Matt Harmon: Finals week and end of the semester celebrations and new hirings. Always plenty to talk about. It's the latest edition of our Monmouth Weekly podcast series with university President Dr. Patrick Leahy. I'm faculty member Matt Harmon. This is episode number 52 of Monmouth Weekly. Thanks as always for listening. Beautiful Spring-like day at the end. Heart of April semester, winding down smack in the middle of finals week. Good enough to, I guess hop off the stage from last night's American Center for Music award show that was taking place. University President Patrick Lehe is here with us. Some event last night. I'm sure. Listen, I didn't get an invite. I wasn't there or part of it, but I would have to imagine a star studded cast in what looked like. I saw some highlights from it and actually being a music junkie, I looked to see who played what last night. It looked like it was a fantastic event. Patrick Leahy: Did you hear about me jumping on the stage? Why did you use that particular? Matt Harmon: No. Did you get on stage? Patrick Leahy: I was jumping around a lot last night, which is Murder on my back, but what can you do? It was unbelievable. I just don't know what else to say. I have to believe that it was one of the great knight in the history of Monmouth University to have a collection of those talented musicians together. I mean, let me just run through them. If any of our listeners are not clued into this, I mean our awardees this year were John Mellencamp, Jackson Brown, Mavis Staples, and Dion DiMucci. That would be an incredible lineup enough. Bruce Springsteen was there, of course, as sort of the host, if you will. Stevie Van Zt was there one of last year's winners. Darlene Love was there as a presenter and then she performed. I can't imagine in the history of Monmouth that there's ever been a collection of musical talent like that ever before. So it was fantastic from that regard. The speeches were just beautiful and insightful and touching. The music was fantastic. I mean, Jackson Brown, after he's introduced and accepts the award, goes to center stage and plays running on empty. I mean, come on. And then later John Mellencamp, after he's recognized and accept the award, goes and does an acoustical version of Jack and Diane and then Bruce Springsteen at the end does a little shout out to John Mellencamp by playing small town. I mean, maybe I'm just sharing my musical taste, but for me that's like next level kind of stuff. And then Bruce played Glory Days and 10th Avenue Freeze out at the end. They all came together and sang all of 'em, came together and sang a beautiful gospel hymn that Mavis Staples took the lead on. I could go on and on and on. It was unbelievable the show. But two other things. Matt Harmon: You're bragging right now. You're boasting. I'm Patrick Leahy: Bragging. I'm bragging, but two other things, Matt. One is it's a fundraiser for the Bruce Springsteen archives of Center for American Music, and we grossed over a million dollars in one night, a million dollars in one night. That's not something you hear around here very often. I mean, other places do it, okay, but we're starting to do it and then even more in some respects, valuable to me is the collection of people who assembled at Monmouth University from all over literally the world. We had a couple that I met who came in from Italy just for this event. People from California, Florida, all over the country here. Really significant people that could be really supportive of not only the archives but of Monmouth University in general who have never ever set foot on the campus and were blown away by its beauty and the people involved here at Monmouth. So it's a great way to raise the profile of our university. As you can tell. I could go on and on. It was a great night Matt Harmon: Follow up questions to what you were just talking about, and for those that probably are listening to the very beginning of our monthly podcast, this was the second annual American Music Honors event last year, the first annual, something that will continue for years to come and you said people on campus for the first time supporting the Springsteen archives and Monmouth University. I think that is something that almost needs a clearer clarification. If you're supporting the Springsteen archives and the Center for American Music, you are supporting Monmouth University, right? Patrick Leahy: Yeah. Thank you for making that distinction. Yes, you are. The Springsteen Archive and Center for American Music is its own little 5 0 1 C3, but it is wholly owned by Monmouth University. It is our center, and so a gift to that center is of course supporting Monmouth University. What I was also getting at though, Matt, is that these are individuals who would have no other reason to be involved at Monmouth, to be interested in what we're doing to get exposed to our campus to meet our students. There'd just be no other reason. They don't otherwise have a connection at all to Monmouth. So what the center does is it brings a whole new group of people who could be very helpful to us to campus and get them introduced to what we're all about as a university, not just the center, but the whole