch of Holy Cross College?
Marco Clark: Sure. Holy Cross College was founded in 1966 by the Brothers of the Congregation of Holy Cross. In 2003, we became a four-year college and so we are now celebrating our 20th year as a four-year college. We are small, with roughly 500 undergraduate students, all of whom are in the tri-campus community which includes the University of Notre Dame. It’s a broad and diverse population – 35 per cent of our students are the first generation of their family to be in college.
CH: You seem to have remained very true to your founding principles.
MC: Thank you. It’s at our core. Initially, we were a pathway for students to be able to go to Notre Dame. What makes us special as we continue with those pathways is that there’s the tri-campus community. The tri-campus community is common parlance here and it refers to the three campuses of Notre Dame, and I believe it is one of the great forces for good in the world. “One of the greatest forces for good in the world” comes from the founder of the University of Notre Dame, Fr Edward Soren, who, upon coming to St Mary Lake, said: “I believe that, one day, the university that we will create here will become one of the greatest voices for good in the world.” Part of what makes this place special is that as a student at Holy Cross, with your student ID, you are in essence a student on all three campuses. With our students particularly, we are very focused on high-impact teaching and learning practices. We integrate their formation focused on four core values.
CH: What are those four values?
MC: We say innovative and engaged scholars, courageous citizens, virtuous leaders, and hopeful disciples.
CH: What are some of your strongest academic programmes?
MC: In biology, there’s multiple tracks and pathways that students can choose. In pre-health sciences, for example, and environmental science and ecology. In business, as well, there are multiple pathways that students can take. And then as well, there’s automatic matriculation agreements in place with the Mendoza College of Business graduate school programmes. So many of our business students are in what we call a pathway, a graduate pathway, to Mendoza College of Business at Notre Dame. And then we have our theology department. As I look back over the last 20 years working here, we are truly blessed as it’s a department where we have gifted, passionate theologians who are pursuing truth and justice and love and beauty.
CH: Wonderful. What do you think students come away with from Holy Cross College?
MC: In the world today, many US Catholic colleges and universities are straying from their mission and their core identity of being a Catholic college. We take a threefold approach where we are aiming to deeply integrate the Catholic intellectual tradition, the principles of Catholic social teaching, and then use our unique charism and mission as a Holy Cross school. I think too often in Catholic higher education, people are taking an either/or approach and sadly, there’s a lot of tribalism on the differences that exist between those more progressive thinkers in the Church versus the more traditionalist, and that’s just not the Church. The Catholic intellectual tradition evolves as well, right? As Father Ted Hesburgh said, Catholic colleges and universities should be a place to give the Catholic Church a place to think. We aspire to that. It also needs to be active and that’s where the Catholic social teaching and the principles of Catholic social teaching come in. So, teaching love and charity and justice and integrating that into all that we do as well. I would say in terms of the Catholic character of the college, this is a place that is deeply spiritual. And being in this tri-campus community where there’s a good-sized seminary right across the street, there’s a beautiful opportunity. It is the perfect place for families who are interested in ensuring that their children are in a place where they can continue to grow in their faith and their relationship with Christ.
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