Matt Harmon: On this episode of Mon with weekly university, president Patrick Lehe discusses the most up to date plans for the upcoming fall semester and how it impacts students, faculty, and staff. This is faculty member, Matt Harmon, and it's time for episode 14. Thanks as always for joining us Matt Harmon: With The start of the semester, strangely enough, the fall semester that is about two months away. Good opportunity to get us back up and going. This is our Monmouth weekly podcast. I'm faculty member, Matt Horman with university president Patrick Lehe. We are in the, um, early to mid part here of July. The summer classes are up and going, but news coming out just, uh, a day or so ago about mammoth potentially reopening in the fall. I say good morning to, uh, president Lehe hope and trust her that you had a, a successful and fun 4th of July holiday. I know very different field than it would normally be with, with fireworks in festivities, but, uh, hope all is well with you when the family let's start it with that. Patrick Leahy: Yeah. Thank you, Matt. Uh, everything's uh, well here, uh, it was a different 4th of July the first time since I can remember that I did not spend it at our, uh, family home in Avalon. So, uh, that, that for me was very different, but, uh, all all good. It's all good. Matt Harmon: Let's uh, before we even jump into the fall, and I know that's the news that everybody wants to hear a little bit more and talk about a little bit more. Um, I, I mentioned summer classes up and going. I think a couple of the sessions are either close to wrapping up or wrapping up, uh, pretty soon based on the calendar, what what's been, maybe the overall feel and sense of, of how the summer schedule has been working. Patrick Leahy: The feedback I'm getting is, uh, it's been very positive, uh, as you know, the, the, the activity was very robust this summer. That that was good. I'm hearing, uh, very positive things from our faculty members. Some of whom are, are, had already planned offer online courses, Matt O others of whom converted coursework online. I think that has gone well. The most important thing for me is I'm hearing positive things from students, uh, about their experiences this summer. And, uh, so I believe that, you know, remote delivery of, uh, programming in the summer is here to stay because it's, uh, a great way for us to serve students the way they wanna be served in the summer. So I think our summer sessions are going very, very well. Matt Harmon: And I would say after much debate and deli deliberation, uh, the idea of, of getting a, uh, comprehensive plan in terms of getting the fall semester back up and going, and, and as you say in your email that came out midweek, um, as we record here on Thursday was released yesterday, talking about a return to campus in the fall, and I'll start right there. A return to campus means hopefully things continue to move in a, in a good and solid direction. And students, faculty, staff, administration, um, will, will actually be back on campus, come September. Patrick Leahy: That is the goal. Um, you know, after months of scenario planning and considering all the different options and waiting anxiously for the guidelines from the state of New Jersey. I mean, that was the most important piece of information we were awaiting. Um, we did receive those guidelines a couple weeks ago, and we took us a couple weeks to make sure that we could develop a plan that met the, not only the letter of those guidelines, but the spirit of, of those guidelines. Uh, we were able to announce yesterday that if everything holds and maybe we can talk about that as well, but if everything holds in the state and we continue to make progress toward a, uh, a reopening, then we will be able to reopen in the fall, bring, uh, students back to campus, not only to study with us, but to live with us, um, and to bring our faculty and staff back to, to serve them. Uh, certainly in a different way. I believe the language I used Matt was, uh, significantly modified in person experience. It's gonna be considerably different than the experience our Stu our students left in March, but I think, uh, everybody understands that and, uh, we're gonna do the best we can to integrate two things. Matt one is on the one hand, our most important priority, which is, uh, doing everything we can to ensure the health, safety, and wellbeing of all of our constituents that is faculty, staff, and students, as well as integrate that into what we know to be the desire of the majority of our students. A and I think the majority of our faculty and staff, which is to be able to come back and to return to the campus and to return to some semblance of, uh, normalcy. And, and you put those two together, integrating those two, sometimes competing demands, uh, has been really tricky, but I think we landed on a, on a plan that does just that Matt Harmon: I know in, in your email, um, as a lot of these emails have, and they make, 'em somewhat easier to probably go through and read the, the, one of the first things that you talk about is the safeguarding screening and testing. And I would imagine that's something that, that was debated, um, quite heavily. How, how are you going to make sure that things are clean? How are you going to