university. And that's going to bode well for years and years to come in terms of growing our pool of interested donors. And then the last thing I'll say about it is the first two years we had to host it in the Pollock Theater, which as you well know, only sees 700 people now because it's a fundraiser. We had to be really careful about the distribution of those seats. Our goal in the future is to move it to a bigger venue, probably the Ocean First Bank Center, which you also know could be very easily converted into a killer concert venue, especially with the new video boards we have now and the suites that we have and everything else. But we'd move it there so that we can engage more of the Monmouth University community in the event. So music junkies like you can come to the event so that we can have a whole student section so that I can invite the first 300, 400 students who want to come as our guests free of charge to sign up. I want this to be accessible to the whole community. It's just in the first couple of years, we had to work out some of the kinks and raise the money to support it. Remember, I think I've said this on a previous podcast, one of the beautiful things about this center is the exposure that it gives us here at Monmouth, but this is 100% a self-supporting enterprise. The university does not use university resources to support its operation because of fundraising events like this and other activities. They generate their own income that covers their expenses. So we get all of this without it being a drag of any kind on our operating budget. It's a home run, Matt Harmon: 700 people at Pollock Theater. I kind of feel like 7 0 1 would've been the proper number, but I don't want to say anything, and I do have to ask since I sent you a text yesterday in joking fashion, Brian Williams is kind of the host in the mc was probably tremendous, right? Patrick Leahy: He was fantastic. He's a local kid. He is from Middletown, New Jersey, and he knows all these people, including Bruce Springsteen very well and Stevie Van Zant. So it's a really personal connection he had and he has a great deal of respect from Monmouth University. He knows us from growing up around here and still living in the area. He's done stuff with us before. He was really, really good. As you can tell, he's a professional. I mean, you don't have the broadcast career that he has had and not be able to handle an event like this. He was really, really great. Matt Harmon: Let's move forward. Hopeful. Year three, there'll be, do we have Patrick Leahy: To, there's a lot more to talk Matt Harmon: About. A little more luck for the common everyday folk for year number three. Perhaps staff changes. Another topic for us here on our Monmouth Weekly podcast announcement coming out just this week that the Provost search concluding and President Lahey, I know you're excited to share that the interim tag has been removed from Dr. Rich Vit who is now the full-time provost longtime member of the Monmouth University community in a move that makes a ton of sense. Patrick Leahy: Yeah, I mean, the interim tag has been lifted, but I did go through a process before I lifted that interim tag, and that's important in the academy to make sure that we, especially for academic appointments, to make sure that this is a collaborative effort, engages the faculty in the effort, gives the faculty and our other administrators a chance to meet candidates. So we put a search committee together, equal representation from faculty and staff, and we had a representative from the student government. This was a really important job to have the student input as well. So that group worked over 50 candidates, eight interviews and then three candidates brought to campus. Each of whom could have, in my opinion, done the job, but it was the unanimous selection of the search committee to recommend to me Rich Vit. And that made a ton of sense to me because I had a sense Rich was the lead candidate going into the search, and it was just nice to have that confirmation. Matt Harmon: You have often talked about that position of provost being so important and all encompassing when it comes to the academic side of it. Not to say that you are removed from it as president, but you've got to have someone that oversees the academic ventures of the university. And I just mentioned it, rich, Dr. vi, who's been part of the Monmouth community on so many levels and for so many years, he's like an institutional research person in one regard, but because of his experience in so many areas, he really does fit the bill. Patrick Leahy: He fits the bill in every conceivable way. I mean, just back to your earlier point, I have said that the provost is a critically important position. It's the number two job on New York chart. But in many respects, I always say it's the most important job on the campus because if the provost does his or her job well, that frees up the president to add value where that person can add value. And in my particular case, Matt, as you know, I didn't come up through the traditional academic ranks. I didn't spend a career teaching and I didn't earn tenure. I haven't served as a department chair, I haven't served as a dean. My experience