The Teacher Pipeline program does more than address today鈥檚 national teacher shortage crisis. As a 鈥済row your own鈥� initiative, it creates a direct pathway from local high schools to 天美传媒鈥檚 Scholar Teacher Education Program (STEP), an accelerated program that grants students undergraduate and graduate teaching degrees in just five years, saving them time and tuition.

鈥淚t鈥檚 connecting two ends of a pipeline,鈥� said Emily Kang, PhD, associate dean for academic affairs at the Ruth S. Ammon College of Education and Health Sciences, the program鈥檚 creator. 鈥淭hough Adelphi has strong numbers in our undergraduate teaching programs, we鈥檙e always looking to recruit more young people who are enthusiastic about the field. Now, high school students who want to start their careers early can do so while earning college credit.鈥�

A Pipeline That Benefits Everyone

Dr. Kang calls the program a 鈥渨in-win鈥� for both high schoolers and Adelphi鈥檚 education department. In addition to training the next generation of qualified educators, it鈥檚 also enhancing engagement, academic interest and retention within high schools by putting career opportunities front and center. Research has shown that high school seniors tend to experience a drop in motivation, leading to lower retention rates by graduation. But for the students enrolled in the Teacher Pipeline program, 鈥渆verything they do counts,鈥� Dr. Kang said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e seeing the fruits of their labor immediately.鈥� With the program鈥檚 headstart, they鈥檒l also be able to earn a college degree in three years, reducing the time and cost barriers that keep many interested students from pursuing teaching careers.

Built to Serve Each District鈥檚 Needs

There鈥檚 no 鈥渙ne size fits all鈥� model for the Teacher Pipeline. Adelphi worked with partner school districts鈥攊ncluding Freeport, Mineola and East Meadow鈥攖o develop different models that meet each district鈥檚 needs. Students in Mineola schools are bused to Adelphi four days a week to take Adelphi courses, for instance, while Freeport students are bused twice a week. Meanwhile, students in East Meadow take equivalent courses at their home schools, taught by qualified district personnel. Courses cover the fundamentals a high schooler would need to proceed through STEP, such as community, schools and society; adolescent/child development; sociolinguistics and children with special needs.

Field experience is also a core component of the program. One day a week, students observe K鈥�12 classrooms in their home districts, gaining hands-on experience while strengthening connections to their communities and potential future employers.

Sparking 鈥淩emarkable Growth鈥� in High School Students

Pipeline students receive plenty of support on their journey. As soon as they join the program, they鈥檙e able to access all of Adelphi鈥檚 regular support services, from writing and subject-specific tutoring to assistance from the Student Access Office. Within the program, they benefit from mentor relationships with Adelphi faculty, as well as their own peer networks. According to Dr. Kang, ties between participating students are incredibly strong. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e gathering together to help each other out with assignments,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e鈥檝e seen remarkable growth in terms of maturity and community.鈥�

LaShonda Gardenhire, an adviser at Freeport High School, says her students are so excited about the program鈥攁nd their own growth鈥攖hat they鈥檙e spreading the word themselves. 鈥淲e鈥檙e seeing an increase in hard skills like academic ability. Students are engaging with educational pedagogy at a level beyond what we鈥檇 ever expect from teenagers.鈥� Participants鈥� soft skills are evolving, too. Gardenhire reports an increase in confidence, public speaking aptitude and eagerness to take on leadership roles within the district and the local community.

For Communities, by Communities

Once Pipeline participants complete their undergraduate degrees, they can go on to a one-year graduate program that prepares them to acquire New York state licensure and a master鈥檚 degree鈥攁nd return to teach in their home districts, resulting in a cycle of community-based educator development that can be repeated year after year.

