The College of the Holy Cross

Setting

The Institute Project will be supported and sponsored by the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts.  The College of the Holy Cross is a highly selective, coeducational, undergraduate, liberal arts college founded in 1843 by the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in Worcester, Massachusetts. The oldest Catholic college in New England, Holy Cross has placed among the top national liberal arts colleges by U.S. News & World Report.  It is ranked among the top 4% of 925 private four-year colleges in the number of its students subsequently earning doctorates. Holy Cross is highly respected for its superior undergraduate academic programs, excellent faculty, the intelligence and achievements of its students, and the quality of its intellectual resources, especially its library.  The College offers majors in eighteen fields: biology, chemistry, classics, economics, economics-accounting, English, history, mathematics, modern languages and literatures, music, philosophy, physics, political science, psychology, religious studies, sociology, sociology/anthropology, theatre and visual arts.  There is a thriving teacher certification program. Both the first year program for incoming students and a vigorous curriculum of interdisciplinary studies, including Asian Studies, have fostered integrated and multicultural learning as an essential feature of a liberal education.

The College has made great strides in furthering the use of information technology in the classroom. Holy Cross was noted in Wired Magazine and Yahoo Internet Life as one of the most technologically advanced and integrated campuses and CAUSE, the leading association for information technology professionals, awarded the College an Excellence in Campus Networking Award. The College has installed 110 miles of Category 5 twisted-pair wiring within and fiber optic cable between buildings; installed 4,200 network connection ports serving all 28 buildings and networking all faculty offices and all residence hall rooms (now including over 2,500 computers). In Dinand Library is the Scalia Electronic Classroom, a state of the art facility to be used throughout the Institute. All dormitory rooms where the teachers will be housed are fully wired with ports for computers. There are WWW connections in classrooms and AV/Film viewing facilities, including a special video viewing theater in Hogan Campus Center where the institute will take place.

Total volumes in the Holy Cross Libraries are more than 638,000, with 1,660 periodical subscriptions. Professor Lewis has added over 1,600 volumes on Tibet and Himalayas since 1990; the collection is excellent, numbering over 2,600 volumes on the Institute theme; the Hinduism and Buddhism collection is over 7,000 volumes, including leading journals. The Academic and Research Collaborative (ARC) through the Colleges of Worcester Consortium, provides off-campus access to more than 3,800,000 volumes and more than 23,000 serial subscriptions. The Library's Internet connection is a gateway to hundreds of research libraries and databases around the world. We will offer full Internet access to the teachers from 24 PCs throughout the building as well as ILL service from the other Consortium libraries and other libraries.  Library cards will be provided for the teachers. On the library web site there are links to 200 electronic databases and access to an additional 12,000 electronic journals. The Academic and Research Collaborative (ARC) is a coalition of academic, public, and special libraries working together to facilitate the sharing of resources and services for the benefit of their collective users. The ARC libraries serve an enrolled student body of approximately 26,000 as well as a total approximate population of 771,000 in the greater Worcester area. Member Libraries include: American Antiquarian Society, Anna Maria College, Assumption College, Atlantic Union College, Becker College, Clark University, College of the Holy Cross, Fitchburg State College, Nichols College, Quinsigamond Community College, University of Massachusetts, Worcester, Worcester Art Museum, Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), Worcester Public Library, and Worcester State College.

he Holy Cross Asian Studies Program (ASP) is one component of the college’s vibrant, long-standing commitment to International Studies (which also includes African Studies, Latin American Studies, Middle Eastern Studies, and Russian and Eastern European Studies). The ASP, with particular strengths in Southeast Asia and East Asia, is explicitly interdisciplinary, draws 16 faculty from ten academic departments and is centered on the following countries: Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Nepal, Tibet, Pakistan, Thailand and Vietnam. Through 70 course offerings, the ASP affords students the opportunity to explore Asian cultures under the careful guidance of Asia specialists in the areas of anthropology, economics, history, language and literature, music, philosophy, religion and theatre. The program provides students (who can choose to major or minor in Asian Studies) a rigorous, broad-based liberal arts foundation for later work in cross-cultural and linguistic research, diplomacy and international law, international business and journalism, economics, development aid, medicine, religion, or the arts. Interdisciplinary faculty collaboration on Asia-related teaching, research and performance is a hallmark of the program. In keeping with the College’s goal to diversify its student body, faculty and course offerings, the Departments of Music and Theatre have sought ways of integrating world music and theatre in their respective curricula. In addition to the holdings in Dinand Library, Asian Studies curricula are supported via the music scores, books, LPs, CDs, videotapes and laser discs located in the Fenwick Music Library. The Music Library is equipped with all the necessary playback equipment, including compact discs players, VCRs, and a laser disc player. Non-western music and theatrical genres are integral components of the collection.

The College again looks forward to being the site of an NEH Institute. Holy Cross has over ten years of experience in hosting successful NEH summer institute. Faculty and staff in the library, conference services, the grants office, etc., are all prepared to make sure that both curricular and co-curricular aspects of the institute run smoothly. Holy Cross facilities available to participants include all libraries, the services of Hogan Campus Center, athletic facilities, and so forth. Kimball Hall and Hogan Campus Center serve upscale cafeteria and deli foods in a wide price range, offering a choice from salads and sandwiches, to a variety of daily hot meal selections. Basic food items are also available at the campus lobby store and coffee shop.

Housing, with the rooms made up upon arrival and linens changed every three days, is as follows: Senior Apartments with kitchen areas and a panoramic view of downtown Worcester will be reserved for NEH teachers. Rooms with private baths are $50 per person /per night. All prices are current estimates and may change by Spring 2009.

There is a large new supermarket/pharmacy center close to the campus for participants' needs. Worcester is located in the center of Massachusetts and is the second largest city in New England. In addition to numerous summer activities in the city, including a minor league baseball team that plays on the Holy Cross stadium, there is public transportation readily available to Boston, Providence, and New York City.