Vincent Rougeau Will Be the First African American President of the College of the Holy Cross

Vincent D. Rougeau was appointed the 33rd president of the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. When he takes office on July 1, he will be the first lay president of the educational institution that is affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church. He will also be the first African American president of the College of the Holy Cross.

The College of the Holy Cross enrolls nearly 3,000 undergraduate students, according to the most recent data available from the U.S. Department of Education. African Americans make up just 5 percent of the student body.

Rougeau has been dean of the Boston College Law School since 2011. Prior to his role at Boston College, Rougeau was a tenured professor of law at Notre Dame Law School and served as their associate dean for academic affairs from 1999-2002. He was recently named president-elect of the Association of American Law Schools.

“I am thrilled to be joining the Holy Cross community as its new president,” said Rougeau. “I have long admired the College for its academic excellence, its talented students and accomplished alumni, its dedicated faculty and staff, and its unique place as our nation’s only Jesuit, Catholic liberal arts college. Our current moment in history cries out for the mission-driven education that Holy Cross provides, and I am very excited about what this community can accomplish in the years ahead.”

Professor Rougeau is an expert in Catholic social thought. He is the author of Christians in the American Empire: Faith and Citizenship in the New World Order (Oxford University Press, 2008).

Rougeau earned a bachelor’s degree in international relations from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. He holds a juris doctorate from Harvard Law School, where he served as articles editor of the Harvard Human Rights Journal.

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