Vincent D. Rougeau, the current dean of Boston College Law School, has been named to succeed Rev. Philip L. Boroughs as the president of the College of the Holy Cross, the school announced Wednesday.
Rougeau is the first Black and first lay president in the history of the Worcester college. He was selected after a national search and was approved unanimously by the Board of Trustees on Feb. 9 and will assume the role as Holy Cross’s 33rd president on July 1.
There are plans to introduce him to the Holy Cross community by a live stream at 7 p.m. on Feb. 11, Holy Cross said in a statement.
“We are thrilled to welcome Vincent to the Holy Cross community, and look forward to his leadership in building on the College’s success of the past decade,” said Chairman of the Board of Trustees Richard Patterson. “Vincent brings the strategic vision, deep experience as a faculty member and administrator, and commitment to liberal arts education that will allow him to lead Holy Cross in meeting the many challenges facing higher education today. Both his scholarship and his leadership demonstrate his profound dedication to Catholic social teaching and to educating students toward seeking justice and making a meaningful difference in our world.”
Rougeau has been dean of Boston College Law School since 2011 and during his tenure led a reorganization in leadership structure to support a more holistic approach to student services, expanded the school’s national and international recruitment of a diverse student body and enhanced the school’s commitment to experiential learning and global engagement, according to Holy Cross.
“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.”
Recently, Rougeau was named the inaugural director of the new Boston College Forum on Racial Justice in America, a meeting place for listening, dialogue and greater understanding about race and racism in the country.
Before 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.
Holy Cross called Rougeau a “national expert in Catholic social thought.” In 2008, his book “Christians in the American Empire: Faith and Citizenship in the New World Order” was released by Oxford University Press.
Currently, his research and writing consider the relationships among religious identity, citizenship and membership in highly mobile and increasingly multicultural democratic societies, said Holy Cross. Additionally, Rougeau serves as Senior Fellow at the Centre for Theology and Community in London, where he researches broad-based community organizing, immigration and citizenship in the U.K. as part of the Just Communities Project.
The national search process was led by a nine-member Presidential Search Committee.
“During our time together at Boston College, I discovered that Vincent Rougeau has a deep understanding of, and appreciation for, the Jesuit, Catholic vision of higher education,” said Rev. Joseph M. O’Keefe, ’76, Provincial of the USA East Province of the Society of Jesus. “Moreover, he has the leadership skills to make that vision a reality. I am delighted to welcome Vince and his wife Robin to our Holy Cross family.”
Rougeau has a bachelor of arts in international relations from Brown University and a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School, where he served as articles editor of the “Harvard Human Rights Journal.” He and his wife, Dr. Robin Kornegay-Rougeau, a pediatrician, have three sons.
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