It was a day of celebration for the friends and family of more than 300 students at the spring 2009 St. Francis College Commencement on Wednesday May 27 at the New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge. The group includes the second class of Accounting Graduate Students in school history. Several hundred people who were unable to attend viewed the ceremony live on the St. Francis College website.

An engaged crowd was treated to a mixture of an economic history lesson with a critique of the present and advice for the future of New York City and New York State as St. Francis College and the Manhattan Institute hosted the panel discussion, Keeping New York in the Black, Our Current Fiscal Woes In Light Of The 1975 Fiscal Crisis, on Thursday, May 7 at St. Francis College.

More than 250 people gathered at the Plaza in Manhattan for St. Francis College's 48th Annual Charter Award Dinner, which honored John A. Catsimatidis, the Chairman & CEO of Red Apple Group. The event, which took place on April 28th, raised over $400,000 to support scholarships for St. Francis students.

"St. Francis College leveled the playing field for me in life," said Michael J. Gibbons '62, the recipient of an honorary doctorate from the College, one of the many people honored as part of the annual Charter Day celebration on Friday April 24 commemorating the day the College received its charter from New York State and officially became a degree granting institution.

A nation of people who give back to their country is how Senator Dr. The Hon. Ronald Robinson, the Jamaican Minister of State from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, described his fellow Jamaicans, particularly those who live abroad at a breakfast hosted Monday, April 20 at St. Francis College. Minister Robinson described how 3 million Jamaican nationals, a number equal to the population that live on the island, have contributed billions of dollars in recent years to the Jamaican economy.

Famed Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal faced a major moral question in his book, The Sunflower; an SS officer on his deathbed confessed to committing numerous atrocities and was now asking Wiesenthal for forgiveness, what should he do? That real-life scenario was the core of the talk by Philosophy Professor Jeffrey Bernstein at the annual St. Francis College observation of Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, on Thursday, April 16.

The St. Francis College community came together Friday, April 3, to raise more than $18,000 to fight cancer at the largest Relay For Life walk-a-thon held on campus in its 4 year history. A record 39 teams and nearly 230 people took part in the event.

Hundreds of St. Francis College students, faculty, staff, administrators and members of the community came out to participate in the College's 12th annual Community Day celebration Sunday March 29. The event shines a spotlight on the many cultures and ethnicities that make up the College and the surrounding Brooklyn Heights neighborhood.

Her life laid bare before a standing room only crowd, author Darcey Steinke read excerpts from her memoir Easter Everywhere on March 24 at St. Francis College that dealt with the existential, like her personal struggle to understand her religious beliefs and the physical, such as her fight to overcome stuttering. Steinke's appearance was part of the Walt Whitman Writers Series, dedicated to bringing top flight authors to the College to share their thoughts on the art of writing and the specifics of their work.

Tony and Emmy Award winner Lillias White offered up an intimate concert for St. Francis College students, faculty, staff and community members Monday, March 23 in Founders Hall. The performance was alternately passionate, humorous and educational.