Penn College to merge graduations in Spring

Students at the Pennsylvania College of Technology slated to graduate at the end of the fall semester will be joining the graduation ceremony scheduled for May 14-15, 2021, Dr. Davie Jane Gilmour, college president, reported to the college's board of directors at their meeting Thursday.

Degrees for winter 2020 graduates will be conferred in December, but commencement ceremonies have been postponed.

"You may remember we did 15 in the sun," Gilmour said, referring to the marathon graduation ceremonies held in August for spring and summer graduates.

She noted that she had asked members of the administration to try to figure out if the college could do "six in the cold," but was told that there would be extra costs associated with having something this time of year.

The fall semester ends this week at the college as students take final exams and Gilmour described it as "nothing short of a miracle" that the semester was able to be completed because of the pandemic.

"We made it," Gilmour said. "Tomorrow at about 6:30 in the evening there will be this huge sigh of relief across this campus that we will have finalized our finals." She added that there are a few students who will be coming out of isolation quarantine to take their final exams next week.

Looking forward to the next semester, Gilmour said, "We understand the guidelines and responsibilities and recommendations that we have for coming back."

"So we have been in communication with out partners on campus, our students, our faculty and staff about testing processes that will change. Our dashboard will be updated over the holiday period. These people might get a couple of day of rest, we certainly have enough work to do to be ready for the start of the spring semester," she added.

Actions taken by the board at their meeting included accepting the audited financial statements for the fiscal year which ended June 30.

They also approved the Enterprise Resource Planning selection of a Florida-based company, Anthology, to contract with the college to provide CampusNexus, a comprehensive package of administrative software tools and systems. These will support business operations at the college as well as engage with students.

The next regularly scheduled meeting of the board will be on Feb. 4, 2021.