Mission Priority Examen
Holy Cross continues its second Mission Priority Examen during the 2026-2027 academic year, having completed its Self-Study Report, and welcoming a visiting peer team in October 2026.
The process offers a chance to affirm our Jesuit, Catholic identity while finding areas for growth.
Holy Cross Mission Priority Examen
During the 2025-26 Academic Year, Holy Cross engaged in its second Mission Priority Examen (MPE). The MPE is a reflective, collaborative discernment process developed by the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities (AJCU) to help Jesuit institutions assess and deepen their commitment to the shared mission of Jesuit higher education. At the College of the Holy Cross, the MPE offers a structured opportunity to affirm how the institution embodies its Jesuit, Catholic identity and to identify areas for growth in mission integration.
Guided by the document Characteristics of Jesuit Higher Education, the process invites broad participation across the college community - faculty, staff, administrators, students, and trustees - through listening sessions, surveys, and committee work. Holy Cross will reflect on how we live out our Jesuit, Catholic values and where we want to grow.
The self-study culminates in a peer review by a team from sister Jesuit institutions, who affirm strengths and offer mission-based recommendations. The final report is submitted to the AJCU and the Superior General of the Society of Jesus. For Holy Cross, the MPE is both a moment of accountability and a grace-filled invitation to renew its mission with intentionality, creativity, and fidelity to the Jesuit tradition.
Self-Study Report
This 2026 Self-Study Report reflects the prayerful work, candid reflection, and generous participation of a broad cross-section of our community as we have considered how faithfully we live our Jesuit Catholic mission and how we might embody it more fully in the years ahead.
Our discernment has led us to identify three proposed mission priorities.
- The first, “A Sense of the Whole”: Shared Mission Ownership, calls us to deepen shared ownership of the mission and to foster a community in which every person is recognized as essential to the life and work of Holy Cross.
- The second, Sustainability of Persons and Planet, reminds us of the call issued by General Congregation 36 to right relationships —with God, with one another, and with creation—and challenges us to make those relationships more visible in the structures and practices of College life.
- The third, Both/And: Authentically Jesuit, Fully Catholic, continues a theme identified in the College’s 2019 Mission Priority Examen. This priority calls us to more intentionally integrate the Catholic and Jesuit dimensions of our identity throughout the academic, residential, pastoral, and co-curricular life of the College.
MPE Steering Committee
The committee is a collection of diverse voices and perspectives from across campus who will help guide the College through this process.
Keith Maczkiewicz, S.J.
Vice President for Mission & Chief Mission Officer
Co-chair
Justin Poché
Associate Professor
History
Co-chair
Michelle Bata
Associate Dean for Student Engagement
Student Development
Rob Bellin
Class Dean for the Class of 2028, Professor
Biology
Jerrel Burgo
Director
Office of Student Inclusion and Belonging, JEBI
Denielle Burl
Associate Vice President for Risk and Compliance
Administration and Finance
Tom Cadigan ‘02,
Director of Alumni Regional and Special Programs
Advancement
Lauren Capotosto
Associate Professor
Education
Dominika Chmielewski ‘27
Aaron Dashiell
Assistant Director of Athletics for Student-Athlete Development
Athletics
Michelle Mondoux
Associate Professor
Biology
Allen Morais
Director of Facilities Operations
Facilities
Peter Nguyen, S.J.
Associate Professor
Religious Studies
Kate Novack ‘28
Paula Shanley
Office Coordinator
Chaplains’ Office
Melissa Shaw
Editorial Director
Marketing & Communications
Michelle Sterk Barrett
Director
J.D. Power Center for Liberal Arts and the World
Carly Thibodeau
Director of Sustainability
Finance and Administration
Lynn Verrecchia ‘01
Director of Admissions
Kyle Woolley
Director of Mission Engagement