Those who help women around the world break through economic and social barriers and some who have succeeded came together at St. Francis College's Maroney Forum for Arts, Culture & Education, Wednesday, March 11 for the symposium, Empowerment at Work: Women Breaking Down Barriers in Our Global World.

In a globe spanning lecture that included everything from literary to pop culture references and took a hard look at the role of the writer, author Sir Salman Rushdie held rapt an overflowing crowd of more than 300 people for the 2009 Thomas J. Volpe Lecture Series in Global Business and Finance on Monday, March 9 at St. Francis College.

St. Francis College Business Law students and College alumni had the opportunity to rub shoulders with a titan of the legal world and St. Francis College alumnus, Roy Reardon '51, J.D., a partner at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett on March 3.

St. Francis College is pleased to announce the creation of a new $50,000 literary prize for an author's fourth book of fiction. The book can be either a novel or collection of short stories. The jury reading the entries is a literary all-star team featuring Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Chabon (The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay), National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction winner Jonathan Lethem (Motherless Brooklyn), author and co-editor of The Believer magazine Heidi Julavits (The Uses of Enchantment: A Novel), author and head of the writing MFA program at Columbia University Ben Marcus (The Age of Wire and String) and author Ayelet Waldman (Love and Other Impossible Pursuits).

St. Francis College's Founder Hall was not big enough to hold everyone who wanted to see Poet Nikki Giovanni deliver a rapid fire lecture of cultural quips, stories and, of course, the poems she is so well known for as part of the College's Black History Month celebrations, Monday, February 9. Several dozen people watched Giovanni on a simulcast in the adjacent Callahan Center.

More than 110 students earned their diplomas Wednesday, January 28 at the St. Francis College Genovesi Center as the College hosted the Winter 2009 Commencement.

More than 125 academics, professional scientists and experts came to St. Francis College November 14 and 15 to help draw attention and spark interest in the sciences across the region as part of the 2008 Northeast Regional Meeting of the National Organization of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers (NOBCChE).

Joan Copeland, Broadway actress and sister of the late playwright Arthur Miller headlined the first ever American Drama Conference at St. Francis College November 7 to November 9, with a one woman performance presented in three parts representing Miller's take on their mother Augusta Barnett Miller. Copeland began with a reading from Miller's memoir Timebends: A Life, where he painted a vivid picture of Augusta. Copeland then moved to the grand piano to reprise the role of Rose Baum, based on Augusta and which Copeland played in Miller's play The American Clock. The performance concluded with an emotional reading of the ending monologue from Death of A Salesman.

Brooklyn author Jonathan Lethem began his lecture to a standing room only crowd, Thursday, November 6 at the St. Francis College Maroney Forum for Arts, Culture & Education with a reading of two Walt Whitman poems, Mannahatta and Ah Poverties, Wincings, and Sulky Retreats.

Hundreds of students, faculty, staff as well as elected officials and religious leaders attended the culmination of a week-long celebration, Thursday, October 2 marking the inauguration of Brendan J. Dugan as the 18th President of St. Francis College.