Andrew J. Polaniecki

Andrew J. Polaniecki is the Vice President for Student Life and Dean of Students at Holy Cross College. Before this role, Dean Polaniecki served as the Director of Campus Ministry at Holy Cross for ten years.

He first encountered the religious of the Congregation of Holy Cross as a Chicago youth while attending Notre Dame High School (NDHS) in Niles, IL. After graduating from NDHS, he attended the University of Notre Dame and studied philosophy, environmental science, and theology. During his time there, he spent three years as a member of the Old College Program, the undergraduate seminary for the Congregation of Holy Cross. After graduating from Notre Dame in 2003, he completed a Master of Arts in Religious Studies from Loyola University—New Orleans. While living in New Orleans, he taught theology and coached soccer and track and field at Ursuline Academy for two years and then at Jesuit High School for four years. Since returning to South Bend to work at Holy Cross College, he has helped plan and lead several pilgrimages to the St. Joseph Oratory in Montreal. He also led an immersion experience with college students to Ghana, West Africa, where they lived and worked with Holy Cross religious. He also had the privilege of attending the canonization of Br. André Bessette in Rome in October 2010, and participated in the Father Moreau Heritage Immersion experience in Le Mans, France, in 2016. He earned his Master in Business Administration from the University of St. Francis (Joliet, IL) in 2017.

He and his wife André, an adjunct professor at Holy Cross, and their five children—Gabriel, David, Leo, Agnes, and Matthew—live in South Bend, where they are parishioners of St. Joseph Parish.