The College of the Holy Cross holds a special place in the heart of many alumni, including myself. It was where I met my wife, sent my daughter, and formed lifelong friendships. As the preeminent small Catholic liberal-arts college, Holy Cross has a historic mission to educate the next generation of Catholics in the faith and send them forth to carry it into the world. It is not just another link in an archipelago of secular colleges with identical student bodies and philosophies.
However, recent events have tarnished the college’s reputation. President Vincent Rougeau made an ill-advised decision to write an op-ed in the Boston Globe titled “Clarence Thomas was a beneficiary of race-based admissions at my school.” This is a shameful abuse of his position and reflects poorly on the college’s commitment to racial preferences.
Clarence Thomas is one of the most distinguished alumni in the college’s history, rivaled only by Boston Celtics legend Bob Cousy and Dr. Anthony Fauci. While it is acceptable to criticize Thomas’s legal and political controversies, it is not appropriate for the president of the college to publicly criticize him. This sends a message that conservative-leaning students and alumni are not welcome at Holy Cross, a sentiment that should not be conveyed by any institution of higher learning.
Rougeau’s criticism also validates Thomas’s fundamental critique of racial preferences. Thomas has been out of college for 52 years and has achieved numerous accomplishments in his career. Rougeau’s op-ed implies that Thomas only got into the college because he was black, which is a degrading sentiment and creates a sense of debt to the institution granting the preference. No black American should have to go through the world chased by that asterisk.
Justice Thomas has sworn an oath to the Constitution and laws of his nation, and nobody should presume to tell him that he ought to rule on racial preferences in college admissions differently than his white colleagues due to his race or how he got into college. Holy Cross should celebrate the accomplishments of all its alumni without judgment or political bias.