鈥淚f you know the community you鈥檙e teaching in, you know how to work within it,鈥� Dr. Kang noted. 鈥淭his program is diversifying the workforce while minimizing that transitional shock for new teachers.鈥�

The value of recruiting teachers to lead classrooms where they once learned is 鈥渘ot even quantifiable,鈥� Gardenhire said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e bringing an emotional investment in their community, a place where they grew up and probably still have family. And by coming full circle, they鈥檙e making a huge impact on their students. They are their own success stories. They can say to their students, 鈥業 sat in that seat. I went through this system. And look at me now.鈥欌��

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Improving Access to Healthy Foods

The Tower Garden project was born out of a real community need. In 2022, Clinical Assistant Professor Rachel Taniey, PhD, director of the MS in Nutrition and Dietetics program in the Ruth S. Ammon College of Education and Health Sciences, surveyed users of Adelphi鈥檚 on-campus food pantry, Panther Pantry, to better understand what students needed. 鈥淲e learned that students want to see fresh produce and an extended variety of items,鈥� she said.

Armed with that insight, Dr. Taniey saw an opportunity to create a hands-on learning experience for graduate students. Through a , she received a to supply the fresh produce.

“The grant focuses on changing systems, policies and environment to improve access to affordable nourishing food, healthy food access and physical activity,” said Karyn Kirschbaum, PhD, Adelphi adjunct professor of nutrition, who has coordinated the CHSC grant through Western Suffolk BOCES for nearly 20 years.

At the center of the project is a novel piece of food technology: an aeroponic growing system that allows you to cultivate fruits, leafy vegetables and herbs in a single vertical column. Seedlings are placed into pods along the outside of the tower, with their roots exposed at the center. A reservoir at the base holds water and a mineral blend, which a submersible pump continuously pushes to the top of the structure. From there, the nutrient-rich water cascades downward, misting the exposed roots before returning to the reservoir below. The result is a full harvest in as little as five to six weeks鈥攁nd because the system grows indoors, it produces continuously throughout the year.

A Hands-On Learning Experience

Growing fresh produce for the Panther Pantry is only one component of the project鈥攅ducation is the other. Every semester, graduate students can fulfill the required 130 hours of supervised community nutrition fieldwork through the Tower Garden.

That鈥檚 exactly the opportunity graduate students Alexis Provenz and Ellie Cohen were looking for. In addition to maintaining the garden, they assemble salad kits for Panther Pantry and organize educational events for the community.

The salad kits are a more recent innovation, born out of a simple realization. 鈥淲e realized that maybe just bringing over bags of produce isn’t the most appetizing way to encourage college students to eat vegetables,鈥� Dr. Taniey said. 鈥淪o we put it all together in little to-go containers with a package of olive oil and a label that says 鈥楯ust add protein from the pantry.鈥欌��

The food demonstrations take that mission a step farther. On March 10, Provenz and Cohen led a station at Adelphi鈥檚 Nutrition Fair, where they prepared dishes made entirely from Tower Garden and pantry ingredients. 鈥淲e came up with two balanced and healthy recipes so students can replicate the recipes free of charge,鈥� Cohen said.

The experience has already proven to be a valuable complement to classroom learning. 鈥淲e learn what truly goes into planning and organizing events behind the scenes, how to troubleshoot problems creatively, and how to collaborate with professionals and peers in a real-world setting,鈥� Provenz said. 鈥淚t has given me a much deeper understanding of the work that goes into community nutrition programs and the impact they can have.鈥�

What鈥檚 Next for 鈥淜eanu Leaves鈥�

The Tower Garden project achieves two major goals of the MS in Nutrition and Dietetics program: increasing access to healthy food for Adelphi community members and preparing students for a career in nutrition.

“Our program is definitely rooted in community nutrition,鈥� Dr. Taniey said. 鈥淲e are increasing access for our community members, and we are also increasing knowledge of community nutrition for our dietetics students and really preparing them for a career in community nutrition.”

For Provenz, the project has shifted how she thinks about her field entirely. “This project has shown me that nutrition and dietetics is so much broader than simply 鈥榚ating healthy,鈥欌�� she said. 鈥淒ietetics is deeply connected to community health, food access, education and sustainability.鈥�

And the project is still just getting started. Dr. Taniey recently submitted a research proposal for a case study of pantry users as they interact with the Tower Garden, food demonstrations and nutrition education materials. If approved, the study would bring a formal academic lens to an organic, hands-on initiative.

