Government award seeks to improve Felician Internet access

RUTHERFORD — Felician University is the recipient of a new, $2.3 million grant that will upgrade and expand the university’s broadband infrastructure, computing resources and online technologies, to make remote learning fully accessible.

The grant will also be used to teach telehealth best practices to three cohorts of Felician students in nursing, counseling psychology, and behavior and autism studies.

Felician will partner with three organizations serving communities who will benefit from the collaboration of the telehealth-based services and resources.

They are the Franciscan Community Development Center’s Community Based Psychotherapy Center, Mount Carmel

Guild Academy, and the South Bergen Jointure Commission.

This U.S. Department of Commerce grant is part of the Connecting Minor ity Communities Pilot Program and the Biden Administration’s Internet for All initiative. Funding from this grant pro gram aims to expand technology and reli able high-speed internet access across the nation.

Felician University is a Hispanicserving and Minority-serving institution with undergraduate enrollment that is 39 perent Hispanic and 59 percent minority. The university is one of only 12 minorityserving institutions of higher education to receive this grant.

“We are very grateful for this $2.3 million award. The grant is important to Felician as it allows us to achieve our goals of building broadband capacity and furthering broadband access, while improving digital skills across the institution and in the communities we serve,” said James W. Crawford III, president.

The university leads on the grant are Stephanie McGowan, dean of the School of Education, who will serve as project manager; Mildred Mihlon, dean of the School of Arts & Sciences; Deanna Valente, dean of the Center for Academic Technology; Dr. Daria Waszak, associate dean in the School of Nursing; Dr. John Burke, executive director of the Center for Autism and disability Research in Education; Dr. Dan Mahoney, director of the Graduate Psychology Program; and Christopher Finch, assistant vice president of IT.

Elizabeth Burke also played a critical role in the successful award of the grant.

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