A Center for Academic Achievement: How Innovative Collaborations Between Faculty and Learning Center Administrators Built Model, Credit-Bearing, First-Year Courses with Embedded Support for At-Risk Students

Establishing a centralized learning assistance program to systematically address the academic challenges of all students was the first priority of the Academic Achievement Center (AAC) at Bridgewater State College when it was formed in 2001. This new, open, bright, comfortable, and inviting place has truly become the heart of the campus, for it is here that abundant human and material resources are available to support all students. In this learning environment, students can access services in advising, testing, disabilities resources, study, research, writing, communication, mathematics, adaptive technology, tutoring, and English as a second language. Primary responsibility for learning assistance lives with faculty directors who plan how to place meaningful assistance in the path of all students. This article describes the challenges and rewards in establishing and sustaining campus commitment to centralized learning assistance programs as well as some of the exciting opportunities for collaborative innovation on learning assistance that have resulted from such a commitment at Bridgewater State College. An additional discussion focuses on the administrative strategies that support this successful model, and the profound professional opportunities presented to faculty, graduate students, undergraduate student staff, and professional staff through this model. Besides the various services provided at the AAC, systemic delivery of learning assistance is meshed through academic courses for at-risk, first-year students. A description and analysis of quantitative and qualitative data point out the observed trends of student persistence and academic standing for each cohort that has benefited from this comprehensive model

Historical distribution data of New Zealand endemic families Callaeidae and Notiomystidae (Aves, Passeriformes)

Callaeidae (wattlebirds) and Notiomystidae (stitchbirds) are New Zealand-endemic sister-taxa; while widespread before human settlement, they subsequently became critically endangered or extinct. Aside from presently managed populations, information about them is scarce and actual specimens even scarcer. Herein, we provide a snapshot of these families’ historical distribution during the critical periods of European settlement and expansion in New Zealand (19th and early-20th centuries), exploring new data and insights resulting from this approach. We include an extensive catalogue of worldwide museum specimens to facilitate future research. We report the last known record/specimen of huia Heteralocha acutirostris (Gould, 1837) and late 19th century specimens of North Island saddleback Philesturnus rufusater (Lesson, 1828) from Cuvier Island that confirm its occurrence there. We failed to find specimens of North Island saddleback and stitchbird Notiomystis cincta (du Bus de Gisignies, 1839) (with one and two exceptions, respectively) from named locations on the mainland

Human exploitation assisting a threatened species? The case of muttonbirders and Buller's albatross.

Albatrosses are flexible and adaptable predators, relying on live prey as well as carrion. Use of predictable food sources and reliance on human-produced resources are well-known trait in long-range feeders like albatrosses and petrels. Breeding Buller's albatrosses studied at Solander I. (Hautere), New Zealand fed their chicks the remains of sooty shearwater juveniles (tītī in Māori), which are harvested from nearby muttonbirding sites. Evidence of this food type was found at over 10% of nests examined, and 17-40% birds that were fitted with GPS loggers visited muttonbirding sites in this and previous studies. Muttonbirding is a traditional practice that has continued for centuries, with up to 120 tonnes of offal discharged to the sea annually during the present day harvest. It coincides with the energetically-demanding early chick period for the albatrosses. Our finding suggests that the offal may be an important, but overlooked element in the albatross diet. As an important supplementary food for the albatrosses it is likely to have contributed to the 3% per annum growth of their populations since the first comprehensive population surveys in 1969

Extreme bill dimorphism leads to different but overlapping isotopic niches and similar trophic positions in sexes of the charismatic extinct huia

International audienceThe New Zealand huia (Heteralocha acutirostris) had the most extreme bill sexual dimorphism among modern birds. Given the quick extinction of the species, the cause of the dimorphism could only be hypothesised to reflect different trophic niches and reduce male/female competition. We tested that hypothesis by combining museum specimens, geometric morphometrics, and isotopic analyses. We used geometric morphometrics to describe bill shape; measured bulk (δ 15 N bulk) and (δ 13 C bulk) values from feather as proxies of the birds' foraging habitat and diet; and compared compound-specific stable isotopes analyses (CSIA) of nitrogen in amino acids (δ 15 N AA) in male-female pairs to estimate their trophic position. Sexes had significantly different, but overlapping feather δ 15 N bulk and δ 13 C bulk values, but δ 15 N AA indicated identical trophic positions and δ 15 N bulk was not related to bill shape. Trophic position was less variable among females, consistent with a specialised foraging behaviour and, thus, supporting a partial male/female foraging segregation

Human exploitation assisting a threatened species? The case of muttonbirders and Buller’s albatross

<div><p>Albatrosses are flexible and adaptable predators, relying on live prey as well as carrion. Use of predictable food sources and reliance on human-produced resources are well-known trait in long-range feeders like albatrosses and petrels. Breeding Buller’s albatrosses studied at Solander I. (Hautere), New Zealand fed their chicks the remains of sooty shearwater juveniles (<i>tītī</i> in Māori), which are harvested from nearby muttonbirding sites. Evidence of this food type was found at over 10% of nests examined, and 17–40% birds that were fitted with GPS loggers visited muttonbirding sites in this and previous studies. Muttonbirding is a traditional practice that has continued for centuries, with up to 120 tonnes of offal discharged to the sea annually during the present day harvest. It coincides with the energetically-demanding early chick period for the albatrosses. Our finding suggests that the offal may be an important, but overlooked element in the albatross diet. As an important supplementary food for the albatrosses it is likely to have contributed to the 3% per annum growth of their populations since the first comprehensive population surveys in 1969.</p></div

The foraging trip of a Buller’s albatross from Solander I.

<p><b>(Hautere) (open star) for 4 d in May 2016 (day 1- black; 2-blue; 3-green; 4-red) of its 9.6 d trip, with a strong focus on the Muttonbird Is (black stars) west of Stewart I (Rakiura)</b>. This bird used the shelf-break area (hatched) on 8 d, and made 22 visits to muttonbirding sites. Dotted lines—bathymetric contours (50 m intervals). Dark grey–land areas.</p

Extreme bill dimorphism leads to different but overlapping isotopic niches and similar trophic positions in sexes of the charismatic extinct huia

The New Zealand huia (Heteralocha acutirostris) had the most extreme bill sexual dimorphism among modern birds. Given the quick extinction of the species, the cause of the dimorphism could only be hypothesised to reflect different trophic niches and reduce male/female competition. We tested that hypothesis by combining museum specimens, geometric morphometrics, and isotopic analyses. We used geometric morphometrics to describe bill shape; measured bulk (δ15Nbulk) and (δ13Cbulk) values from feather as proxies of the birds’ foraging habitat and diet; and compared compound-specific stable isotopes analyses (CSIA) of nitrogen in amino acids (δ15NAA) in male–female pairs to estimate their trophic position. Sexes had significantly different, but overlapping feather δ15Nbulk and δ13Cbulk values, but δ15NAA indicated identical trophic positions and δ15Nbulk was not related to bill shape. Trophic position was less variable among females, consistent with a specialised foraging behaviour and, thus, supporting a partial male/female foraging segregation