Felician Community took part in a Virtual Town Hall Meeting Thursday May 21 to hear from President Anne Prisco. Instead of speaking at Breslin Auditorium, the President addressed the Felician Family from her living room saying, “I’d like to share a very big, hearty congratulations to our graduating students, and to all of you who made that possible.”

Felician held a virtual commencement ceremony Saturday, May 16, but Dr. Prisco said an on-campus ceremony is being planned for September. “We don’t know what that will look like, it all depends on what rules we will be under at that point regarding social distancing,” referring to restrictions due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Virtual Town Hall Meeting

The Town Hall was a way for Dr. Prisco to reach out, touch base, and stay connected with the Felician Family. Among other things she said the University is “working towards retaining our Freshman students so that we are graduating more of them as well,” and added that she anticipates Felician will have, “record high graduation rates.”

In looking ahead to the fall semester, Dr. Prisco said, “we are planning different scenarios depending on what the guidelines are from health experts, the governor, and certainly what we feel comfortable with,” but she acknowledged, “there certainly will be some sort of social distancing going on.”

The President also said the Pandemic crisis has “created an opportunity for us to show how really strong we are as a community,” and added, “we care about each other, are empathetic, and our compassion is never more evident than in trying times.”

Dr. Prisco also shared some results of a virtual learning survey the University conducted of faculty, staff, and students which showed “that 79% of the students were adapting well to the situation.”

Dr. Sylvia McGeary, V.P. of Academic Affairs and Mission Integration said a prayer at the Town Hall saying, “We gathered together today as a campus community who has worked through a very challenging semester. As we leave this meeting, we look ahead to working together to promote a bright future for Felician University.”

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About Felician University 

Felician University engages over 2,300 undergraduate, graduate, and adult students through programs in Arts & Sciences, Business, Nursing, and Education. Universal Franciscan values of social justice, compassion, and respect for human dignity serve as an inclusive foundation for transforming the lives of tomorrow’s leaders. Felician University’s education is ranked 3rd best return on investment for private colleges in New Jersey 2018 by the PayScale.com College ROI Report and is ranked #1 safest college campus in the state by niche.com.