She also hopes to expand what the garden grows, adding more herbs and eventually vine plants like tomatoes. 鈥淲e鈥檙e excited to explore what we do next,鈥� Dr. Taniey says. 鈥淲e鈥檒l be thinking of new recipes and ways to get students involved.鈥�

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More than just a collection of buildings, it is a vibrant living landscape home to more than 100 species of trees and shrubs鈥攁ll maintained with a 100 percent pesticide-free commitment.

That commitment has just earned Adelphi a Level I Arboretum Accreditation through , part of the esteemed Morton Arboretum registry.

天美传媒鈥檚 Beautiful Campus Is Now Globally Recognized

This prestigious accreditation, awarded in October 2025 and valid until October 2030, places Adelphi on the global registry of accredited arboreta and public gardens.

Jay Cartabuke, the facilities project manager who oversees the 鲍苍颈惫别谤蝉颈迟测鈥檚 arboretum status, noted that this recognition enhances Adelphi鈥檚 visibility worldwide and underscores its commitment to sustainability.

鈥淥ur campus is now featured on an international platform,鈥� Cartabuke said. 鈥淎nyone around the globe can access this registry, which aligns with our broader strategy of seeking global recognition.鈥�

Campus as a Living Classroom

An arboretum represents more than just greenery in a garden formation; it is a carefully curated collection of trees and woody plants maintained for education, research and even public enjoyment. For more than 20 years, Adelphi has maintained a pesticide-free campus, fostering biodiversity and supporting local wildlife鈥攎ost notably our beloved cottontail rabbits, who famously dart across students鈥� paths on their way to class.

The campus also features distinctive historical plantings, including azaleas planted by the Class of 1935 on the flagpole lawn, which have thrived for more than 85 wonderful years. Seasonal highlights, such as rows of brilliant pink cherry trees and a fragrant rose garden, remain iconic visual landmarks, especially in spring.

Cartabuke noted that while more than 100 species are believed to be present on campus, 68 have been formally identified and documented in an expanding collections database. Maintaining accreditation involves meticulous cataloging, mapping and labeling of plant species, a project that will continue through the spring and summer.

Plans are also underway to develop a dedicated arboretum campus map that showcases key points of interest and enables students and visitors to explore notable specimens across the grounds.

Sustainability: Part of Our Strategic Plan

天美传媒鈥檚 arboretum accreditation supports Goal 3 of the 鲍苍颈惫别谤蝉颈迟测鈥檚 Momentum 2 strategic plan, which focuses on sustainability and environmental responsibility.

天美传媒 has recently achieved two significant milestones: It renewed its ArbNet accreditation and its institutional membership with the . These accomplishments enhance the 鲍苍颈惫别谤蝉颈迟测鈥檚 professional network and provide vital access to conferences, research resources and sustainability initiatives.

Benefits of Accreditation

The ArbNet accreditation offers numerous advantages for Adelphi, including:

• Validation of best practices in landscape management, which reinforces the 鲍苍颈惫别谤蝉颈迟测鈥檚 commitment to sustainability
• Acknowledgement of the campus as a living classroom, enhancing its role as an educational resource
• Benchmark opportunities to compare practices with peer institutions, increasing the 鲍苍颈惫别谤蝉颈迟测鈥檚 global visibility as a sustainable campus

Best of all, participation in this valuable program costs the institution nothing.

A Green Campus for Today鈥檚 Students

In an age when climate change and environmental awareness are paramount, maintaining a sustainable, biodiverse campus is essential. Cartabuke emphasizes that green spaces not only reflect environmental responsibility but also enhance student well-being. Areas such as the rose garden and shaded benches beneath mature trees provide students with much-needed moments of calm amid their busy academic lives.

