Moving Forward Together: President James W. Crawford III’s Message to the Felician University Community!

Dear Felician University Community,

I hope you are as excited as I am about the coming fall semester, a new academic year and in many ways, a new beginning. While I want to be careful with this analogy, as an avid reader of history, I have come to think about the promise and opportunity of post-COVID much like the rebirth of Europe during the Renaissance following a substantial period of darkness throughout the continent. This is not hyperbole, the death of 600,000 of our fellow citizens and the economic disaster that struck so many, certainly qualifies in my view as a “dark age” from which we have begun to rise. As a University Family we must seize this moment!

The Return to Campus (RTC) committee has been deeply engaged in setting the groundwork to return to full on-campus operations with the health and well-being of our students, faculty, and staff as the guiding priority. I am appreciative of their work and concur with the assessment that prevailing conditions, particularly wide vaccine availability, reduced rate of infections, and decrease of federal and state constraints provides for the return to normalized operations in Fall 2021.

My decision to return to normalized operations requires certain specific actions. First and foremost, all Felician faculty, staff, and students (undergraduate, graduate, full-time, part-time) engaged in on-campus activities are required to complete the COVID-19 vaccine series or single dose vaccine. Every member of the campus community is requested to submit their vaccination status by August 1, 2021. Only Felician University medical personnel, operating under the mandate of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), will have access to this information. Students are to upload their status to the University Medicat system. Faculty and staff will upload their status to the Felician employee health portal. I have established a University Medical Accommodation Committee to address requests to forego receiving the vaccine based on a validated medical basis. Information on the employee health portal and the guidelines for submission to the Accommodation Committee will soon be available at the Felician Vaccination link – https://felician.edu/vaccination.

Federal and state vaccine distribution implementation made the COVID-19 vaccines readily available to everyone in virtually every community across the nation. However, should you encounter difficulty obtaining the vaccine, please visit our vaccination link or contact Dr. Ronald Gray, Vice President Student Affairs & Dean of Students, grayr@felician.edu, for assistance. We will continue to offer on campus vaccination opportunities, as well as university transportation to area vaccination sites.

On-campus normalization requires the cooperation of the entire community – our university community must be vaccinated. As I said on May 17, failing to obtain the vaccine exposes you and our campus community to unnecessary risk. The safety and efficacy of the vaccines is clearly and amply reflected in the medical evidence and statistical data easily accessible to all at the click of a mouse. I urge those of you who continue to have concerns to review this information and/or reach out to university leadership to answer your questions. Dr. Bindu Balani, the Infectious Disease Specialist from Hackensack Meridian Health Hackensack University Medical Center who has been instrumental in the State of New Jersey’s efforts, provided a very clear and easy to understand explanation of the virus and vaccine development history during the May 19 Town Hall. This video may be viewed at our vaccination link.

Getting vaccinated is not a political statement, or a relinquishment of individual rights, it is a simple recognition of our individual societal obligation as citizens to contribute to communal health and safety just as we have done historically relative to the myriad other vaccines required for primary and secondary school attendance and institutions of higher education. In many ways taking the vaccine reflects our Franciscan Felician values by acknowledging our shared responsibility for the health, safety, and welfare of every member of our campus community. Current reporting has documented an increase in average daily cases over the past two weeks. The Director of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) commented that these increases were due in part to the spread of the more transmissible delta variant and offered the following observation, “we expect to see continuing surges of infection until we are able to bring vaccination rates higher than they currently are.” Remember where we were this time last year, we now have a tool that can help us avoid a return to those dark days – the vaccine.

Additionally, for the short term, face masks will continue to be required indoors. I have accepted this recommendation from the RTC because I have no way to ascertain the vaccination status of those in the surrounding communities with whom you come into contact. As the year progresses, and the nation stays on an upward trajectory I will re-evaluate this requirement. Masks will not be required outside on campus grounds, except in crowded outdoor events and venues where physical distancing is not feasible.

The reuniting of our campus community is a cause for celebration, and we will do so with an on-campus event at the outset of the Fall semester, details to be provided by a separate communication. I have yet to see a fully engaged campus and I cannot wait! On behalf of the Felician Sisters and the Board of Trustees, I express our deep gratitude to all of you; faculty, staff, and students for your continued diligent communal efforts to ensure Felician returns engaged, safe, and healthy. I am also particularly appreciative for the yeoman efforts of the Return to Campus committee and their work in framing our Fall 2021 reopening. Please continue to check the university vaccination link, more detailed information about Fall 2021 will be posted there.

Thank you for your continued suggestions, wisdom, support, and prayers – keep’em coming! See you on campus in the fall!

In Veritate Felicitas!

J.W. Crawford III, JD
Vice Admiral, US Navy (Ret.)
President