Holy Cross is located on one of seven hills in the city outskirts of
Worcester, Massachusetts. Its campus is a registered
arboretum and is marked by an irregular layout situated on the northern slope of the Mount Saint James hill, where a panoramic view of the city of Worcester is visible. The design and landscape is ingrained into many themes and nicknames for the school which is collectively known as "The Hill". The 37 college buildings include residential housing and academic buildings in the middle sections of the campus and athletic and practice facilities on the outskirts on its northern and southern ends. Holy Cross also owns six non-campus properties. Anchoring the traditional campus gateway of Linden Lane are Stein and O'Kane Halls, the latter of which is marked by a clock tower. The oldest part of campus lies in this area with O'Kane is connected to Fenwick Hall, the first building designed in 1843. It also houses the admissions offices and the Brooks Concert Hall. This area includes on the hillside three bronze statues by
Enzo Plazzotta, Georg Klobe, and Welrick. The area around Fenwick and O'Kane Halls is listed on the
National Register of Historic Places. Notable buildings west of this area are Dinand Library; Smith Hall, the Hogan Campus Center; the
Anthony S. Fauci Integrated Science Complex housing O'Neil, Swords, and Haberlin Halls; and Beaven Hall, a former dormitory which is home to an assortment of academic departments. The science complex was renamed for Dr.
Anthony Fauci in 2022. Smith Hall, which opened in 2001, was financed in large part by Holy Cross alumnus Park B. Smith, notable for being built into a hillside of the campus. Smith Hall connects lower campus, where much of the academic life occurs, and the upper campus, where much of the social and residential life takes place on campus, due to its design which incorporates Fenwick Hall. A plaza outside Smith Hall, named Memorial Plaza, commemorates seven Holy Cross alumni who perished in the
September 11, 2001 attacks. To the eastern end of campus lies Millard Art Center, St. Joseph Memorial Chapel, the Chaplains' Office (Campion House), and Loyola Hall, which served as the Jesuit residence in the past, but has since been converted into another hall for student housing. The most recent former Jesuit residence, Ciampi Hall, which has been converted to dormitories along with the new townhouse style senior housing buildings, lie on the southwest side of campus. The Joanne Chouinard-Luth Recreation and Wellness Center is one of the college's athletic centers, having finished construction in 2020 to replace the former Field House. The newest Jesuit housing is located on Kendig Street near the Luth Athletic Complex. The Prior Performing Arts Center is located near the Hogan Campus center, slightly north of the crest of Mount Saint James. The $110 million 84,000 square foot facility opened in 2022 to provide a center for the arts on campus. Its construction continued the general trend of expanding upper campus with new construction. In 2015, Holy Cross announced the construction of a $22 million facility in
West Boylston, Massachusetts, comprising 52 acres and a complex to provide a retreat for students. It was opened in September 2016 as the Thomas P. Joyce '59 Contemplative Center.
Libraries The Holy Cross Library System is composed of four libraries centrally located within the campus grounds. Including its affiliation with the Central Massachusetts Regional Library System, a collaborative formed in 2003 by more than 20 academic, public, and special libraries with research collections in the central Massachusetts area, Holy Cross students have access to a combined total of approximately 3.8 million volumes and more than 23,000 journal, magazine, and newspaper subscriptions held among the 20-plus regional institutions.
Dinand Library Dinand Library serves as the college's main library. It holds an estimated 601,930 books, serials, and periodicals. Originally opened in 1927, it expanded in 1978 with two new wings dedicated to the memory of Joshua and Leah Hiatt and victims of the Nazi
Holocaust. The reading room of Dinand is also the scene of college gatherings, among them the Presidential Awards Ceremony, first-year orientation presentations, and concerts. Constructed in the 1920s, the room's ceiling is sectioned in a grid-like pattern and embellished with gold, painted trim, and carvings along the top of the interior walls. Large wooden candelabra are suspended from the ceiling, and Ionic columns – echoing those on the Library's exterior – anchor three sides of the room. The main reference collection of dictionaries, encyclopedias, and bibliographies are found within Dinand as well as the on-line catalog, and a staffed reference desk. The O'Callahan Science Library, named in honor of Joseph T. O'Callahan, houses over 95,000 volumes of works and periodicals serving the college's biology, chemistry, mathematics, and physics departments and the more neuroscientific side of psychology. The Rehm Library, dedicated in September 2001, is housed within Smith Hall. It serves as the primary public space for the Center for Religion, Ethics, and Culture and other departments with offices within Smith Hall. Rehm Library houses a non-circulating collection of primary texts from an array of religious traditions. It was named in honor of alumnus Jack Rehm '54 and his family.
College Archives Dinand Library also houses the College Archives which collects, preserves, and arranges records of permanent value from the college's foundation in 1843 to the present. The archives contain complete runs of all college publications including yearbooks, the college catalog,
The Crusader, its predecessor
The Tomahawk, the literary magazine
The Purple, newsletters, pamphlets, and similar material. An extensive photograph collection documents administrators, staff, faculty, students, alumni, athletic teams, student activities, the built environment, and college life in general. There is also an extensive collection of audiovisual material documenting theatrical plays, lectures, and sporting and other events. The College Archives also hold a Special Collections section which consists of a Rare Book Collection and the Jesuitana Collection (material by and about Jesuits). Noted collections include the papers of James Michael Curley, David I. Walsh, Louise Imogen Guiney, and Joseph J. Williams. There are also collections of material by and about Jesuits, college alumni, and friends of the college. The papers and medals of the first naval chaplain to receive the Medal of Honor,
Joseph T. O'Callahan, are kept in the college archives. The archives also hold research material about Catholic New England, the education of deaf Catholics, the Holocaust, and New England history.
Environmental sustainability In 2007, citing the college's commitment to Jesuit values, President Michael C. McFarland signed the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment. The college's plan required the institution to reduce its carbon emissions by 20% before 2015. As an ultimate goal, Holy Cross aims to be carbon neutral by 2040. Holy Cross has taken numerous steps toward environmental sustainability, which has led to the reduction of the institution's carbon emissions by 46.8 percent between 2007 and 2017 according to the latest data. The college entered a contract with Zipcar to operate four cars to reduce the need for individually owned cars on campus. Weather permitting, public safety officers operate battery powered cars and bicycles. ==Academics==