CINO Again

One would think that the College of the Holy Cross (HC) would actually have one of the religious artifacts on display but the only one we could find on the web site was attached to an “o” that is the symbol of the women’s studies program at the Worcester, Mass. School, and of the feminist movement itself.

At HC’s annual commencement exercises, women’s studies professors and students wear a stole with this symbol on it. That adornment might, in turn, be symbolic of the politically correct atmosphere at the 162-year-old Catholic college.

We have heard tales for years that Holy Cross is one of those Catholic colleges in which the lay teachers take down crosses from the classroom walls that the priests later replace. We hasten to add that we have never actually seen it happen.

What you can see and learn of Holy Cross, however, might give you pause if you expect a backdrop reminiscent of a scene from an old Bing Crosby movie from the 1940s. “The Women’s and Gender Studies program at Holy Cross marks the institution’s commitment to feminist, multicultural, interdisciplinary education,” according to the school’s web site. “Approved in the spring of 1991 and officially initiated in the fall of that year, the program is the result of creative and continuous cooperation across departments.”

In addition to women’s studies, HC offers up a handful of other trendy programs, the titles of which are usually code words for left-wing orientation sessions, namely:

• Africana Studies

• Environmental Studies

• Latin American and Latino Studies

• Peace and Conflict Studies

(Note to reader: A vowel on the end of an ethnic group’s designation usually signifies a substitution of attitude in place of information.)

A long-time friend of Accuracy in Academia called us to suggest HC as a candidate for our Catholic in Name Only (CINO) college and university designation. He offers some compelling circumstantial evidence:

• HC has showcased productions of “The Vagina Monologues” for the past four years. This is the play by Eve Ensler that describes a lesbian molestation as “a good rape.”

• Although the college does not have a chapter of America’s oldest Catholic fraternal organization, the Knights of Columbus, on campus, HC does play host to the Association of Bisexuals, Gays and Lesbians (ABiGaLe) student group.

The school has chapters of both the College Democrats and College Republicans on its grounds. Interestingly, the school web site links to the former but not the latter.

Then there is the school’s reaction to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks upon the United States. “Margaret Post, a secretary in Holy Cross College’s sociology department, lost a friend—hero Todd Beamer, who is thought to have helped foil the hijackers’ suicide mission—on United Flight 93 and decided to honor him by hanging a flag outside her office,” Daniel J. Flynn writes in his book, Why the Left Hates America. “Incensed professors called for its removal.”

“She refused, so department head Royce Singleton took it down.” Flynn, who also wrote the book Intellectual Morons, formerly worked as executive director of AIA.

Malcolm A. Kline is the executive director of Accuracy in Academia.