Dear Reader,
Thank you for picking up a copy of The Fenwick Review.
In February, the College announced that the nickname “Crusaders” would be retained. The best reason provided at the time was this: “The literal definition of the word, ‘one who is marked by the cross of Christ,’ was appropriate for our institution’s Jesuit and Catholic intellectual and spiritual tradition.” Not long before we went to press, Father Boroughs and the Board of Trustees announced that the College would remove all Crusader imagery from the campus, and replace the athletic logo with an interlocking “HC” on a white shield. It was the only way, apparently, to avoid linking Holy Cross to the Medieval crusades.
Throughout, while we’ve pretended to have an academic discourse about the subject, there have been two main concerns: 1) don’t alienate all our friends at secular New England schools and 2) don’t make the alumni mad while they’re still alive and can still write us out of their wills. Perhaps it’s crass to phrase it in such terms, but please, prove us wrong.
This final decision demonstrates that all of those pious noises about the Cross were just pious noises. If you claim you’re keeping the name “Crusader” because of its association with the Cross (a rare piece of sound thinking!), it would make logical sense to, well, actually put the Cross on the visual representation of the school. It’s difficult to pretend that the mascot decision had anything to do with religious identity when our chosen branding has no hint of religious imagery.
The rhetoric of the initial decision and the actions which have followed aren’t consistent. If the religious heritage is important, use religious imagery (A cross, at least? Or a saint, perhaps?). If it isn’t, Holy Cross should find the moral honesty to stop pretending it cares about its heritage and go the way of the rest of secular academia. The former would be courageous. The latter would at least be honest. The current solution merely pretends to be both.
The Fenwick Review’s motto is “Quod Verum, Pulchrum” – What is True is Beautiful. It’s a phrase that the faculty and administrators of Holy Cross might take to heart.
Bill Christ, ‘18
Claude Hanley, ‘18
Editors in Chief