Iona College President Talks with NJTV’s Steve Adubato about Innovation in the Age of COVID-19
NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. — Iona College President Seamus Carey, Ph.D., sat down with NJTV’s Steve Adubato for a virtual one-on-one interview to discuss college in the age of COVID-19, highlighting how innovation will be critical to the future of liberal arts higher education.
“We had already put in place the groundwork for innovation – to be able to deliver our coursework, our content, in alternative modes. This [served] us very well through COVID. Our enrollment is up 15 percent this year, which is unheard of in this environment,” Carey said during the interview, which aired on NJTV and WNET and can now be viewed on YouTube. “We feel like this is an opportunity as well as a challenge.”
Part of that innovation is reflected through Iona’s revamped courses and new degrees. In particular, Iona this year launched a new bachelor’s degree in nursing, which welcomed its first class of 18 students this fall. With both a traditional four-year program and an accelerated, second-degree program, the nursing degree adds to Iona’s growing presence in the health sciences – with a distinctive Iona edge.
“One of the things that I feel will be unique to our program here at Iona – as you probably know, Iona is well-known for its business acumen and its business education,” Carey said. “We’ve also started the Hynes Institute for Entrepreneurship & Innovation, and our nurses are going to be learning in the Hynes Institute… So they will have the support to think through different situations, and to be innovative within their own career. I feel that’s going to be a real distinguishing factor to our nursing program.”
Although the interview first aired on September 18, it was filmed in July, as Iona was preparing its return-to-campus plans. Among other actions, the College:
- required every student, faculty and staff member to submit a negative COVID-19 test result before returning to campus;
- started the fall semester three weeks early, on August 10, so that finals would conclude before Thanksgiving to limit holiday travel;
- began surveillance testing on August 19, randomly testing 250 students for COVID-19 each week;
- instituted detailed quarantine and isolation procedures to help contain any potential spread;
- required the campus community to wear masks and monitor daily health symptoms on the Gael Care mobile app; and
- reinforced the Iona credo that “Gaels Take Care of Gaels.”
When asked about planning through uncertainty, Carey went back to the founders of Iona College: Blessed Edmund Rice, founder of the Congregation of Christian Brothers in Ireland, and Saint Columba. While both would become world historical figures, they also both started out facing very specific challenges of providing education and opportunity to the poor and disenfranchised.
“I remind people of that every day. We have to address the situation that’s put in front of us. There’s always going to challenges. You plan the best you can, and you prepare to adjust,” Carey said. “As long as you’re following the information and you’re guided by the right principles and values, you’ll come out on the right side of history.”
ABOUT IONA
Founded in 1940, Iona University is a master's-granting private, Catholic, coeducational institution of learning in the tradition of the Edmund Rice Christian Brothers. Iona's 45-acre New Rochelle campus and 28-acre Bronxville campus are just 20 miles north of Midtown Manhattan. With a total enrollment of nearly 4,000 students and an alumni base of more than 50,000 around the world, Iona is a diverse community of learners and scholars dedicated to academic excellence and the values of justice, peace and service. Iona is highly accredited, offering undergraduate degrees in liberal arts, science and business administration, as well as Master of Arts, Master of Science and Master of Business Administration degrees and numerous advanced certificate programs. Iona students enjoy small class sizes, engaged professors and a wide array of academic programs across the School of Arts & Science; LaPenta School of Business; NewYork-Presbyterian Iona School of Health Sciences; and Hynes Institute for Entrepreneurship & Innovation. Iona is widely recognized in prestigious rankings, including The Princeton Review’s 2025 national list of “The Best 390 Colleges” and The Wall Street Journal/College Pulse’s “2024 Best Colleges in America,” which ranked Iona at #66 in the nation overall and #8 in the nation among Catholic schools. Iona’s LaPenta School of Business is also accredited by AACSB International, a recognition awarded to just six percent of business schools worldwide. In addition, The Princeton Review recognized Iona’s on-campus MBA program as a “Best Business School for 2023.” Iona also offers a fully online MBA program for even greater flexibility. In July 2021, Iona announced the establishment of the NewYork-Presbyterian Iona School of Health Sciences, which is now principally located on Iona’s Bronxville campus in collaboration with NewYork-Presbyterian. Connecting to its Irish heritage, the University also recently announced it is expanding abroad with a new campus in County Mayo, Ireland. A school on the rise, Iona officially changed its status from College to University on July 1, 2022, reflecting the growth of its academic programs and the prestige of an Iona education.