The History of the College of Professional and Continuing Studies

Adelphi University created the Adult Baccalaureate Learning Experience (ABLE) program to help working adults obtain a college degree. The Adult Baccalaureate Learning Experience program served as a great resource for adult students, through academic advisers who guided new students from the time they registered for their first class until they graduated. The program offered special grants to help adult students with tuition, and even served as a destination where students could pay their tuition bills and obtain financial information—all in one place.

Adelphi initiated the General Studies program for traditionally aged freshmen, to be housed within the Adult Baccalaureate Learning Experience program. Aimed at high school graduates whose college potential went beyond test scores, General Studies enrolled and graduated 15 generations of new Adelphi students while under the Adult Baccalaureate Learning Experience program. General Studies moved to the College of Arts and Sciences in 2001 and is currently housed there.

The Adult Baccalaureate Learning Experience program reaches 1,300 students. Classes were held on Adelphi’s main campus in Garden City, New York, as well as at the West Hempstead Center, the World Trade Center, JFK International Airport and LaGuardia Airport, Elmhurst Hospital Center, various libraries in Nassau County, New York City Center and the Hauppauge Education and Conference Center.

Adelphi’s first fully online program—the BS in Emergency Services Administration—begins under the renamed University College.

Adelphi veteran and active-duty military student support services were launched by University College in 2009 and the Veteran Resource Center was opened in 2012.

University College offers its first graduate program with the MS in Emergency Management, which went fully online in 2014. The College later added the MS in Health Information Technology in 2013, which also went online in 2014.

Shawn O’Riley, EdD, takes the reins as University College dean. Formerly the College’s executive director, he followed the leadership of Doris Silberstein, Madeline Gardner, Jerry Heeger, Glen Zeitzer, Dominick Cavallo and David Newton.

U.S. News & World Report ranked Adelphi as the 45th best college for veteran students in the country. The College also inaugurated its first class of Alpha Sigma Lambda, the national adult student honor society.

Adelphi’s University College changed its name to the College of Professional and Continuing Studies on July 31, 2017, to better reflect our mission. The offices also moved to Levermore Hall.

Andy Atzert selected to serve as the new dean of the Adelphi University’s College of Professional and Continuing Studies, effective July 8, 2019. Previously, Atzert served as chief operating officer of the Wharton School’s Aresty Institute for Executive Education at the University of Pennsylvania and as assistant dean of the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University.