Dear Faculty and Staff Members:

As we’ve been discussing on our weekly calls, our Fall Task Forces have been hard at work planning for a safe and responsible campus reopening. The recently released state guidelines for colleges and universities provide a framework of critical standards and safeguarding practices to advance our efforts, and we hope to share our fall plans with you during the week of July 6.

In the meantime, the State of New Jersey has authorized the phased reopening of a variety of campus activities, and I’d like to share a brief update on our plans to restart a limited number of activities next week.

Guggenheim Memorial Library. The library will open for curbside pick-up on Monday, July 6 for students and employees only. Detailed instructions on the curbside pick-up process will be shared with the University community later today under separate cover from Provost Rekha Datta and Kurt Wagner, university librarian.

Summer Research Program. About 30 students have been engaged in the remote Summer Research Program since June 1. We are finalizing plans to safely conduct on-campus research that we hope will begin July 6 or soon thereafter. Additional details are available through the School of Science.

Summer Athletic Camps. The New Jersey Department of Health has approved the University’s plans to offer youth sports camps. On Monday, July 6, Athletics staff will welcome campers to its All Sports Camp, followed by a girls’ lacrosse camp on July 14. Camps will run in morning and afternoon sessions through the month of July.

Athletics. The University has submitted its plans to the State of New Jersey to begin voluntary training sessions for student athletes in our football program in accordance with guidance provided by the NCAA and the Big South Conference. Football student athletes, coaches, and staff members will have a three-day phased arrival on campus beginning on Wednesday, July 8.

I am excited to have some activity back on campus, as well as a limited number of employees to support it. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me directly.

Sincerely,

Pat

Dr. Patrick F. Leahy
President

Dear Colleagues:

Permit me the opportunity to update you on an important administrative change here at Monmouth.

Effective August 1, Jonathan Meer, Vice President for Advancement, will step down from his current position and become the lead development officer for the Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music. Since the day back in January 2017 when Monmouth University announced an official partnership with Bruce Springsteen, we have intended to raise money to more fully support the development of the Archives and Center. There are many significant prospects, at present unassociated with Monmouth University, who could be very helpful in making this happen, and Jonathan’s vast experience will be particularly helpful in these efforts. Please join me in wishing him well in his new position.

I have decided to conduct a search for an Interim Vice President for Advancement, limiting the pool of candidates to current Monmouth employees only. In so doing, I will be able to find a suitable person to run the division and save the University precious resources during the coming fiscal year. I expect this person to serve in the role for at least the next year as we navigate our way through the current public health crisis. Any decisions about a permanent replacement will wait for next year. If you – or someone you know here at Monmouth – would be interested in this position, please reach out to Robyn Salvo, Director of Human Resources, for details. Robyn can be reached at 732/263-5228 or at rsalvo@monmouth.edu. Consistent with our hiring practices, Human Resources will send out an announcement to the community as soon as the posting becomes available. I’d like to complete this internal search as soon as possible.

Once a decision on an Interim Vice President for Advancement is named, I will notify all of you. In addition, I am contemplating some other senior administrative adjustments and will share them with you at that time. I will also share with you the make-up of Cabinet for the coming academic year. If you have any questions before then, please feel free to reach out to me directly.

Thank you.

Pat

Dr. Patrick F. Leahy

Dear Members of the Campus Community:

I am writing today with information regarding our Board of Trustees for the upcoming fiscal year, beginning on July 1.  At its spring meeting last week, the Board of Trustees completed its months-long process of electing its officers and recruiting new board members for the coming year.

It gives me great pride to announce that Jeana M. Piscatelli ’01 ’02M will serve as the chair of the Board, the first woman in our 87-year history to hold this important position.  John A. Brockriede Jr. ’07 ’10M and Leslie N. Hitchner will serve as vice chairs, Christopher D. Maher as treasurer, and John C. Conover III as secretary. I want to take this opportunity to thank both our outgoing chair, Michael A. Plodwick ’82, and our outgoing secretary, Carol A. Stillwell, for their passionate service to Monmouth.

In addition to the election of new leadership, the Board of Trustees approved the following individuals to join the Board.  

• Miles J. Austin III ’18
• Tasha A. Youngblood Brown ’97 ’03M
• Jeremy Grunin
• James S. Vaccaro III

Miles J. Austin III is involved with the Austin Family Foundation, a non-profit organization whose mission is to support and promote youth programming focused on character development and community involvement in lower income areas.  He is the former offensive quality control coach for the San Francisco 49ers and former wide receiver who played professional football for 10 seasons.  He earned his degree in political science at Monmouth University and was a standout wide receiver for the football team from 2002-2005.  Austin’s jersey was retired in 2014 and he was inducted into the Monmouth University Athletics Hall of Fame in 2016. 

Tasha A. Youngblood Brown is a higher education leader in the U.S. Government and Public Sector practice of Ernst & Young.  In this role, she helps local government, higher education institutions, and K-12 school districts transform their environments and optimize operations to achieve better outcomes across their communities.   At Monmouth, Youngblood Brown received her bachelor’s degree in political science and her master’s degree in business.   

Jeremy Grunin has been actively engaged throughout the community as president of the Grunin Foundation, a proactive grant maker focused on economic growth at the central Jersey Shore. He is a partner of Grunin Holdings, LLC., a New Jersey partnership specializing in the development and management of commercial real estate, as well as investing in third party commercial ventures.

