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By Michelle M. Murphy
 Diversity.
A high-voltage, hot-button word in the headlines and on campuses
nationwide at the moment. It ignites debate and sparks discussion among
legislators and scholars, pundits and teachers, friends and classmates.
At Holy Cross, the commitment to diversity is rooted in the College’s
history and intrinsic to its mission.
While the College’s commitment to diversity remains
as firm today as it was in 1843, the opportunities to realize its potential
have been expanded significantly, thanks to a generous grant from The Goizueta
Foundation of Atlanta.
On Nov. 1, 2002, The Goizueta Foundation—founded in
1992 by the late Roberto C. Goizueta, a Cuban émigré and
the longtime Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of The Coca-Cola Company—awarded
Holy Cross a $1-million grant to support two important components of the
school’s diversity efforts: a summer “bridge” program for
African-, Latin-, Asian- and Native American (ALANA) and majority students,
and an endowed scholarship for financially needy Latino/a students. “This
is a fast-growing population, both in the Worcester area and nationally,
that we are very interested in,” says Rev. Michael C. McFarland, S.J.,
president of Holy Cross. “We have had some outstanding students from
this group and hope to have many more. The scholarship component of the
grant is a wonderful tool for advancing our diversity efforts. The Goizueta
Foundation Scholars Fund will enable young people with vast potential,
but limited resources, to receive a Holy Cross education.”
About two-thirds of the grant ($632,910) will fund the first
three years of the bridge program, while the rest will be used to establish
the scholarship endowment.
“This was really critically needed for our efforts at
diversity,” says Provost Frank Vellaccio, chair of the President’s
Task Force on Diversity, which worked for the past two years on a plan
that would not only increase the number of ALANA students at Holy Cross,
but also the quality of their experience here. The Task Force was an outgrowth
of a Trustee retreat in preparation for the College’s $175-million “Lift
High the Cross” campaign.
“We have many talented and highly motivated ALANA students,
but we find that they are still underrepresented in programs that require
high achievement, including the honors program, pre-med, pre-law and so
on,” explains Fr. McFarland. “In some cases, they have trouble,
for various reasons, making the transition to an academically rigorous
environment like Holy Cross. The (bridge) program … will help ALANA
and other students to perform up to their potential and move into positions
of leadership on campus and beyond.”
“We want to make sure they achieve early success,” adds
Vellaccio. “We feel that if they have a good early start, the chances
are better that they will have a good finish.”
And that’s precisely what the summer bridge program
is intended to do: provide that good early start by easing the transition
for students whose high school experience may have left them less than
well-prepared for the rigors of Holy Cross academics—and the challenge
of going away to college altogether.
Associate Professor of Mathematics Margaret Freije, who also
served on the Academic Success Subcommittee of the Diversity Task Force,
says she knows firsthand about the unique challenges facing ALANA and other
students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, or who are the first
in their family to go to college.
“We know from letters and from their schools that the
potential is there, but for many the adjustment to the demands of college
life can be overwhelming. These students might have done everything their
high schools asked of them, but there is a vast difference among high schools
in this country,” says Freije, who is also dean for the Class of 2003. “We
expect a different quality of work here—not just longer papers, but
better. The analysis has to be more serious. In our math classes, we don’t
just want them to go home and do 12 more problems like the ones we did
in class. We want to lay out the theory, do a few examples, and hope they
can run with that.”
“That divide—between the kind of work that was
expected in high school, and what we expect here—is big,” she
continues. “It’s big for everybody. But it can be huge for some
students.”
Dubbed “Passport”—the name comes from a Malcolm
X quote: “Education is your passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs
to the people who prepare for it today”—the bridge program will
begin this summer, and will accommodate up to 50 students. It will be directed
by Tamika Weaver, the new associate director of Academic Services. She
came to Holy Cross in January from the University of Maryland/Baltimore
County, where she was the coordinator of program operations for the Learning
Resource Center. She also worked as a communications specialist for Hightower
Scholars, a nonprofit organization that coordinates programs and scholarships
that encourage students to pursue higher education.
“Tamika comes to us with very strong experience,” says
Christina Chen, director of Academic Services and Learning Resources, who
helped to research and develop the bridge program concept as a member of
the Academic Success Subcommittee of the Diversity Task Force.
During the summer session, Passport students—whose participation
will be strongly encouraged, but not required—will take one course
for credit, and will also be enrolled in writing, math and study skills
workshops. Then, during the fall semester of their first year, these students
will take three courses, instead of the usual four.
In addition, Passport students will be assigned to mentoring
groups, in which five or six first-year students will be paired with an
upper-class ALANA student and a faculty member. These groups will meet
weekly, both individually and as a group. The idea is that these sessions
will give the students a chance to compare notes and commiserate with others
who may be going through the same experience. It’s a critical component
of the Passport program, according to Freije.
“The upper-class students can identify more with the
kids,” she explains. “They can say: ‘I’ve been there,
and I know what it’s like. I made it. You can, too.’”
“They can also encourage them to avail themselves of
some of the support services we have on campus, and coming from a peer,
that has a much bigger impact than if it comes from a teacher or counselor,” continues
Freije. “We have lots of services here: tutoring, reading skills workshops,
counseling. Some students take advantage of these services, and some don’t.
And the ones who do are not always the ones who need it most! It will be
much more meaningful (to the Passport students) if one of their peers says, ‘hey,
I tried this out … I didn’t really want to go, but I did. And
it was worth it!’”
The third element of the Passport program is a retreat that
the entire group will take in January—again, to give these students
the opportunity to talk candidly about the varied challenges that students
face during their first semester at Holy Cross.
The timing of The Goizueta Foundation grant was eerily perfect:
The initiation of the grant process came at almost precisely the time the
Diversity Task Force was completing its work late last spring. “We
knew what we wanted to do, we designed the program we wanted to have … and
in they walked!” recalls Freije, with a chuckle that’s still
somewhat incredulous. “We’re not sure where we would have gotten
the money otherwise.”
“When Associate Dean Mary Morton came to my office to
tell me the great news (about the grant), honestly, I screamed!” recalls
Chen. “I remember telling her that I was so excited that it was as
if someone had given me the $1 million.”
“When we first began, the task force had reasonable
economic security,” adds Vellaccio. “We had money to allocate
to whatever program we came up with. But since then, the bottom dropped
out of the stock market. Our endowment is not generating the money it used
to, and our students’ financial aid needs are greater. So much of
what we had earmarked was in peril, and this grant has made the difference.
It’s made the difference between night and day. It means we are able
to do what we wanted, the way it needs to be done, and do it quickly. It
also gives us a three-year buffer, a time to make a significant assessment
of the program and adjust it as needed. It was really a home run.”
“We are grateful and proud that The Goizueta Foundation
was interested in supporting our work,” concludes Fr. McFarland. “They
have been very selective in the institutions they have chosen to work with,
and they were very thorough in investigating Holy Cross before they gave
us this grant.”
“This was a great confirmation by them to us that they
thought enough of our program’s potential,” adds Vellaccio. “Just
to have them come to us, to be allowed to submit an application and to
be recognized by a foundation of the caliber of The Goizueta Foundation
says something about our institution. It’s an indication that we are
doing the right thing.”
Michelle Murphy is a free-lance writer from West Hartford, Conn.
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