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Post by hc811215 on Jan 4, 2018 13:38:45 GMT -5
Here is something that struck me today as an indication that the school mascot/moniker is unlikely to change. In December I received an email from the school addressed to class chairs and correspondents with the subject "Holy Cross Fund News and Updates." the email contained the following paragraph:
"The Giving Challenge, which had been scheduled for Winter Homecoming weekend, is being moved to a time later in the spring, most likely in April. (Winter Homecoming is scheduled for the weekend before the Trustee meeting, at which the Crusader Moniker/Mascot discussion will happen.) Please stay tuned for more information! "
Unless the fund office is being overly cautious/hopeful, it may well be that the preliminary indications are that the moniker/mascot will not change. Why would they delay the giving challenge until after the BOT vote if they thought the moniker would change? I can't imagine they think that changing the moniker/mascot will help fundraising among alums. The only alternative explanation I could think of is that TPTB didn't want to give ammunition to the Crusader retention forces by having a disappointing giving challenge weekend just before the BOT vote.
I think it more likely that the fund people, who are extremely dedicated to the success of the fundraising efforts, are postponing the giving challenge weekend in the hope (perhaps expectation) that the moniker will be retained and the fundraising challenge weekend will do better after the decision is made. If they thought it likely to change, wouldn't they be better off holding the challenge in January before a decision was made? Of course, my analysis is based on the presumption that changing will have a net negative impact on fundraising, at least in the short term.
I would love to hear others' thoughts on the above.
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Post by hchoops on Jan 4, 2018 13:54:20 GMT -5
I hope you are correct Sounds logical
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Post by sader1970 on Jan 4, 2018 14:23:38 GMT -5
I hope you are right. Let me share with you an email that I wrote a couple of days ago to Holy Cross Development staff and my two Class Chairs (I am Class Correspondent, which I have self-described as "Class Chair without the responsibilities" as I did my time as Class Chair) in an exchange of emails. One of the Class Chairs asked me how many Classmates wanted to know about the Crusader status. Despite what I just wrote, I am very much involved in the fund raising effort. This is not intended as "political" but just calling it as I see it and the potential negative financial impact on Holy Cross:
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Post by sader1970 on Jan 4, 2018 14:53:54 GMT -5
Donated blood at my old office yesterday and had lunch with a couple of guys I used to work with including a classmate who played football at HC. He wanted to know the Crusader status and so did the other two guys who did not go to Holy Cross. So, one of the other two non-HC guys says "why would they change the name?" I suggested that the other guy, a non-practicing, Jew answer why it might be offensive. He sort of shrugged and said the Crusaders massacred Jews but acted like "that was hundreds of years ago, time to get over it." HC classmate says: "I'm with Heinsohn, it's all bullsh1t." I reminded him Heinsohn didn't actually say that. His rejoinder, "you know he did, they just didn't print it and cleaned it up."
While I understand the sensitivities of others, my impression of most of the people I know who are not Catholic fully understand that "Holy Cross Crusaders" (certainly not with a mission of "Men and Women for Others") are not out to kill anyone and don't take it personally.
If the BOT decides to keep the Crusader w/o any changes, we might see a few faculty members resign. Then, again, we'd see how principled they are as it might not be easy for them to find positions elsewhere. For my money, if you decide to teach at a Catholic college, you accept certain things. If you don't, you should not be working there. Sorry if that sounds closed-minded.
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Post by Pakachoag Phreek on Jan 4, 2018 17:12:17 GMT -5
My reading of Fr. B's interview on NPR (WBUR?) was that the nickname would be kept; the medieval knight brandishing a sword would not.
As I have said previously, it strikes me that it was no coincidence that the review of the nickname/mascot came out of the review of the Healys and Mulledy, and that HC's review of Healys was undertaken with the approval of two provincials. And who knows whether the Superior General weighed in. Georgetown handed off the review of the Healys to Holy Cross, and Georgetown did the heavy lifting on Mulledy and McSherry.
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Post by sader1970 on Jan 4, 2018 18:13:25 GMT -5
I'm OK with getting rid of the sword as we all know, the true Crusader had a lance! But, serious question: The decision is to be made by the BOT. How much influence does Fr. B have? He is ex-officio a member of the BOT. Will they follow his lead or truly be independent? Sarasota is not here to assure us that when the president says "jump," the Board only says "how high."
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Post by Xmassader on Jan 4, 2018 20:11:53 GMT -5
Talked to one Trustee about the issue several months ago. He gave me the impression that he thought that the Trustees would vote to do as pp noted---keep the Crusader nickname but change the mascot/logo. We'll see.
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Post by Pakachoag Phreek on Jan 5, 2018 7:54:25 GMT -5
After further thought, I think the delay in the Giving Day is caused by the
Enacted Republican* Tax Bill
* Giving credit where credit is due.
Many people who itemized in previous years are still figuring out their liability in the current tax year. The $10,000 cap on the state and local taxes deduction can be a crimp on discretionary spending.
Very crudely, if a joint filing previously deducted $30,000 for SALT, that is now cut to $10,000, meaning $20,000 more in taxable income, or potentially about $5,000 more in Federal taxes if one is in a 25 percent bracket.
Which is why several high SALT tax states are introducing a payroll tax to be paid by employers, which results in the employer, not the employee, paying the state income tax. (Does not cost the employer anything.)