The University plans to boost engagement by fostering faculty partnerships, encouraging student participation and possibly offering arboretum tours. A newly announced sustainability task force will further weave the arboretum into academic programs and campus initiatives.

Looking Ahead to a Greener Future

With accreditation secured through 2030, Adelphi is shifting its focus to growth and engagement. Upcoming projects include labeling plant species, expanding the collections database, improving visibility on the Facilities Management website, and developing programming that showcases the campus as a public garden.

鈥淥ur goal is to maintain and build upon what we have,鈥� Cartabuke stated. 鈥淭here鈥檚 always room to go above and beyond.鈥�

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Dr. Caro, who studied human evolutionary biology at Harvard University before pivoting to zoology and animal biology at the University of Oxford for her doctorate, has spent most of her career researching the dynamics between bird parents and their offspring, integrating concepts from behavioral neuroscience, evolutionary biology and urban biology. 鈥淚鈥檓 interested in how birds鈥� social behavior evolves when there鈥檚 a tension between two evolutionary incentives: cooperation and competition,鈥� she said.

Bird families are the perfect petri dish for this tension. Parents want their offspring to cooperate and survive, but they may also, as Dr. Caro puts it, 鈥渂e a little selfish and want their partner to do more of the work.鈥�

Publishing Research That Expands Understanding of Bird Behavior

Recently, Dr. Caro was the first author on an article, 鈥溾�� (Behavioral Ecology, May 2025), that adds a new dimension to our understanding of bird parent behavior. Among evolutionary biologists, conventional wisdom holds that bird parents respond to their offspring begging for food with fixed behaviors, or behaviors that have evolved over time into something specific and unchanging. But Dr. Caro suspected that parents are actually plastic, or flexible, when responding to their offspring鈥檚 signals, particularly in different environmental conditions.

Dr. Caro took to the woods to conduct an experiment. She gave half of the resident bird population extra food to simulate ideal environmental conditions. The other half experienced no change to their environments. Additionally, she cross-fostered broods to ensure that chicks in both populations would behave similarly, leaving environmental conditions the only remaining variable.

Over the subsequent week, parents did not concentrate their feeding on the chicks that were the largest or loudest. Instead, Dr. Caro鈥檚 theory proved correct. The parents who received extra food became 鈥渘ice, equitable parents,鈥� she explained, while parents in harsher conditions surrendered to survival of the fittest. 鈥淭hese parents selectively ignored the runts, which means they were making decisions about which of their offspring were most likely to survive when food was low.鈥� Ultimately, parents displayed plasticity in responding to multiple sources of information, including local environmental conditions and their assessments of each chick鈥檚 size and behavior.

Exploring Parenting Differences Between Males and Females

Dr. Caro鈥檚 鈥溾�� (Behaviour, July 2025) illuminates another bird family dynamic鈥攖his time couples. 鈥淚n my work, I was noticing that male and female parents made decisions differently. Mothers took longer to make a decision and were more likely to change their minds,鈥� often clashing with fathers over feeding. But, she wondered, were these conflicts purely the product of biological differences in birds?

To find out, she conducted a meta-analysis on 31 bird species, comparing how mothers and fathers responded to offspring begging alongside social and physiological traits that could influence conflict. The results were unexpected. 鈥淚 went in expecting birds to show similar patterns to mammals, where females are almost always more responsive and provide the vast majority of parental care,鈥� she said. 鈥淏ut across every bird species, sex difference was minimal. Only when I looked within species did I start to see other patterns.鈥�

In bird species with strong bonds between males and females, fathers were more responsive to offspring begging for food. In species with less stable bonds, however, fathers were less responsive to begging, leading females to compensate by taking on a greater share of parental care. Rather than an innate difference among sexes, then, Dr. Caro鈥檚 findings demonstrate that varying levels of responsiveness among males and females are likely shaped by the types of bonds they form.

