New Book Offers a Historical View of Adelphi University

(March 24, 2015, Garden City, NY)—In recent months, much has been reported about the state of higher education. Media stories have discussed how schools need to adapt to changing needs, demographics, technologies, and market demands. In her latest book, A History of Adelphi University (Pearson), Jennifer Fleischner, Ph.D., acclaimed author (Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Keckly: The Remarkable Story of the Friendship Between a First Lady and a Former Slave) and professor in the English department at Adelphi University, suggests that Adelphi has long been an institution of dynamic change.

In her new book released this month, Dr. Fleischner chronicles the University from its founding in 1863 in Brooklyn as the Adelphi Academy through today as a modern world-class university under the leadership of President Robert A. Scott. Through chapters devoted to the tenures of Adelphi’s successive presidents, the work depicts an institution that continuously evolved with changing socioeconomic and political times. Using detailed information from extensive interviews and archival research, Dr. Fleischner depicts the University’s periods of growth and tension and presents a historically sweeping and vibrant view of changes at Adelphi within the context of the broader changes in American higher education and society at large.

The last history of the University was written in 1946 by historian and former Adelphi history faculty member Chester Barrows. In 2013, Dr. Scott commissioned the new work to capture the firsthand accounts of alumni, faculty, staff, and regional leaders. Dr. Scott tapped Dr. Fleischner to undertake this work due in part to her acclaimed work, Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Keckly, and the precedent of having the University’s history chronicled by a member of its faculty.

“As someone who has spent most of his career in higher education, I understand how colleges and universities have always adapted to the times,” Dr. Scott said. “Dr. Fleischner has done an extraordinary job of offering the reader a carefully researched and exceptionally crafted view of how Adelphi University has evolved. Her work offers alumni, faculty, students, and friends, as well as future researchers, an informed and objective view of the Adelphi story. I am pleased to add this book to our historical account and am grateful to Dr. Fleischner for her outstanding work.”

Dr. Fleischner is the author of books and articles about American literature, women, and slavery, as well as an historical novel, Nobody’s Boy, set in antebellum St. Louis. She has taught at Adelphi University since 2002.

The hardcover book (insert ISBN 10: 1-323-06080-4; ISBN 13: 978-1-323-06080-4; price $30.00; released March 2015) is available through the Adelphi University bookstore and will be available as an e-book in April.

About Adelphi University:

A world-class, modern university, Adelphi has excellent and highly relevant programs in which students prepare for lives of active citizenship and professional careers. Through its schools and programs—the College of Arts and Sciences, the Gordon F. Derner Institute of Advanced Psychological Studies, the Honors College, the Robert B. Willumstad School of Business, the Ruth S. Ammon School of Education, University College, the College of Nursing and Public Health, and the School of Social Work—the coeducational university offers undergraduate and graduate degrees as well as professional and educational programs for adults. As a nationally-ranked, doctoral research university, Adelphi University currently enrolls nearly 8,000 undergraduate and graduate students from 43 states and 45 foreign countries. With its main campus in Garden City and its centers in Manhattan, Suffolk County and Poughkeepsie, the University, chartered in 1896, maintains a commitment to liberal studies, in tandem with rigorous professional preparation and active citizenship.

Note to editors: for review copies or to arrange an interview with Dr. Fleischner, please contact Lori Duggan Gold Vice President for Communications at duggangold@adelphi.edu