June 18, 2020

Dear Students, Faculty, Staff, Parents and Alumni

I wish once again to commend all members of our community who have contributed to our University’s high accomplishments in a doubly historic year: the centennial year of our founding, which we have celebrated together so joyfully;  and 2020’s unprecedented global pandemic, which we are overcoming together with faith, sacrifice, and courage. We look forward together to celebrating in fine style with our centennial graduating class as soon as we put the health emergency safely behind us.

I write also to share with you that I have informed the Board of Trustees of my decision to retire at the end of the coming academic year, while reassuring them of my resolve to stay on to lead AUC through the year ahead. As AUCians, we instinctively discern opportunities in every challenge, and we can be certain of a new year rich in both.

The achievements we all have shared, many in the face of crises over my first four years, have been deeply meaningful to me. Nevertheless, the new uncertainties of global public health and travel have imposed painful sacrifices on so many of us in the far-flung AUC community. My family and I have felt our international isolation from each other very deeply. With a superb senior management team covering the campus, and with all of us around the world now gaining proficiency at teleworking, I will depart Cairo to join my family in the US this summer with even more than the usual confidence in our annual preparations to welcome our incoming tide of new students, faculty, and staff at the start of a bright new academic year. Like all of us, I hope for some time to recharge for a productive year ahead. As every summer, will remain in close communications, until we can all meet again in person on our beautiful campuses. Until then, I wish all the opportunity for well-earned summer relaxation, safety, and especially, good health.

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Francis J. Ricciardone
President