Creating A Living Lab, Pace Joins 'Bee Campus' Movement

PLEASANTVILLE, NY — Pace University’s Pleasantville campus has become certified as an affiliate of the Bee Campus USA program.

The program is an initiative of the Xerces Society of Invertebrate Conservation based in Portland, Oregon, whose mission is pollinator conservation, endangered species conservation, and reducing pesticide use and impacts. More than 150 food crops in the United States depend on pollinators, including blueberries, apples, squash, strawberries and almonds.

The nonprofit encourages participants in the Bee Campus program to enhance their habitats and educate students, staff, and faculty.

"The Bee Campus USA designation is significant because it brings attention to the fact that pollinator populations have been in decline. This extends further than the colony collapse disorder in honeybee populations and is also affecting local bees, butterflies and other organisms that help create fruits, flowers and other plant life," said Ryan McEnany, Pace University’s director of energy and resiliency. "On a global level, 33 percent of the food we eat is made possible by insect pollinators, and 90 percent of wild plants and flowers need pollinators for survival.”

In the upcoming year, Pace will be working with students to create educational signage about pollinators and plans to have a number of pollinator-focused events. Pace joins over 90 Bee Campuses around the country.

“Becoming a Bee Campus is important to Pace as it shows our commitment to creating a sustainable campus that will function both as healthy ecosystem for native plants and animals and as a living laboratory for students,” said Dyson College of Arts and Sciences Associate Professor Michael J. Rubbo, PhD. “We plan on creating pollinator gardens where pollinators (bees, butterflies, beetles) can find sources of food and where students can study pollinators and develop solutions for their conservation.”

The designation also comes at a time when a group of Pace University communication studies students are filming a documentary called Bee Aware, which focuses on the importance of bees and the role they play around the globe.

Originally, the class was set to film in Paris, France, but after the pandemic hit – and all foreign travel halted – the students dispatched across the Northeast (New York, Connecticut, New Jersey and Pennsylvania) to interview local farmers and beekeepers. The students are working on the documentary through the summer and expect it will be completed in the fall.