Whether she鈥檚 depositing mealworms in bird nests or running statistical analyses, Dr. Caro believes a mixture of research methods will always yield the best result. 鈥淐omparative meta-analyses allow me to see the big picture across species. Then I can zoom into the details with experimental work,鈥� she said. 鈥淢y findings from an experiment might lead me to do a meta-analysis or vice versa. This is just such a rich field with so many different axes to explore.鈥�

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This one species of bird is probably the single most well-studied bird in terms of how it sounds, but we don鈥檛 know how or why its song changes through time and space.

Language changes all the time: splitting into new dialects, morphing into slang and spreading ways of speaking from one place to another. This phenomenon holds true for animals as well as humans, as Kaiya Provost, PhD, assistant professor of biology at Adelphi, knows well from her research into the evolutionary biology of birds.

Birdsong is an incredibly complex mode of communication. In scientific terms, the song of the White-crowned Sparrow includes whistles, trills, buzzes and a category for 鈥渙ther鈥� sounds known as 鈥渟pecial notes.鈥� Individual songs help birds find mates and signal their location to other birds.

Two closely related subspecies of the White-crowned Sparrow鈥攁 bird that Dr. Provost calls 鈥渋ncredibly cool鈥濃�攈ave retained distinct dialects of their own despite living side by side in the Pacific Northwest. 鈥淭his one species of bird is probably the single most well-studied bird in terms of how it sounds,鈥� she said. 鈥淏ut we don鈥檛 know how or why its song changes through time and space.鈥�

Dr. Provost鈥檚 enthusiasm for the White-crowned Sparrow rubbed off on Jiaying Yang, an undergraduate from The Ohio State University, now a PhD student at Vanderbilt University, with an interest in bioacoustics. Together, the two developed a project that applied machine learning technologies to vast datasets of White-crowned Sparrow recordings, hoping to prove a theory: that changes in birdsong are the products of a changing environment.

Their findings, which used recordings held by The Ohio State 鲍苍颈惫别谤蝉颈迟测鈥檚 Borror Laboratory of Bioacoustics Database, were published as a paper in the April 2024 issue of Ornithology: 鈥�.鈥�¹

White-crowned Sparrow

White-crowned Sparrows can be found all over North America, with some variants breeding in the Arctic and wintering in Mexico. Other variants, like some of the Pacific Northwest subspecies explored in Dr. Provost鈥檚 paper, stay roughly where they are year- round. While most subspecies keep to their own territory, two subspecies in this particular part of the Pacific Northwest frequently overlap. This overlap, which occurs in what is called a 鈥渉ybrid zone,鈥� allowed Dr. Provost to pinpoint the causes behind changing birdsong.

Though previous methods of collecting and cataloguing birdsong worked well, they were laborious, requiring researchers to manually check and label data. This meant that immense amounts of data stored in databases like the Borror Lab too often went underutilized. But with machine learning tools that can be given detailed instructions about what to find and learn, smaller teams can be far more efficient. 鈥淣ow we can process these things much faster and in much bigger batches than we used to,鈥� Dr. Provost said.

Out of a dataset of 20,000 syllables of whistles, trills, buzzes and special notes of White-crowned Sparrow, Dr. Provost and Yang manually annotated 2,000, then had the machine learning model run the rest. Once the songs were tagged, separating out the syllables, the two could cross-reference that data with information about climate, geography and time. Their conclusion, as the paper notes, indicates a correlation between changes in song and 鈥淸cultural drift], geographic distance, and climatic differences, but the response is subspecies- and season-specific.鈥�

One subspecies of White-crowned Sparrow, Z. l. nuttalli, which lives in Southern California and does not migrate, showed a limited influence from climate-related factors on its birdsong. However, the other subspecies, Z. l. pugetensis, which is migratory, showed a much larger influence. 鈥淎nd when you group the two together, the impact of climate goes through the roof,鈥� Dr. Provost added. Varying climate up the West Coast likely plays a major role in the relationship between the two subspecies鈥攚hich, Dr. Provost says, might explain why they have held on to their identities as separate groups over time, even though they interbreed in the hybrid zone between their habitats.