Non-profits are worried that charitable contributions will decline if taxpayers are no longer itemizing such.
The changes in the tax law may have the effect of hurting private colleges and universities when it comes to fund raising, particularly this year when there is so much uncertainty and turmoil. Going forward, -- and HC often seeks commitments to be paid in installments over a period of years -- the expiration of some of the tax cuts in future years also creates uncertainty from a financial planning standpoint.
For those individuals who, today, can calculate their Federal tax liability in 2018, they are indeed fortunate.
As an anecdote, 7500 households in DC paid their 2018 property taxes in 2017, rushing in during the final days of December.
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Post by Tom on Jan 5, 2018 9:00:55 GMT -5
Older Worcester area alumni that I've talked to recently are openly mocking the name change issue. Outright roasting of the college, administration, professors, and students involved. Not just alumni. I have heard many non-alums mocking us as well
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Post by hc6774 on Jan 5, 2018 13:02:54 GMT -5
Older Worcester area alumni that I've talked to recently are openly mocking the name change issue. Outright roasting of the college, administration, professors, and students involved. Not just alumni. I have heard many non-alums mocking us as well bartenders on Shrewsbury Street too... the same guy is very high on the fball coach
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Post by WCHC Sports on Jan 5, 2018 15:52:53 GMT -5
Keep the moniker but change the mascot? Why not call us the Crusaders but make it a picture of a donkey? Why not be called the "Lions," but make the mascot/image of a bear? We could be call the "Purple," but the t-shirts are all orange. As the old meme goes, "THIS IS TRUE LUNACY!"
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Post by KY Crusader 75 on Jan 5, 2018 16:21:42 GMT -5
I've stated previously my strategy: change nothing and make a big announcement about there being no change. Then anticipate, and hope for, a howl of outrage from the politically correct meddlers--capitalizing on all the free publicity that will come from being seen as rejecting the nonsense. The benefits to The College would be substantial.
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Post by Chu Chu on Jan 5, 2018 16:28:54 GMT -5
On a lark, I did a Google i,age search for "Crusaders", wondering what other image besides an actual medieval Crusader might show up. There was nothing else.
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Post by Pakachoag Phreek on Jan 9, 2018 16:40:08 GMT -5
I was prompted, in part, to do a Google search for "Men and women for others" because in a video interview with Coach Chesney. the north wall of the indoor practice facility at Luth was visible. This is the north wall in the renderings. In the video, the north wall is a blank slate. A portent, .....or nothing? www.bc.edu/offices/mission/publications/guide/process.htmlmissionandministry.georgetown.edu/thespiritofgeorgetown/valuesGiven that Fr. B. was previously Vice President of Mission and Ministry at GU, I can quite readily write the announcement regarding the future of the mascot before the BoT meeting. Hard, if not impossible, to reconcile the HC-promulgated graphic design for the Crusader 'mascot' with the Jesuit declarations of 1965, 1973, and 1995. As for the Google search, 'Men and Women for Others' produced one HC-related link, at #31, and that was to a Suffolk VA newspaper article about HC students. I stopped the search at 279, when non-Jesuitical results began populating the pages to the exclusion of anything religious.
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Post by lou on Jan 10, 2018 8:25:50 GMT -5
On sale at the Loyola game the other night, lots of new shirts, hats and everything else. Prominently displayed on the racks were several new shirts, hadn't seen them before, with just "Crusaders" on the front. A good sign...
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Post by KY Crusader 75 on Jan 10, 2018 8:54:49 GMT -5
On sale at the Loyola game the other night, lots of new shirts, hats and everything else. Prominently displayed on the racks were several new shirts, hadn't seen them before, with just "Crusaders" on the front. A good sign... Did the shirts have the subtle "SJ" appended? Some will think it serves as a reference to the Jesuits when, instead, it will signal the move to a new, politically correct, name: "Social Justice Crusaders".....
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Post by ncaam on Jan 10, 2018 10:26:15 GMT -5
On sale at the Loyola game the other night, lots of new shirts, hats and everything else. Prominently displayed on the racks were several new shirts, hadn't seen them before, with just "Crusaders" on the front. A good sign... Dumping inventory
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Post by lou on Jan 10, 2018 10:30:01 GMT -5
Don't think so, they were new, and not inexpensive
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Post by hc6774 on Jan 10, 2018 11:13:28 GMT -5
On sale at the Loyola game the other night, lots of new shirts, hats and everything else. Prominently displayed on the racks were several new shirts, hadn't seen them before, with just "Crusaders" on the front. A good sign... Dumping inventory look for dumped inventory in dollar stores
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Post by hc811215 on Jan 10, 2018 12:37:45 GMT -5
I've stated previously my strategy: change nothing and make a big announcement about there being no change. Then anticipate, and hope for, a howl of outrage from the politically correct meddlers--capitalizing on all the free publicity that will come from being seen as rejecting the nonsense. The benefits to The College would be substantial. I'm not sure how beneficial the publicity would be in that scenario, especially with regard to impressing high school applicants and their families. I see us keeping the name but distancing ourselves from the excesses of the historical Crusades (for which JP II apologized) and embracing the other meanings of the word.
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Post by HCFC45 on Jan 10, 2018 13:06:40 GMT -5
It is a FACT that the bookstore "loaded up" on everything "Crusaders" before the Christmas season and the start of the second semester. !
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