is elsewhere in the academy. And so it's that much more important that I have a partner who is a serious academic who has earned tenure in his case, full professor rank, who has a vast experience working on the academic side of the house, who I'm going to trust implicitly on matters of academic excellence. You can see how that's even more important for me because my skill sets are a little bit different and I hope together they'll be very complimentary and will allow us to move Monmouth in a really positive direction. I'm just delighted. I think Rich White will remain the provost as long as I'm the president here, and as you know, I had a couple, took me a few years to get to that person, and I think Rich is that person. So I think we should be comforted that we have some stability in that key job now, Matt Harmon: Women's basketball making a change as well as Ginny Bogus leaving for the University of Toledo, opening the door, I'll say President Lehe for a new era for a women's basketball program, which seemingly has turned the corner over the last couple of years, and I know you're excited about introducing and being part of the new head coach that will now be part of campus. Patrick Leahy: I think the world of Jenny Vagas, and she's done great work here and I'm really happy for her, Matt, because she's moved on to an institution that I guess they claim is in a bigger conference and a little bit higher profile job. So I think this was deemed a step up for her. So I'm happy for her. But with the position here at Monmouth, as attractive as it is, we had no shortage of candidates to replace her. And our new athletic director, Jen Vero, moved into action quite quickly, assembled a committee, built a very strong pool. It didn't take that much to build a strong pool. It's such an attractive job and word travels as you know, quite quickly around athletic circles at our level. So they moved very quickly and they recommended, it's not my decision, it's Jen San's decision. I was involved in it just because it's such a high profile job. But I give Jen my opinions. She made the call and I was very pleased that she made the call that she did because Kate Wetmore, who will be introduced officially this afternoon here on campus, looks to me like a proven winner. I mean, she has been the associate head coach, so she's never been a head coach before, but she's been the associate head coach at two different places, which is pretty unique if you think about it. Two places. First, UNC Greensboro, where they were okay, and became a conference champion then to UNC Charlotte when they were okay and became a conference champion in both roles. She earned associated head coach status, and now she gets to come here with her first head coaching job, but I think she has a lot with which to work, so we expect to continue our success and enhance it in the coming years. So I'm really thrilled that we were able to identify Kate and to bring her here to Monmouth. Matt Harmon: One of the hardest working people on campus in my time at Monmouth has been a name that maybe people aren't super familiar with, but extremely important, and that is Ed Christensen, who has done so much for the university who's transitioning out of his current role and going back to the academic teaching side of things, correct, Patrick Leahy: Yeah, ed is, this is making its way around campus and he's given me the green light to share it more widely. After 14 years, 14 years, serving as vice president of information management, he is elected to go back to the faculty. He is, as you know, Matt, a first and foremost a professor in business in information systems, and he started as a professor. I think his goal all along was always to return to the classroom. I think it's safe to say his first love and after 14 years just decided now was a good time. Whenever there's turnover like that, it creates a little bit of anxiety for folks who are used to having that kind of stability in the leadership role. I was with the information management division yesterday, just making sure they know that this is a positive move. I mean, we'll figure out the leadership changes going forward. We have that until June 30th, so I feel like I have a little bit of time to figure it out. And the business school will stand to benefit greatly from having a tenured professor back in the classroom with Ed's range. I mean, he can teach information systems and he can teach strategy, he can teach general management. So that'll be a really valuable addition to the faculty ranks in the business school, strengthening that even more while we make some changes on the administrative side. So I'm really grateful to ED for his service and we'll have a chance to celebrate that later in this spring. Matt Harmon: We've got, I'd say some odds and ends to talk about end part of the semester. We'll finish things next month with our May edition of Monmouth weekly before we generally take a couple of months off during the course of the summertime. But this has been a busy time at Monmouth and part of the semester always is, I know last night student athlete awards took place over the course of the last week or so. Scholarship week two things different in