College of Arts and Sciences

2023 CAS Giving Day Priorities

1. Dean's Excellence Fund

The Dean’s Innovation Fund supports excellence in faculty teaching and student learning, as declared in the CAS Strategic Plan, Envisioning CAS. Gifts will support students with “value-added” in their college education -- experiential learning. Our goal is to provide every single student with an experiential learning opportunity. Whether it's a study abroad trip, field work, performances or research, these high-impact experiences get students out of the classroom and into real world settings, where they can apply their knowledge and develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Gifts will also support faculty interdisciplinary teaching, evidence-based learning, curricular development, and pedagogical innovation.

2. Student Success Fund

This new initiative seeks to support student success for those students enrolled in the College of Arts and Sciences. Examples include (but are not limited to): helping bridge the “opportunity cost” or valuable excursions for CAS students participating in study abroad; supporting CAS student-led organizations; assisting with expenses of visiting important cultural establishments; helping to “level of playing field” for CAS students undertaking valuable but unpaid / underpaid internships; supplementing the funding support for CAS students presenting research / creative works at professional conferences / festivals; making available incentive dollars for faculty and staff who plan to execute specific student success program initiatives, outside of the regular curriculum. The goal is to raise enough money to create an endowed fund to sustain the College’s commitment to student success.

3. The Regina Axelrod Endowment Internship Fund

Professor Regina Axelrod was a longtime professor, campus leader, and student advocate deeply missed by the entire Adelphi community. Professor Axelrod established the Washington internship program at Adelphi that places students in semester-long internships with The Washington Center in the nation’s capital. For decades she helped students gain internships with members of Congress, the Department of Justice, the EPA, advocacy groups, and more! In honor of Professor Axelrod’s memory, her husband Leonard Kahn has generously set up an endowed award to support students who are accepted to The Washington Center internship program at Adelphi. This fund prioritizes helping offset the cost of students’ living expenses in Washington, D.C., but may also support other more local internship opportunities.

4. Levermore Global Scholars Program

The Levermore Global Scholars (LGS) Program is an innovative academic program. We prepare students to be leaders who specialize in understanding and addressing interconnected global issues such as climate change, sustainability, world health, poverty, peacebuilding and human rights. Your gift will help fund student cultural experiences in New York City and activities at the United Nations that help transform LGS students into leaders of positive social and global change.

5. African, Black, and Caribbean Studies (ABC)

The African, Black and Caribbean Studies Program (ABCSP) is an academic unit that prepares our students with the tools needed to navigate the complex world we live in today.

In supporting student academic success we encourage them to participate in activities inside and outside of the classroom. Your gift will help support our annual Scholastic Awards Dinner at which graduating seniors in the minor and their parents are invited to a celebratory dinner recognizing their high achievement. Students who have attained a GPA of 3.5+ are recognized with a commemorative plaque, indicating their high achievement in receiving the Presidential Leadership Award, the Africana Studies Senior Scholastic Award, and the Thurgood Marshall Social Justice Award.

Beyond classroom engagement our students are invited to participate in academic lectures and cultural programs at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and at professional conferences (Association for Black Culture Centers).