Division of Student Affairs: Welcome

There is probably nothing that makes an education at a Holy Cross school more different than any other than the way we approach your life and experiences beyond the classroom. Most students spend anywhere from three to five hours a day in class. The rest of their day is spent in their residence hall, the dining room, the library, the gym, or busy with the work of our many clubs and activities. At the University of Portland, those hours are just as important as the class time and it is during that time that you will build character, empathy, and understanding. 

The University of Portland historically has emphasized its dual responsibility for the formation of your intellect and your character. Since its founding in 1901 we have considered life in our residence halls and all University activities outside of its classrooms as fundamental to your total educational experience.

This has been the Holy Cross approach since the Congregation was founded by Blessed Basil Moreau in France 175 years ago. For Fr. Moreau, learning was intimately connected to character, and he wrote passionately that "The mind will not be educated at the expense of the heart." In the middle of the 19th century, just as at the University of Portland today, experiences outside the classroom give meaning and purpose to classroom work. 

This tradition of the personal formation of students finds expression on our campus in the way we shape your experiences outside the classroom as rigorously and as thoughtfully as those in the classroom, in our commitment to the development of your habits of the heart as well as habits of mind. And it finds expression through the powerful example of our faculty and staff who serve as models of the integration of learning and character, of faith and scholarship, of academic life and community life.

The people who work with you outside the classroom are the people you will find in the pages that follow. They are people who work in places like the Office of Residence Life, the Health Center, the Moreau Center, and the Student Activities Office. We have excellent staff and extensive programs and services, all of which will help make your time at the University a truly unequaled educational experience.

In Holy Cross,

Fr. Gerry Olinger, C.S.C.
Vice President, Student Affairs