Message from President Mary Finger - Alumni Weekend 2020

April 8, 2020

Dear Seton Hill Alumni,

I hope you are staying safe and healthy during these extraordinary circumstances.

Over the course of the past month, the COVID-19 global pandemic has profoundly affected all of our lives. At Seton Hill University, our students, faculty and staff are now learning, teaching and working from home. Our hilltop campus – which should be filled with students in classes, in the Residence Halls and competing on our athletic fields – is quiet. Only about a dozen students in need of housing remain on campus. Events have been cancelled, and commencement has been postponed.

Federal and government agencies continue to advise all of us to stay at home to mitigate the spread of this virus. In fact, most of us are living in areas under stay-at-home orders with deadlines that continue to be extended into the future.

With the uncertainty around the spread of the virus, safe travel and how long government stay-at-home orders will last, and with the health and safety of our alumni and our campus community paramount, Seton Hill has decided to postpone Alumni Weekend scheduled for June 2020 until next year.

The university will expand Alumni Weekend 2021 to include Thursday, June 3 through Sunday, June 6. This timing will allow us the opportunity to celebrate creatively with special focus on reunion class years ending in “0,” “1,” “5” and “6.”

Seton Hill gave serious consideration to this decision and sought counsel and guidance from alumni, including Class Reunion Chairs and officers of the Alumni Advisory Council.

The alumni consulted overwhelmingly agreed that not moving forward with this year’s Alumni Weekend celebration was the right action to take in light of the unprecedented circumstances. Many felt June was too soon for alumni to even begin to consider traveling, staying in hotels or gathering in large crowds. Everyone wants most for their friends and classmates to be safe and healthy.

Celebrating in June 2021 brings with it some unique opportunities. In particular, there was excitement from many about being able to celebrate with classes one year ahead and one year behind.

Over the course of the coming months, we will be working on ways to make Alumni Weekend 2021 extra special for the 2020 Distinguished Alumni and those classes who would have celebrated milestone reunions this year – especially the 50th reunion Class of 1970. These women graduated at another unsettling time in the history of our nation and our world. We know they will rise to the challenge and return to the Hill to gather together once again next year.

While this news is disappointing for all of us, our Setonian spirit will continue to guide us through these challenging days. We will continue to be in touch with the ways we plan to celebrate Alumni Weekend 2021. And while we will not be able to gather together in person this June, please know that all of you are never far from our thoughts and you remain in our prayers and the prayers of the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill.

Hazard Yet Forward,

Mary C. Finger, Ed.D.

Seton Hill University President