make sure that, uh, if needed temperature checks are done, sanitizing stations are there, um, I, I know governor Murphy just, just this past week announced that face coverings are required when social distancing is not possible. So all of that is, is kind of part of that plan, um, to, again, to your point, it will make coming back to campus normal, but not really normal. in a, in a lot of ways, if that makes sense. Patrick Leahy: Yeah. It, you know, this is general safeguarding. I mean, this is like what's gonna happen across the entire campus, uh, in every activity, Matt and that is, uh, we have to mask up absolutely required indoors, uh, absolutely required outdoors where social distancing isn't isn't possible. So we had this, uh, embedded into our plans even before the governor's announcement yesterday, that he's gonna make this, the case across the state. We will be subject to that six feet, social distancing. Um, that is, uh, been a, been a little bit of a point of discussion because, uh, quite candidly in the state of New Jersey, uh, that is a requirement for colleges and universities, but that is not a requirement in New York, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut. Um, I think the, uh, the guidelines for the colleges and universities in those states suggest that it's where necessary or where, where possible, or where practical, you know, here, it's a, it's a, it's an absolute requirement, which reduces our capacity in the classrooms. And, and we can talk about that, but, you know, we, we, we embrace the spirit of that. It, it certainly seems as though the evidence suggests that that's a good way to prevent the spread of this, of this virus and we'll comply with it. So there's a couple things that are gonna be embedded everywhere that are gonna make a return to campus feel, um, a lot different than, than normal. In addition to that, uh, we have to be really savvy about identifying symptoms. So we're gonna have a mechanism in place where all of our constituents can self-identify symptoms through a, a questionnaire that they need to fill out every single day. But in addition to that, we will have places around campus where in order to gain access, you, you must go through a temperature check another way for us to, to try to identify symptoms. Anytime a symptom is identified, that person will immediately be referred to our health, uh, services for a formal test. And then, uh, that testing process begins. So we wanted to start our announcement with these are the general safeguarding, uh, practices that we're going to adopt on our campus. And it's very consistent with what our state has adopted off campus. Matt Harmon: You know, when, when you think of it, a couple of things there, just to follow up in terms of the, the testing, um, that would be something that students and faculty and staff they could get done on campus. That I just wanted to clarify that one, excuse me, moving forward that students wouldn't necessarily have to leave, or staff wouldn't have to leave if they wanted to get a test that that type of procedure will be able to be done at the health center. Patrick Leahy: Yes. In fact, we we're, we are, uh, partnered up with our testing company. Uh, they've assured us that there'll be plenty of tests available. Uh, so all all folks have to do is go to our health, uh, health center, uh, and get that test. Now, the test at this point takes a day or two, cuz this is the full test. This is not one of those sort of quick, quick test. You know, this is the full test. And during the, the time at which that test is being processed, we will have to, uh, ask, ask individuals to, to go back to their dorm rooms. If they're a student in quarantine or, or to work from home over the next day or two, if they're a staff member until we get the results of that test. Um, and then if a student test comes back positive, we will, uh, isolate that student per state guidelines for the 14 day period to ensure that we can minimize the spread of the, of the virus. So I'm not suggesting in any way, this is gonna be simple. Uh, but we, we have studied the guidelines very closely and have a plan in place that, that, that meets them. Matt Harmon: Let's talk a little bit from a student perspective about the, the housing options, um, all, all of the residence halls, I'm assuming. And I say, assuming you can certainly correct me if, if I'm not on, on the same page will be open. Um, but will it be at as normal? Would it be two, two students in a, in a room or in particular situations, the suites, the apartments where they would be more or, or are housing number is going to be modified a little bit for the fall Patrick Leahy: They'll be modified. I mean, the guidelines states, Matt, that we cannot operate our residence halls at full capacity. It does not say it has to be at 50% capacity or 75%. It just says that we must ensure that, uh, we're spreading out students, uh, as much as feasible and that we can't be running at capacity. So with that in mind, we took all the housing contracts that we typically have with incoming first year students and, and upper class students. And, uh, you know, we had to, uh, reorient them a little bit around our available, uh, supply of rooms, uh, but in doing so we can both honor all the contracts