Adelphi University receives its first local alumnus president, to be honored in December

Born and raised in Garden City, Michael Balboni says he never imagined he would become president of his alma mater, Adelphi University, and certainly never the university’s first local alumnus president.  In May, Balboni officially became the university’s 11th president and in December he will be inaugurated as its first president to be a local alum.  “The famous Greek poet Euripides once famously said, ‘No man steps into the same river twice. It is not the same river, and it is not the same man,’” Balboni said. “That's the way I view this. When I walk down the same pathways that I walked as a student, all the memories come flooding back, and I'm filled with a sense of wonder of the journey that took me here.” Initially entering Adelphi to pursue medicine, Balboni said he met a professor who changed the entire trajectory of his life, leading him to later attend law school, which would get him into the world of government and politics. In 1990, Balboni was elected to the sta