Things have changed at Cardinal Hayes: but support for the small school in the Bronx has remained strong

Black Enterprise, Sept, 1995 by Juliette Fairley

The time was 1941. Franklin D. Roosevelt was president, and the student body of Cardinal Hayes High School in the South Bronx was predominately Italian and Irish American. Today, 54 years later, almost 99% of the students are African American and Latino, reflecting a change in New York City's population.

But demographics haven't stopped graduates like television star Regis Philbin, film director Martin Scorsese and Turtle Wax CEO Denis Healy from contributing to the Catholic school. If anything, the darkening face of student enrollment appears to have motivated alumni to help the school stay alive.

School officials say that about 40% of the 1,500 students can't afford the school's tuition and fees. As a result, the school faces an annual deficit of about $1 million.

To make matters worse, the Archdiocese of New York has announced that it will stop giving subsidies to all of the city's Catholic schools by 1997.

The administration at Cardinal Hayes High School established an endowment fund in 1991 in response to the threatened loss of funding. Interest from the fund is being used to replace subsidies received from the archdiocese. "We were warned that in 1997 the school would have to be independent of the archdiocese," says Joseph Valenti, director of development at Hayes. "So we set up the fund."

So far, about 2,800 Cardinal Hayes graduates have pledged $5 million, and $3 million has already been collected. The fund campaign ends this year. "I've contributed about $10,000 to the school so far," says Regis Philbin of Live with Regis and Kathie Lee fame. "Because even though the Bronx has changed since I was a student there, Hayes is still educating young men. That's why I do what I do for Hayes."

Martin Scorsese says his motivation is gratitude and a desire to continue the school's Christian education. "It's a time in this country when education is in trouble. It behooves us to keep institutions like Cardinal Hayes alive for our children," Scorsese said at a screening of A Matter of Life and Death, a 1946 movie classic that he restored and reedited. "Attending Cardinal Hayes helped me to focus my energy. I applied myself to reading books, which opened my mind. The education gave me clarity and guidance."

School officials believe alumni members are generous because they want to continue the tradition of Hayes, no matter the race or creed of the students. Father John Graham calls it the Hayes mystique. "There's a camaraderie, a fraternity that is established. It goes beyond the classroom," he says.

The order and structure at Hayes is a godsend for some students who face chaos on a daily basis. Father Graham says the children are bombarded with terrible living conditions, drugs, violence and poor housing. "Order, direction and beauty is very important for young people," Graham says. "The school is a beacon of light for them. It leads the way in civility, faith and education."