Dr. Provost is looking forward to using the same machine learning tools on a much larger scale. Her current project deals with 137 species of sparrows, instead of just one. 鈥淢achine learning gives us a powerful way to get a lot of data very accurately and very quickly,鈥� she said. 鈥淒oing it by hand would probably be more accurate in the end, but it would take us 20 years.鈥�

Read more in the 2025 issue of Academic & Creative Research Magazine, where we highlight the innovation and imagination shaping Adelphi鈥檚 academic community.

¹ Yang, J., Carstens, B. C., & Provost, K. L. (2023). Machine learning reveals that climate, geography, and cultural drift all predict bird song variation in coastal Zonotrichia leucophrys. Ornithology, 141(2).

About Kaiya Provost, PhD

Kaiya Provost, PhD, is an assistant professor of biology in the College of Arts and Sciences. Her primary specialties are evolutionary biology of birds, with a particular focus on phylogenomics, singing behavior and bioinformatics.

The post Same Birds, Different Song appeared first on 天美传媒.

The birds arrived earlier this spring and quickly drew attention, not just for their size but for the unique sounds echoing from the nest. Many assumed they were crows, but faculty in Adelphi鈥檚 biology department quickly clarified: These are ravens, and their presence offers more than just a passing curiosity.

鈥淭hey鈥檙e not just larger birds,鈥� said Shana Caro, DPhil, assistant professor of biology in the College of Arts and Sciences. 鈥淭heir intelligence is pretty astounding. A lot of recent studies show that they approximate about a 7-year-old child in how well they can solve puzzles and deal with complex new situations.鈥�

Their vocalizations鈥攕ometimes abrupt鈥攁ren鈥檛 random noise but part of an active exchange. According to Dr. Caro, ravens are capable of vocal and gestural communication. They鈥檝e even been observed using their beaks to point鈥攁n ability that mirrors certain behaviors in primates and young children.

A Nest That Speaks to Sustainability

The decision to leave the nest undisturbed highlights Adelphi鈥檚 broader commitment to sustainability, particularly Goal 3 of the 鲍苍颈惫别谤蝉颈迟测鈥檚 Momentum 2 strategic plan, which emphasizes a greener, more ecologically integrated campus. In this case, the ravens found an unoccupied architectural nook and made it home, without disrupting human activity.

According to the , millions of acres of bird habitat are lost or degraded every year because of development practices. In this context, allowing the birds to remain on campus is not only harmless but meaningful, offering a moment of connection to the natural world in an otherwise structured space.

In addition, Dr. Caro said that Adelphi has a thriving bird ecosystem, with more than 100 bird species confirmed on campus鈥攅vidence that the 鲍苍颈惫别谤蝉颈迟测鈥檚 efforts to foster wildlife-friendly environments are having a tangible impact.

Campus as a Living Classroom

The ravens nesting above Levermore鈥檚 entrance have become a point of interest and conversation among students.

Jocelyn Herrera, a senior psychology major, first noticed the birds during her early morning lectures and was struck by the activity just above her head. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e hard to miss, and it鈥檚 been interesting to learn how much is going on right on campus,鈥� she said. 鈥淵ou talk about sustainability in theory, but this feels like a real example of how our space and nature can overlap in such a cool way.鈥�

Dr. Caro encourages this kind of attention. She often tells students that if they spend even half an hour walking around campus slowly, they鈥檒l begin to notice patterns in the landscape, including the wildlife that blend into the background.

A Small Moment With a Larger Meaning

Though the ravens will eventually move on, their presence has offered something lasting: a quiet demonstration of how even unexpected wildlife can coexist with human activity. It鈥檚 a reminder that sustainability is not always about large-scale infrastructure鈥攊t can also come from allowing space for nature to persist.

天美传媒鈥檚 decision to allow the nest to remain in place speaks to the 鲍苍颈惫别谤蝉颈迟测鈥檚 values: supporting biodiversity, respecting natural behaviors, and embracing the organic character of its green campus.