that we have and comply with the state guideline that we, we should not be operating at full capacity. In fact, I think once we spread everybody around we're, we're at like immediately at 80, 83% capacity, we believe that, you know, some students, when they hear about our opening plan might, might choose not to take that housing contract. So that will further reduce our capacity. So, uh, the good news here is that we will allow students to live together. We'll do less of that, but there will be cases where students can live together. It's just that they have to be subject to the enhanced cleaning protocols. And some of the other restrictions that we have to put in place, for example, this fall, if you're living on campus, you can't just go over to your friend's residence hall, a another residence hall as a visitor that will not be allowed. Uh, you can't gather up three or four, five students and go down to the, uh, the common area, even in your residence hall. Those common areas will be closed. Uh, so we'll comply with the state mandates around those restrictions, but we will be allowed to house multiple students in, um, in certain rooms. So the good news for us is we don't have to make this really tough decision around who gets to come back to campus and who doesn't get to come back. We can accommodate everyone, we'll put it out to the students and their families, and if they are comfortable, uh, we can accommodate them. Matt Harmon: When you think of it from a perspective of, of, there are several students among the, the Monmouth population that would live off campus. Some students, uh, within the surrounding area would live at home. Um, if everything's being done on campus the proper way, how is, how does the school monitor or give guidelines for students who might live in off campus housing? Um, I'm just thinking of potential, potential problems down the line. When you think of it, you, you couldn't necessarily monitor every possible student that would live off campus on campus. Yeah, you can, you can kind of set guidelines and monitor. Is it more of suggested protocol for students who might live off campus? Patrick Leahy: Yes. Um, you're right in pointing out Matt, that the, uh, the risks go up off campus. Obviously we cannot control activity off campus. You know, the way we can try to manage that on campus. So there's, there are risks there. Every single student this fall who comes back to Monmouth university will have to go through what we're calling a COVID 19 orientation or training program, uh, that will talk in very explicit terms about the protocols that we have in place. The safety measures that they will be required, not, not suggested, but required to, um, to adhere to, um, we will share with them quite candidly, Matt, that, um, uh, repeated, uh, uh, you know, repeated problems with complying with those guidelines will result in student, uh, code of conduct violations. This is how seriously we need to take this. Uh, we've said all along, this is gonna have to be a shared commitment by the university, doing everything it can to ensure that there's, this is a safe and responsible return, but also with each individual constituent of the university that is each student, each faculty member, each staff member, frankly, each visitor to the campus must adhere to the same commitment around protecting each other. Patrick Leahy: And so we'll do everything we can to, to train up our, our constituents, to, you know, to make them, uh, party to the protocols that we have in place. This questionnaire that they're gonna need to fill out. If you live off campus, you have to fill out this questionnaire every single day. In some cases you might, you might have to show that you've completed it, uh, to your professor before they'll let you into their classroom. Um, you'll have to go through the temperature checks before you gain access to the Stafford center or to the grade hall. So it's gonna be a comprehensive plan to try to manage, uh, what we know will be some risks come the fall. Matt Harmon: I know that, uh, this week, some of the student athletes, uh, football I believe is, is back on campus. Um, as you start to see maybe a little bit more activity, I'm, I'm sure it brings you in, in one way, joy to see students back on campus in this particular case, student athletes, but probably nervous as well. Because as, as you stated earlier, there is still two months to operate under these guidelines, with the hope that things in the state continue to get better. You go from stage two to stage three, which has to happen for any of this planning, um, to, to take place in a way you you're, I would think, right? Keeping your fingers crossed that, that this plan that was announced yesterday can actually be implemented. Patrick Leahy: Yeah, you're right. About those conflicting emotions of, uh, joy and enthusiasm on the one hand and continued worry on the other hand, this past week, as you point out, we, we started inviting back to campus on a voluntary basis, our first students since March, and that is, uh, members of our football team who were invited back for voluntary workouts to start the process of preparing for a fall season. We also, this, this week, uh, hosted our first camps on campus that is for the, the youngsters, I, I think