nature, but both extremely important to the overall kind of feel and flavor of the campus. I would say. Patrick Leahy: I mean, the great thing about this time of year for those of us who work in the academy is as we get to the end of the traditional academic year, remember the summer is still really busy, so we never stop being a university, but the end of the traditional academic year is always a time where we can showcase the talents of our students. We did it in scholarship week where a lot of the presentations and the were the culmination of year long work in some cases, multiple years long work, and our student and their talent is on display in so many different areas across every discipline. I mean from poster presentations to TED Talk, like presentations to our hawk tank, showcasing our entrepreneurs were fighting entrepreneurs was last week to the latest release of Blue Hawk records. I mean, all of that at the end of the semester just reminds us educators that the students our incredibly talented, and I hope we've done our part to help them unleash that talent. And then the Athletics awards, it's like you look back on a whole year of athletic activities and get a chance to recognize incredible performance on the field of play, but also in the classroom. And ordinarily, that's a can't miss event for me because I love the energy. It's like every team tries to out cheer the other team, and I love that energy. I just couldn't make it this year, but I heard it was fantastic and just a great celebration as we get to the end of the semester of our students and their accomplishments. Matt Harmon: Let's finish with this one in the last couple of minutes that we have, and that would be knowing that you just had your open call today with faculty, staff, administrators that hop on generally around this time of year, usually we'll update on enrollment and the class that's coming in. We have talked about the acceptance rate and applications being up over the course of the last couple of podcasts, but this has certainly been a different challenging year, and I can tell you from experience, it has been much like you having kids that are either have finished or in the middle of my case starting their college career next year. My middle son, Cooper, fortunate enough to get one of the tuition exchange spots at Springfield College where he is going to go and play soccer and start his college career up there, which I'm super excited about for him. But I will tell you, Patrick Leahy: Congratulations. Matt Harmon: Thank you. Having called a couple of times, like, Hey, when is this announcement coming out? Well, the FAFSA information has made a mess of potential enrollment this year, and a school like Monmouth, I would imagine very similar to Springfield Private School, about the same size, one in Massachusetts, one in New Jersey. The challenges of having students basically hold on and wait has been unique and frustrating and hopefully getting to the end of it now. Patrick Leahy: So today's April 25th, so in a typical year, you and I would be talking on the eve of the May 1st deposit deadline about how the class is sort of shaping up. Ordinarily we would be talking about that. Can't even talk about it right now because this fafsa, I think it's safe to say debacle has delayed the whole process for weeks, even months, and it's creating a lot of anxiety for schools like ours. I mean, we're 94% dependent on student tuition and fees and auxiliary services and the like. And remember that is pretty typical. Certainly the Springfield College is in the same boat. So are most of the colleges and universities across the country. I mean, I always get frustrated by the press that focuses just on the most marquee schools in the country. Maybe they have multiple billion endowments and that reduces their tuition and fee reliance on tuition and fees. But most of us are, so let's deal with the reality. We need to enroll a good class in order to keep doing the things we want to do here this year with the FAFSA problems, we're way down in deposits right now. The only saving grace is that so is every other college on earth. I mean, I was with some presidents earlier this week and we're all 30% down in deposits year over year. Now, if not for the fafsa, that would be a, I'd be sounding the alarm right now if we were 30% down in deposits. My hope is that this will write itself over the next few weeks and hopefully return to normal. But I just don't know that it's an externality that we just have to deal with and try to keep measuring the effect it's going to have on our individual institution. Our applications, as we've talked about, are at an all time high. The number of quality acceptances that we have in the hands of students is at an all time high. So if this writes itself, we might have a call in the summer or in the fall, and I'm telling you that we actually over-enrolled. If it doesn't, then we're going to be below our 975 student target. And because we're so tuition dependent, that can create some financial challenges on top of all the other kind of financial challenges we have. So it's a tense time, not only for our enrollment team, but for I think enrollment teams all over the country. Matt