So next time you walk by Levermore Hall, take a moment to look up and admire Adelphi’s ravens. Research proves they are intelligent enough to recognize human faces鈥攁nd they just might remember yours.

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But now the pond is empty. So where are the koi?

Bob Conaghan, associate director of Facilities Management and grounds manager, has been caring for the 75 acres on the Garden City campus for more than 45 years. He鈥檚 assisted by a team that includes mechanics and plumbers like Bruce Brine. Initially, Conaghan and his team purchased 24 koi and goldfish from a nursery nearby in the Town of Hempstead as part of their ongoing mission to beautify the campus. Today, there are more than 500 koi.

Conaghan and Brine explained that the pools are drained for winter and the majority of the koi are relocated.

Most of them are now swimming about in one of two holding tanks in the Nexus Building. They鈥檝e been joined by two turtles who were formerly owned by an Adelphi employee but needed a new home.

Others are in a 50-gallon tank in the basement of Swirbul Library. They鈥檙e cared for by Brine and his colleagues, who brought in additional fish, such as carp and goldfish, to join their more exotic counterparts.

Some of the larger koi have remained outside and can still be seen circling in the Swirbul south patio pool. Conaghan said the pool鈥檚 close proximity to the library warms the water, thus preventing it from freezing.

Life Under Water

According to Conaghan, winter is the hibernation period for the fish: During this period they conserve their energy and barely swim.

When spring comes, it鈥檚 time to return to their usual home at the Swirbul entrance. Conaghan said moving the koi takes 鈥渢hem out of their hibernation state.鈥� 鈥淭hat鈥檚 when they start laying eggs almost immediately. The water temperature has to be a certain number when they鈥檙e going to mate, usually around June,鈥� Brine added. 鈥淭hey lay the eggs sometimes twice a year.鈥�

The koi have 40- to 50-year life spans. Smaller koi are preyed upon by species like raccoons and egrets, but Conaghan said most of the koi have grown too large for these predators.

The Once and Future Pools

The pools outside Swirbul were originally simple reflecting pools, but “no matter how many hours we put into cleaning and vacuuming, they never looked crystal聽clear,” Conaghan said. He decided to let water lilies and water irises and the koi act as natural filters. “We receive many more compliments聽now than before.”

And as of this past May, a waterfall has been added, thanks to a donation from Nancy Rogner ’75, which 鈥渢urned out to be a really big hit,鈥� Conaghan said.

Facilities Management is currently looking into the possibility of adding UV lights and a filtration system to the pool.

Keeping Adelphi Green

Of course, Conaghan and his team are responsible for far more than the koi. The winter break may be a time for students to relax, but Conaghan, Brine and the team are still at Adelphi every day to ensure facilities are in top shape.

Conaghan said he enjoys being the grounds manager the most of his many responsibilities. In this role, he maintains the campus organically, without the use of pesticides. He also gives students and alumni tours, which can include the behind-the-scenes areas where he and the facilities team operate. He’ll talk about anything from the 鈥減robably a couple thousand鈥� Italian wall lizards that might be spotted running around on campus to the names of different trees students might see when walking to their next class.

鈥淭he students like hearing about these kinds of things,鈥� Conaghan said. 鈥淎nd we talk about many of the other things on campus that are out of sight, out of mind. So when the students leave our tour, they have a much better understanding of the nature around them.鈥�

To get some glimpses of the fish and hear more from the facilities team, produced by Adelphi鈥檚 social media team.

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鈥淪ince we created our Green Guide in 2010, we have also seen dramatic growth in the number of colleges committing to sustainability practices鈥攆rom sourcing food locally and constructing LEED-certified buildings, to making commitments to becoming fossil fuel-free,鈥� said聽 , editor-in-chief of . 鈥淲e are proud to shine our light on these exceptional schools and to recommend them to students who want their 鈥榖est-fit鈥� college to also be a green one.鈥�

For the past two decades, Adelphi has prided itself on being a pesticide-free organic campus. A registered arboretum, the University is home to nearly 70 different types of trees and shrubs, as well as to the 鲍苍颈惫别谤蝉颈迟测鈥檚 unofficial mascot, the 天美传媒 bunnies.

