Office of the President

Vincent D. Rougeau, a nationally respected educator, legal scholar and expert in Catholic Social Teaching, became the 33rd president of the College of the Holy Cross in July 2021. He is a passionate advocate for the enduring promise of a liberal arts education and has devoted more than three decades to the mission of Jesuit and Catholic higher education. 

As president, his leadership centers on forming students as emerging professionals and engaged citizens committed to serving the common good. He is also committed to strengthening shared governance, and to deepening the College’s partnerships across the City of Worcester.

Under President Rougeau’s leadership and in collaboration with faculty, staff, alumni and students, Holy Cross has advanced Aspire, the College’s strategic plan for the future. Aspire emphasizes academic excellence, access and affordability, and a transformational student experience—priorities central to the challenges and opportunities facing higher education today.
 

Rougeau previously served as dean of Boston College Law School and as the inaugural director of the Boston College Forum on Racial Justice in America. Before joining Boston College, he was a tenured professor of law at Notre Dame Law School, where he also served as associate dean for academic affairs from 1999 to 2002.

Rougeau has written extensively on law and religion, with a particular focus on Catholic Social Teaching and the law. His book, Christians in the American Empire: Faith and Citizenship in the New World Order, was published by Oxford University Press in 2008. His research examines the relationships among religious identity, citizenship and membership in highly mobile and increasingly multicultural democratic societies. He served as a senior fellow at the Centre for Theology and Community in London, where he researched broad-based community organizing, immigration and citizenship in the United Kingdom as part of the Just Communities Project.