‘Simply untrue’: What Holy Cross’s president had to say about donor’s lawsuit seeking refund

A Holy Cross alumnus who pledged $25 million for a new performing arts center is now suing the Worcester college in an attempt to recoup millions.

As a former trustee seeks a refund of some $21 million in donations, the College of the Holy Cross is pushing back on allegations that it held up the construction of a new performing arts center and refused to provide proof of how it handled the donor’s funds.

“I can’t tell you how deeply saddened we are about this situation,” Holy Cross President Vincent D. Rougeau said in a letter to the campus community Monday. “The donor’s allegations are simply untrue.”

At the heart of the ongoing legal battle is a $25 million pledge from Cornelius B. Prior Jr., a 1956 Holy Cross alumnus and namesake of the Prior Performing Arts Center, which opened in 2022.

In a federal lawsuit filed last fall, the ATN International founder asserted that his donations were conditional and intended to prioritize the arts center’s construction “without delay.” He alleges that Holy Cross not only delayed the building project, but refused repeated requests “to provide a full and detailed accounting for its investment and use of his funds.”

According to his complaint, Prior withheld the last $7 million of his pledge due to questions about Holy Cross’s accounting, as well as “a legally binding hold on transactions in the stock that he would need to transfer in order to make a further gift of that size.” He’s now seeking a refund of the $18 million he paid toward the arts center, plus another $3 million he donated for new athletic facilities.

The way Holy Cross sees it, the dispute over Prior’s pledge is governed by a written 2014 agreement that stipulates mediation or arbitration, Rougeau explained. U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge David H. Hennessy is weighing a request from Holy Cross to compel mediation and arbitration and stay further court proceedings, with both sides due back in court Aug. 30.

“Because we were honoring our promise to seek a private resolution, we have not yet told our full story,” Rougeau wrote. “At this point, however, the donor’s most recent legal actions and the resulting publicity have made it impossible for us to avoid sharing the facts.”

He noted that Prior — whom he referred to only as “the donor” — served on the college’s board of trustees until June 2021 and was “intimately involved” in planning for the arts center. According to Rougeau, Prior “frequently lobbied for choices that caused the project’s cost to balloon” by $52 million.

Because the trustees had unanimously agreed that Holy Cross must raise two-thirds of the funding for any building project before breaking ground, the cost increases extended the timeline for building the arts center, Rougeau explained.

“Many see this lawsuit as a dispute over money, but it is more than that for the College,” he wrote. “With the suit, the donor has unfairly challenged the integrity of the College itself, the board of trustees and many people who have dedicated their professional lives in service to our mission. Let me be clear: The College and our trustees take seriously our responsibility as stewards of donor funds, and we manage our obligations to our donors with due care and good faith.”

Rougeau asserted that Holy Cross used Prior’s donated funds in accordance with the terms of the 2014 pledge agreement and told Prior as much throughout the design and construction process.

“For him to claim otherwise is untrue,” Rougeau wrote.

Read Rougeau’s full letter on Holy Cross’s website.