December 2017
From My Desk: News From President Riordan
Adelphi is taking student engagement more seriously. And having more fun than ever. 
Quiet weekends on a leafy, garden-like campus? That used to be the story of Adelphi—our University in the middle of suburban Long Island.

This year, as we bring in students from 57 countries and 43 states, enrollment is on an upward trend, and residence halls are almost filled, we had to confront that age-old question: What are you doing on the weekend?

Now, as a major metropolitan university, we are seeing activities on evenings and weekends grow at a fast pace. From a vibrant Spirit Weekend, which brought in over a thousand students and their families to carnivals, pumpkin picking and trips to Broadway; to high-impact learning outside the classroom—as far away as Alaskan dig sites and study abroad in Jinan University in China—Adelphi is taking life outside the classroom more seriously.

Student engagement is a critical part of feeling at home at a university, according to U.S. News & World Report; it allows students to be more connected to their schools, builds a sense of community and, most importantly for us, "It allows them to discover their passions and strengths. These will follow them all through life. It allows them to discover what they don't like, too." 

For a university with a focus on personalization and individualizing higher education, the value of extracurricular activities can't be overestimated. Our students, simply put, are finding their way, not just by what they learn academically—but by what they learn in nonacademic settings.

This effort does not reside with the Division of Student Affairs alone. Our faculty are creating more learning outside the classroom. Our career center is helping to create more internships, with almost half of our students taking on this life-changing challenge. The students in our workforce—a virtual army of almost 1,500 students—are learning things they could never learn in a lecture. And mentoring of every kind, both professional and personal, is exposing our students to new ways of thinking.

In short, our classrooms at Adelphi are getting busier. But, just as importantly, so are our evenings and weekends. And that's changing Adelphi, and our students, for the better.
 
Christine M. Riordan, Ph.D.
President
Video of the making of our holiday cookies
An artful holiday message from all of us at Adelphi

Our beautiful campus inspires Adelphi's holiday message, featuring the work of Sarah McCay, a multimedia designer and artist in our Office of University Communications and Marketing. Watch her work, and our campus, come to life. (See the Christmas cookie version of my bulldog, Georgia, at 01:27. She's "a Panther at heart.")
First annual Women's Leadership Conference: A standing-room-only success
I was honored to introduce top tech exec Kim Petry '91, who graduated first in her class here at Adelphi, as our inspirational keynote speaker. The conference offered women professional development advice in sessions on negotiation, entrepreneurship, innovation and workplace rights. Seats sold out almost immediately.
More once-in-a-lifetime opportunities for our Arts students. Laura Linney doing a master class? Just one of the ways our dance, music and theatre majors are experiencing more at Adelphi. In November, a visit from a Hollywood producer meant three graduating seniors were given actual movie roles. Thrilling experiences are defining students' time at Adelphi.
Adelphi athletes just keep on winning. For the third time in four years, Adelphi won the Northeast-10 Conference Presidents' Cup, awarded for the best showing across all sports. Eight of our teams won berths in NCAA tournaments, including our incredible women's lacrosse team (pictured above, winning the national title).
Making weekends wonderful. Some still think of Adelphi as a university with quiet weekends. Tell that to the 12,200 students who took part in the 344 weekend programs offered last year by our new Weekend Engagement Committee—from Broadway trips to bicycling through Brooklyn to bubble painting in Linen Hall.
More to do—and a safe place to do it all. Adelphi has been recognized as one of the 50 safest campuses in the nation. Achieving this ranking—and maintaining it—is the job of the University's Department of Public Safety and Transportation. It's the most important thing we do, and it changes students' lives.
More learning outside the classroom—way outside the classroom. As of this year, one-third of our First-Year Seminars are built around high-impact practices, incorporating service-learning opportunities, museum visits and art projects into the educational experience. Getting far from the classroom, but increasing learning, is becoming an Adelphi signature.
A new solution for adjusting to college life. The transition to college can be challenging, so we began offering a new option this year: our First-Year Living-Learning Community. It's an opt-in program, with students living and studying together, with the support of faculty members. Students are finding friends, study groups, moral support and a great start to college.
Athletics Update
Diving Into the Winter Sports Season at Adelphi Athletics
Fall sports came to a close in November, but winter sports wasted no time getting into full swing. The swimming programs opened December 1 through December 3 at the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Winter Championships, where our athletes put up impressive numbers in the lanes. Sophomore Emma Brown broke her own school record in the 100-meter butterfly and was part of two relay teams that also beat school marks. First-year student Daniel Lee helped the men place seventh overall for the meet, breaking an eight-year-old record in the 200-meter backstroke .
Alumni Making a Difference: Randall Emmett
We gratefully acknowledge Hollywood producer Randall Emmett (pictured far right with Professor Nicholas Petron, M.A. '70 ) for coming home to Adelphi last month to audition our Department of Theatre students (pictured above). Although he spent just a year as a student at Adelphi, he has given Adelphi a lifetime of loyalty.
Momentum Tour 2017–2018
See how you can be part of our story. My Momentum Tour 2017–2018: Stories of Lives Changed: Hear Ours, Tell Yours will resume in January with visits to Boston and Los Angeles . We're transforming lives—join us and see how.