MAY 2018 • LONGISLANDPRESS.COM 103
CHRISTINE RIORDAN:
SETTING ADELPHI APART
By TIMOTHY BOLGER
Dr. Christine Riordan made
history in 2014 when she was
named the first female president
of Long Island’s oldest private
coeducational university, Adelphi
University in Garden City. She
recently caught up with us to share
her thoughts on Adelphi’s impact on
the community, how giving back
is part of the mission and why
personalized education is their
hallmark. Our conversation was
edited and condensed.
Long Island Press: What is
your vision for the university?
Christine Riordan: Two
years ago, we went through a
comprehensive process and
laid out the mission and our
vision. In a nutshell, we’re
striving to personalize
higher education in a
way that’s meaningful
and purposeful for each
student.
LIP: What sets
Adelphi apart from
other colleges and
universities?
CR: The quality of the programs,
hands-on learning, small
classes, and our personalized
approach toward education are
really hallmarks for us.
LIP: The Bridges to Adelphi
Program has been praised as
a national model for helping
students with autism continue
their higher education. Are there
plans to expand it to meet growing
demand?
CR: I’m really proud of all of our
pathway programs. I think it
speaks to our core strength, which
is helping all our students
succeed regardless of learning
differences. We do pay attention
to the demand for that program as
well as another program that we
have called The Learning Resource
Program, for students with any kind
of learning need. We try to scale as
much as we can. I’m really excited
about The Bridges program because
we start it in high school, so students
can come the summer before college
starts to help with that transition.
And then we take them through the
college experience with mentoring
and tutoring and social support. We
also now have a partnership with a
nonprofit that’s helping place our
students in employment situations.
LIP: Adelphi recently got a $1
million pledge to fund its new
Faculty Leadership Fellows
initiative that prepares faculty for
careers as college administrators.
Why is this important?
CR: The Viret Family Faculty
Leadership Fellows Program
was implemented to help faculty
members who are interested in
going into leadership at university
really start to understand how a
university operates. We began this
program two years ago and the
faculty members go through pretty
extensive professional development
for a semester. They meet with
every single one of the executives
in all the different functional units
to learn about everything from
the budget to alumni relations to
fundraising to academic operations
to how facilities operate. It has gone
exceedingly well.
LIP: Is there anything I should have
asked but didn’t?
CR: One of the things that’s pretty
important to understand is the
impact that Adelphi has on our
community. There are four big
areas where we’re going to continue
to emphasize. One is giving back.
We have the Carnegie Foundation
classification for community
engagement, which means our
students are extraordinarily
involved in the broader community
through volunteer activities. One of
our trustees also gave a gift to begin
what we call the Jaggaer Community
Fellows program that places about
150 students in nonprofits every
summer for internships. The
second thing is we have over 500
strategic partnerships with various
organizations throughout the state
focusing on education, research
and employment opportunities,
and that’s going to be a major
initiative for us going forward. The
third thing that a lot of people don’t
know is we provide a lot of services
to the community. We provide an
audiology clinic, as an example, that
will help people with their hearing
aids or do hearing assessments.
We have a lot of community
services. And then the last thing
is we generate over half a billion
dollars of economic activity in the
community. All told, our economic
impact on the community is
pretty great and Adelphi is really
focused a lot on developing strong
relationships as we move forward.
LAST LOOK
Adelphi President Christine Riordan was recently
named to the Long Island Press Power List.
Adelphi at A Glance
Student population: 7,978
Faculty: 349
Student to Faculty ratio: 10:1
Undergraduate tuition: $37,170
Graduate tuition: $36,370 –
$45,940
Undergraduates receiving
institutional scholarship award:
86%
Percent receiving financial aid:
92.9%