Harmon: Does it lend any sympathy to you as a university president when you do talk to other schools who are dealing with the same thing? Or is it, Hey, I get it. We're all, but at the end of the day, your worry is mammoth, not necessarily any other school, whether it's in state, in the region, in the country. Your concern is to get to 9 75 in Monmouth. Patrick Leahy: It's interesting. You should ask. I always say maybe it's some solace to hear that other institutions are in the same boat. At least it's nothing that we're doing as an institution to lead to this. But you're absolutely right. I mean, in the end, I have one responsibility, not the entire sector. I have one responsibility and it's Monmouth University. So I think you're right that I have to start thinking about is there any contingency planning that we need to do in the event that we are down? Remember that funnel, if you will, is so robust that I feel like there's a part of me that thinks this will normalize. But the challenge is, Matt, that a lot of high financial needs students, I mean hundreds of thousands of high financial needs students across the country have not even filed the FAFSA this year. If that signals that they're not going to college next year and they're just going to wait out a year or not go at all, that's got to have some influence on Monmouth because of our commitment to access. I mean, a third of our students are Pell Grant students. So that's something that, as we've talked about at length, is really important to us as educators. But if a lot of those students who are otherwise qualified for Pell Grants aren't even filing the fafsa, that portion of our pool might shrink, which means across a thousand students, we might lose some. I have to focus first and foremost, as you point out on Monmouth, and so I said to the campus community like, look, we moved our deposit deadline from May 1st to May 15th preferred and to June 1st deadline to try to be as understanding as possible to students. While that is happening, we have to slow roll some things until we get a better sense of June 1st. And so some of these positions we want to hire that we've approved, we might just say, well, let's wait another month on those. I can't make decisions on salary increases for next year until we get a better sense of this. So there's just some things that we have no choice but to sort of hold on so that I can do my level best to make sure that Monmouth University survives this and puts us in a strong position going forward. I will say the last thing I'll say about this is we are in an infinitely better position to survive this than a lot of other schools. So while I'm worried about Monmouth, I can't imagine the concern at other places that aren't as strong as we are financially. Matt Harmon: Well, good job of putting a good spin at the end. That was well done. Tough times in the academic circle, the last couple of years from covid moving forward, and now the FAFSA situation. Hopefully it is just a blip on the radar for Monmouth University, which has so many great things going on. Appreciate your time here today, president Lehe. Look forward to kind of closing up our academic year with our May podcast. We'll talk about the different commencements, look ahead to the summer a little bit, and then to the fall. I'd say enjoy finals week, but it's really just kind of get through finals week. That's kind of the mantra. And you having one who is a student at Monmouth probably feeling the same thing. Let's just get through finals week and hope to get to a little bit of break come the summertime. Patrick Leahy: Well, I'm always at this time of year, I'm always so grateful to our faculty members. This is a tough time of year. I mean, to get those exams and final projects administered, get 'em back, have to grade 'em quickly enough to get the grades in. I know this is a grind for our faculty, but the last thing I'll say about that, you're right. As you know, I have a child here, and I was joking on the open call just a little bit ago that tomorrow is our Bring Your Child to Work Day here at Monmouth. Something we've brought back just to build a greater sense of community among our staff members. And I kind of said I'm pretty fortunate in that if you think about it, I have bring your child to work day every day. So it's a special privilege, frankly, to be the president where one of my kids is a student. So as I say, not so secret shopper out there telling me what's really going on around the community. Matt Harmon: We should have recorded tomorrow. We could have had him as part of the podcast. It would've been great. Patrick Leahy: How about that? Invite Jack Leahy to one of our future podcasts. It would be pretty interesting. Yeah, let's think about that, Matt. Could Matt Harmon: Be a lot of fun. Enjoy the rest of the week. Thanks for hopping on. Look forward to chatting with you in May. Patrick Leahy: Thanks for everything you do at Monmouth. Matt. Matt Harmon: We will take a little bit of a break. We will come back, we'll talk in May, talk commencement, some of the other things to close out this semester, another edition of our Monmouth Weekly podcast series in the books for the month of April.