'Insect Isle' Selected as Winning Proposal in Honors College Biodiversity Initiative
NJIT’s Albert Dorman Honors College held its First-Year Seminar Biodiversity Initiatives colloquium, in which six student-led proposals were presented to increase and sustain biodiversity through a campus planting. This year’s plan focused around a renovation near Faculty Memorial Hall.
These student-driven initiatives allow for the Urban Ecology Lab (UEL), ADHC, the Real Estate Development and Capital Operations (REDCO) and the Office of Sustainability to team up together to make NJIT’s campus into a more sustainable and biodiverse community.
Dean of ADHC, Louis I. Hamilton, shared his thoughts on the importance of diversity, and its effect in different areas of study and life. “...Build, engineer and design with redundancies and fault tolerances. Surround yourself with people with different experiences to challenge and inform you and allow you to be creative,” he said. “So too, with our urban ecosystems, replacing monocultures of lawn and invasive barberries with a range of flowering and fruiting trees and plants, enriches all of us and makes our piece of the world brighter, more fertile and more resilient.”
“The population around the entire world is becoming more urban. All future population growth is going to be mainly urban or suburban, that’s what we know to be the case. We also know that people need exposure to nature to be healthy in mind and body,” highlighted NJIT's UEL co-director, Gareth Russell. “There's an increasing body of evidence that makes that not something that you can really debate anymore. What that means is that we need to find a way to bring nature into urban and suburban spaces so that people can be exposed and get those wellness benefits, those mental health benefits and physical benefits of being exposed to nature, and that's what we're trying to do on campus in a small way.”
Russell showcased the changes past winning proposals of this seminar have had on campus. Examples include the Newark Rooftop Therapy Garden, the garden behind the Honors College and the parking deck garden, which they hope will turn into a monarch way station.
"Insect Isle"
The winning proposal, “Insect Isle,” aims to establish a biodiversity garden near Faculty Memorial Hall, designed to attract and sustain native insect populations while enhancing the campus's aesthetic appeal. The students that led this proposal are Mariam Ali, Benjamin Cruz, Abhinav Kokkula and Vishnu Marella.
The team plans to plant narrow leaf evening primrose, milkweed, asters, golden Alexander, trumpet honeysuckle and redbud trees, all chosen for their ability to support pollinators and maintain visual interest throughout the seasons. One of the key aspects of the biodiversity proposals was the commitment to using only native plants.
The insect species they aim to attract include the primrose moth, monarch butterfly, Syrphid fly, black swallowtail, and frosted elfin butterfly. These insects play crucial roles as pollinators and as food sources for birds, helping to sustain a broader ecosystem.
Every year you continue to raise the bar and truly impress us.
Andrew P. Christ, senior vice president of REDCO, announced the winner after highlighting the excellent work from all six groups.
He offered several key aspects of “Insect Isle,” praising the team for prioritizing insects while still considering aesthetics. He noted that their layout was thoughtful and utilized the entire area effectively, and even appreciated their use of graph paper for the design, which resonated with the engineers in attendance. Additionally, he commended the team's consideration of the blooming schedule, their acknowledgment of existing equipment in the area and their analysis of limitations and challenges.
“I bring you a warm welcome and congratulations on the incredible work that you've all done from Dr. Lim and the entire senior administration here at NJIT,” he added. “I'd like to extend my thanks to the Honors scholars for your fantastic work. Every year you continue to raise the bar and truly impress us”
The garden layout ensures visibility and accessibility, with plant placement designed to avoid obstruction and facilitate maintenance. To measure success, the team will conduct quarterly observations of insect populations and plant health, assessing whether their biodiversity goals are met.
I hope that our work mobilizes those in our community to promote biodiversity and sustainability in their own ways.
Kokkula, a first-year honors scholar majoring in fintech, pointed out that what made their proposal stand out was the simplicity of it making it relatively easy to implement. They chose popular plants that work effectively towards the campus’ goals of nativity and pollination. Their proposal theme revolved around attracting insects, a major first step towards promoting biodiversity through an increase in pollination and organisms in the area. And lastly, their proposal’s budget and layout made it stand out from the rest.
“I see our proposal turning into a beautiful garden in front of Faculty Memorial Hall (FMH),” said Kokkula. “Watching my fellow classmates plant in front of Kupfrian Hall earlier this year, I felt inspired and could immediately envision what the incoming Honors class this fall will achieve with our proposal. My hope is that the plants will grow and thrive, bringing insects, pollinators, and people towards the small urban desert that currently sits in front of FMH. Only time will tell how successful our proposal will turn out, but for now, I am hopeful and excited to see how biodiversity cultivates on-campus in the future.”
The site where the transformation will take place next year is flat and relatively bare, as it’s next to a parking lot, and it’s expected to have full sun in the summer, but the potential to transform this campus area into a more natural and wildlife-friendly environment is big.
“Participating in this initiative started out as any other small group project. As first-years who had yet to finish our first semester, we had no idea what to expect,” said Kokkula. “Before we knew it, our journey progressed to the point of implementation. Our first-year seminar class was an amazing opportunity to meet other first-year Honors students and Honors faculty. We learned important skills to navigate our new college-life and had the chance to explore the brilliant ideas of our peers firsthand.
“Knowing that my groups' work will make a positive impact directly on our community makes me proud. I hope that our work mobilizes those in our community to promote biodiversity and sustainability in their own ways.”