like eight to 14 years old sports camps. And we were able to do that. The state allowed it, and we wanted to offer those, uh, opportunities not only for the, for the, the kids, but also for their parents who are trying to find really, um, valuable ways to keep the kids entertained this summer. So that activity has started this past week. And I'm really pleased about that, but you're absolutely right. It comes with some, some worry, um, you point out quite rightly that we are in stage two of the state's reopening plan and stage two allows those activities that I just mentioned. Uh, but the fall opening plan that I rolled out yesterday is predicated on our state, moving through stage two and into stage three, when we put the plans together, starting, you know, weeks ago, uh, we had real confidence that we were moving from stage one and then to stage two, and that we were progressing positively through stage two, and the governor was giving us the heads up that it's, you know, we'll, we'll be moving to stage three, you know, was some of his recent decisions, um, around indoor dining and the, uh, compulsory mask wearing outside. Uh, it seems like we might be stuck in stage two for a little while. Um, this whole plan is predicated on by, uh, the end of August and early September getting to stage three. So we're gonna have to continue to watch that very carefully. Matt Harmon: The idea of all of the, I'll say additional measures. Um, I'm sure there's a, there's a cost that gets associated with this. Is it a cost that, that Monmouth incurs as an institution? Is it a cost that the state helps with anything or the federal government, or is it, or is it on Monmouth because it's essentially mom's choice to reopen Patrick Leahy: It is, um, well, let's put it this way. It's a, it's a significant cost, but it's a small price to pay, uh, in the big picture because, uh, we know that we have families and students who want to come back to campus. So we'll do everything we can to make that possible and make whatever investments we have to make to do. So, um, those costs will be born by Monmouth university. Our hope is that the federal government might come back with another round of, of, uh, support for higher education. Um, if that's possible, then maybe we can get reimbursed for some of those costs. But, uh, right now it's, uh, money that we are, uh, committing to the process to try to get back to a, uh, you know, a safe, responsible, modified reopening Matt Harmon: Faculty member, Matt Harmon, with university president Patrick Lehe. This is episode number 14 of Monmouth, weekly, trying to keep you updated on all of the information involving campus. This episode, obviously focusing on focusing on the potential plans of, uh, Monmouth, getting back to campus and opening in the fall, president Lehe, we've talked a little bit about the P the potential, um, testing and the guidelines that go along with it. Um, some housing news as well that you mentioned. What about things from a student perspective of, if you're in a club, how are they going to eat all, all, all of those things that involve kind of the everyday campus environment Patrick Leahy: They will be available. It's just that they'll be available in a modified, uh, format dining. For example, of course, if we're gonna have students living with us, we wanna make sure that they're, uh, well nourished. So we've been partnering up with our, uh, dining services, uh, company to ensure that we can, um, you know, take good care of all of our residential students, but do it in a way once again, that complies with state guidelines. So most of the, uh, most of the eating on campus will be done first through a mobile ordering app. So instead of coming to the cafeteria and just having your, you know, walking through the lines and picking up whatever, you'd like, we're gonna ask students to go to an app and to actually order their meal. And the meal will be, uh, prepared individually and customize for every student and be available to be picked up, say, 20 minutes later. Um, this, uh, this model is a model that I think will have to implement, uh, to comply with this public health situation, but I've warned our, uh, food service partners, Matt, that this is likely something that will, uh, last, because that sounds like a great way to, uh, serve students going forward. Um, once the students pick up their meals, they will be, um, in stage two invited only to eat outside. Uh, but assuming we get to stage three, there will be both outside options and, uh, indoor seating, but that indoor seating once again, is gonna have to be limited by our social distancing requirements. So it will be a different experience, uh, this fall, even in the, uh, the dining, which is such an important part of the experience. I get that, I mean, so much community is built, uh, at a college campus around, uh, meals. And, uh, those friendships that last a lifetime are built around meals. So, um, you know, we'll do the best we can to offer that experience within the, uh, within the guidelines Matt Harmon: Based off of some of the, uh, faculty emails that I've received over the course of the last couple days. It, it does seem, um, from a student perspective and a faculty perspective that the, the mode of delivery could be varied