As part of Adelphi鈥檚 Momentum 2 strategic plan, the University has committed to sustainability goals by dedicating one of its 16 priorities to efforts that support an environmentally friendly and fuel-efficient environment.

Recent initiatives include:

• The installation of solar panels on the roof of Swirbul Library and the Center for Recreation and Sports, respectively.
• 天美传媒 has 18 EV charging stations currently on campus鈥�12 in the Motamed Field garage and six in the Nexus Building garage.
• by sourcing regional suppliers, ensuring that water bottle filling stations are located throughout campus and reducing food waste by using 鈥渋mperfect鈥� produce from root to stem.
• During the renovation of the Ruth S. Harley University Center, which reopened in 2021, environmentally friendly methods were used whenever possible, including the use of reclaimed or biomass materials and energy-efficient lighting.

Learn more about 天美传媒鈥檚 sustainability and conservation efforts.

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That鈥檚 what Heather Gittelson, a rising senior majoring in cognitive neuroscience and a member of Adelphi’s Honors College, is asking participants this summer in her research project, 鈥淐an Taking the Perspective of a Relative in the Future Influence Climate Change Risk Perception.鈥�

Earlier research has indicated that people can be reluctant to be proactive about climate change because they feel disconnected from the future. 鈥淚 want to understand what can motivate people to care more about others,鈥� Gittelson explained. 鈥淲e can鈥檛 expect to make positive changes in the environment moving forward without using neuroscience and psychology to understand what drives people鈥檚 decisions.鈥�

This past academic year, she assisted Karolina Lempert, PhD, assistant professor of psychology, in her National Institutes of Health-funded research project exploring memory鈥檚 role in decision-making.

This summer, Gittelson is again working with Dr. Lempert to 鈥渃onduct an experiment in which we test a psychological manipulation to see if it will change climate-related decisions,鈥� she said. 鈥淚n this case, people must make decisions that are both future- and other-oriented.鈥�

Dr. Lempert notes that while Gittelson鈥檚 summer experiment relates to her own work about future decision-making, her student wants to find ways to encourage pro-climate behavior. 鈥淭his project combines both of our interests. I鈥檝e been interested in basic decision-making, but Heather is making this more concrete.鈥�

Making Better Decisions for the Future

The 300 participants will be divided into three online groups of 100.

• The first group will read a vignette about a storm caused by climate inaction and use future thinking, Gittelson said, to 鈥渄evelop a vivid mental image of a future event, and perspective taking, where they will name a young friend or relative to represent future generations impacted by climate change.鈥�
• The second group will read a short story about a storm and refer to an unnamed person in the future. According to Gittelson, they鈥檒l learn if vivid details about a storm are enough to enhance participants鈥� perception of risk鈥攐r if considering the perspective of a chosen individual leads to a greater effect.
• The third group will only read some facts about a future when no climate actions are taken.

Each participant will then be asked to decide how to split $10 between themselves and a climate charity.

The Big Picture

Gittelson expects that the first group that engages in both future thinking and perspective taking will donate a greater share of the $10.

Participants鈥� answers to questions about their political orientations and general attitudes about climate change will also be factored in. She also expects younger participants to better understand the risks of climate change, since they will most likely be adversely impacted over time.

Gittelson, who hopes to pursue a doctoral degree after graduating from Adelphi, is passionate about her summer project鈥攁nd limiting the impact of climate change. 鈥淏ig picture, we鈥檙e hoping to contribute information on effective ways to make people care more about climate change and encourage small-scale climate action. We may not be able to stop climate change, but any action is better than none, so we hope to motivate people to take pro-climate action.鈥�

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