from class to class. Some may be in class, some may be fully online, the hybrid option. Um, and it's not all that different than all of those offerings being done from semester to semester. But I think the, the variety of classes that students would have to pick from, I think this semester more so than any other will probably be much more different in that there will likely be more hybrid online options than there normally are in, in a normal fall type semester, Patrick Leahy: Mu much more variety this, this fall, uh, than ever before. Um, and, and I think for good reason, I mean, we're trying to do a couple things here, Matt, the first is, you know, we, we want our faculty members to, to retain the, the, uh, the, the right to decide how it is best to deliver programming to their students this fall. And so we wanna make sure that our faculty members feel, uh, safe being back, uh, on campus and engage with students. Again, that's our, our primary concern. We also know that because of some of the social distancing requirements that we're gonna have, it's gonna reduce our capacity in classrooms, and it's gonna force some courses in the hybrid models or really dispersed learning. Uh, I want our faculty members to make the choice as to whether they can deliver programming best in person or in a really first class online fashion course, I, they know best how to deliver programming to our students. Um, I also know though that there are faculty members who, uh, realize that the best way to serve students is to do it in person, even if we are subject to some of these, uh, uh, public health constraints, especially if you are involved in science courses and art courses and communications courses, and a whole host of courses where, where, um, you know, that in person, uh, really is required. So what we've talked about is this fall, we will have three different types of courses we will have in person courses. We'll still be able to accommodate our faculty members who want to teach in person will have a lot of hybrid courses where because of various constraints, some of the course will be offered in person and some will be offered in a remote fashion. And then we'll have some, uh, degree of program of, uh, courses that are a hundred percent online. And, and I feel very confident that because of the work that our faculty have done over the course of the summer to even enhance the excellent work that they did in the spring, that we're gonna be able to offer really first class online programming as well. So I, I feel like we're gonna have a mix of programs, uh, mix of courses and classes to offer to our students, which gives our students as much flexibility as we can offer them. That, I mean, what we're gonna do is have the, the schedule set at the end of this month, and then let, let our students go in, check their schedule, see how the mix of courses has fallen out. And if they don't like it there's too much online or there's too much in person or whatever, we'll have an opportunity to try to move those students into other courses to be as accommodating as possible to as many of our students as possible. And we think that that's been the way we've rolled since the beginning of this pandemic is to try to be as student centered as possible. And I think our academic delivery this fall will be just the latest evidence of that. Matt Harmon: When you think of it, one of the other pieces of, uh, of the email with the, with the information that you delivered yesterday to the campus community, the, the academic calendar, which, you know, every school seems to be doing it a little bit different. A lot of schools have said, let's get to Thanksgiving and then probably not have students come back. As of right now, the academic calendar for Monmouth will stay through December, as it normally would with the ability to adjust, uh, at, at any point, I'm sure really, during the course of the fall semester, Patrick Leahy: You know, we thought about this long and hard. We went through a lot of different, uh, scenarios here as well. You're hearing other institutions that are starting early so that they can finish the entire calendar by Thanksgiving or, or at least making decisions about whether they're gonna empty out the campus at Thanksgiving. All that remains on the, on, let me back up. We are starting on September 8th because of, for a variety of reasons. We, we have to start the day after labor day. And so our academic calendar will go from September 8th to December 22nd. The question that still remains is, uh, can we have students, faculty and staff on campus for that entire period of time, other institutions, as, as you know, have already declared that come Thanksgiving, they will, uh, empty out the campus and finish the semester online. Our thinking was simply Matt, that why make that decision right now all along. We've tried to push decisions to as close to the time that we have to make them as possible so that we can take a read on the public health information at that time. If I make a decision right now that we're gonna go remote after Thanksgiving, that's gonna be, uh, uh, based on what I think might happen in the fall. And what I'd like to do is hold on that decision until we can get information so that I know what's happening in the fall, if that makes sense. So, um, it's on the table still. And I said, in my message, that we'll make a decision around, um, sending, uh, students home at Thanksgiving by November 1st, which we think gives 'em plenty of time to adjust their schedules. It gives our faculty members plenty of time to adjust their, uh, last weeks of the academic calendar. But we think it's still the prudent thing to do to say our calendar's running. If we're gonna have, if we're gonna try to have a modified, uh, in person experience, let's offer that experience until we can't offer that experience. And we won't know that until we get well into the semester. Matt Harmon: Let's finish with this one. Um, as our normal kind of half hour is, is coming to a close, you have a couple of your own children that are in, um, two different institutions. When you think of how everybody else is doing it, not saying that Maha is following anybody's model, because I know the, the decisions are being made independent. Uh, but when, when you hear probably news from your, your daughter's school, when you see Rutgers make an announcement, that things essentially will be online during the course of the semester, how difficult is it for you? The rest of the administration, those on, on the task force of, of having mammoth come back, how difficult is it for you to, I'll say, it's sleep at night thinking, are we making the right decision as opposed to what anybody else is doing? Patrick Leahy: We watch closely what everyone else does. Just, just to get a, a read on how it might inform our, our thinking, but we don't feel like we have to do what other schools are doing. We make decisions that we think are in the best interests of our constituents here at Monmouth university. And so, uh, we don't want to be totally outta market, but we want to be leaders in our own in our own way. I see what Princeton has, uh, has suggested and what Rutgers has suggested, and that they probably have constraints that we don't have perhaps Matt. So I, I saw that they're going a hundred percent remote, and I think that maybe that, that they have their reasons for deciding to do that. We have constantly decided to make decisions based on the public health guidance that we're bring, that we've been given. The New Jersey state guidelines from the secretary of higher education came down. We, as I said, we unpacked them. They are the most stringent. We believe higher ed guidelines in the country. . So if we take those follow the letter of those and the spirit of those guidelines and develop a plan, which we have, we think that we are integrating, um, the interests of many of our students to come back on campus and the health, safety, and wellbeing of all of those constituents. Um, I, I just believe it's, uh, we're doing the best thing for our particular institution and we had great, uh, we had a, a conversation, a great length just yesterday with our board of trustees about this. I wanted to make sure that I spoke with them, rolled out our plan in advance with them to make sure that they were comfortable. And, uh, when we talked through it, we decided that, uh, right now this seems like the most, uh, responsible, safe, and competitive, uh, reopening that we can, uh, that we can offer. So, um, I'm really pleased, uh, that our board has been as supportive as they have been incidentally, if I may on a, on a separate topic, um, something happened here at Monmouth over the last couple weeks since we were together, uh, last Matt, which I think is historic, and I don't want it to get lost. And, uh, it does relate to our board of trustees on July 1st, we had new board leadership here at Monmouth, and for the first time in our 87 year history, we have a female board chair, and I'm really proud of that. And I'm really proud of, uh, Gina Pisca tell who is a mammoth alum herself. And, uh, she will, uh, she has now taken over as the chair of our board, ran that meeting yesterday that I rep just referenced. And, uh, it represents the first time in our history that we have, uh, a female chair. So, uh, I just think that is really worthy of, of comment Matt Harmon: And some new board members as well. Uh, certainly something that we can talk about at a, at a, at a later episode, um, and, and have some guests hop back on. We haven't done that in the last couple episodes as well, president Lehe. I know you have a call that you have to jump on. I appreciate your time is always, um, great information. Hopefully everything continues to go according to plan and the campus slowly, surely, and safely starts to reopen, uh, sir, enjoy the rest of your, your day and your weekend coming up. Patrick Leahy: Thank you, Matt and I, I do look forward to continuing our, uh, collaboration as we've talked about today. Things are likely to continue to change even throughout this summer. So I think it's important that we continue at least with our biweekly visits so that, uh, we can keep the community, uh, as updated as possible. So my, again, my thanks to you for, for your efforts here. Matt Harmon: Episode number 14 comes to a close. It is mammoth weekly for university president Patrick Lehe, faculty member, Matt, Horman saying, thanks for listening to us as OES will talk to you, uh, coming up real soon with episode 15, stay safe, everyone.