James S. Vaccaro III is chairman, president and chief executive officer of Manasquan Bank, which operates from locations in Middlesex, Monmouth and Ocean counties.  Vaccaro is a leader in both civic and philanthropic organizations.  He was the recipient of the Monmouth University Distinguished Business Leader Award in 2013 and has been widely recognized for his professional achievements and stellar record of community service.    

With these additions I am confident that Monmouth University is very well positioned for the future.

Sincerely,

Dr. Patrick F. Leahy

President

Dear Members of the Monmouth University Community:

On this Juneteenth 2020 – a day when we celebrate the end of slavery in the U.S. – we continue to seek ways to foster a genuinely fair, inclusive, and supportive community for all. Through numerous conversations with students, faculty, staff, and alumni over the past few weeks, one thing is clear: we must do more, especially as we prepare to enroll this fall our most diverse incoming class ever.

To that end, our Board of Trustees advanced the University’s commitment to ensuring a diverse and inclusive community by taking the following actions at its spring Board meeting yesterday.

• Wilson Hall. The Board voted unanimously to remove Woodrow Wilson’s name from our marquee building and then voted to rename the building – the Great Hall at Shadow Lawn. Wilson was a controversial politician, who never actually set foot in the current building. Removing his name, and incorporating these earlier names, connects the centerpiece of our campus more accurately to our historical roots and eliminates a symbolic barrier to the important work of creating a truly welcoming and inclusive space in the Great Hall. In support of that goal, we will accelerate our existing plans to reestablish the Great Hall as a true hub of activity for our students, outfitting the main areas with study tables and gathering spaces, opening a coffee bar on the main floor, and generally making it more inviting to students in an effort to build community in the heart of our campus. The Board has also directed the administration to take action to honor the contributions of Julian Abele, one of the first professionally trained African American architects, who was the lead designer of the Great Hall.
• Diversity Initiatives Fund. The Board also voted unanimously to establish a permanent endowment to support the University’s diversity initiatives, dedicating $3 million in inaugural funds for this purpose. In addition, growing the size of this fund will become a key philanthropic priority for the University’s next fundraising campaign, which will launch in the years ahead. This restricted endowment will support diversity programming and educational initiatives, curricular and co-curricular integration, diverse faculty and staff recruitment, and other related efforts, all aimed at cultivating a welcoming and inclusive campus environment for all members of our University community.

As we have previously made clear, our University has not yet met our goals for diversity and inclusion. These initiatives represent just a few ways that the Board of Trustees can support our ongoing efforts. We know you share our appreciation for the Board’s vital leadership in this area. Expect to hear more from the administration in the weeks ahead as we develop a comprehensive plan with ongoing input from student, faculty, staff, and alumni leadership. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Dear Monmouth University Community:

It has been an emotional few weeks across our nation and around the globe as we mourn the death of George Floyd and acknowledge the troubling pattern of racism and injustice experienced by the Black community. At Monmouth, we have had to respond to allegations of racist behavior and racist social media posts made or shared by members of our own campus community, as well as by students planning to enroll this fall.

Let me be clear. Every incident that is reported to the University is: 1) referred immediately to various offices around campus, including the Office of Judicial Affairs, the Office of Equity & Diversity, and the Monmouth University Police Department; and 2) investigated aggressively. In addition, pursuant to the Attorney General’s April 5, 2019 Revised Bias Incident Investigation Standards, the Monmouth University Police Department reports all of these incidents to the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office for additional review.

We have spent the last two weeks thoroughly investigating a variety of disturbing reports. Some of these investigations are complete and others are ongoing. While the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) protects the privacy of student educational records and University policy prevents me from detailing personnel actions, let me report to the University community what I can.

In particular, I’d like to report back to you on our investigation into a specific screenshot shared on social media showing vile comments made by one of our students in a group text message. As part of our protocol, this incident was reported to the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office. The Prosecutor’s Office deemed that this was a bias incident and that under New Jersey Law the conduct did not rise to the level of the crime of bias intimidation. Our investigation established that the image shared on social media is a screen capture of comments made in a group chat in 2016 when the individual was a high school student. The incident was adjudicated at the student’s high school at that time. While that piece of context is important, it does not excuse the abhorrent behavior. We continued our investigation and found no evidence of any similar conduct by this student while enrolled at Monmouth or any conduct that put our community at risk. Based on the results of our investigation, we have taken – and will continue to take – appropriate action to address this matter.

I understand that many of you will want to know more about the specific actions we have taken in this and each of these cases, but I am simply not able to provide that information. What I can tell you is that we have taken swift and deliberate action in each instance, consistent with the steps outlined above, resulting in a range of consequences from educational discussions to rescinding the admission of an incoming student.

While these past few weeks have served as a painful reminder of how much more work we, as a University community, have to do, I assure you that Monmouth University is committed to providing a safe, inclusive, diverse, and genuinely welcoming community for all students, faculty, staff, alumni, and campus visitors.

Sincerely,

Dr. Patrick Leahy
President

Dear Students:

Since the beginning of this global health crisis, one question has motivated our actions – that is, how do we best support our students during this unprecedented situation? With that in mind, the University took decisive action to prioritize the safety and well-being of our campus community, and looked for ways to help ease the financial burden the pandemic placed on our students. We quickly launched the President’s Relief Fund to provide emergency financial assistance to students experiencing pandemic-related financial hardships, distributing more than $267,000 to over 700 students, granting approximately 75 percent of the requests. We were among the first to announce refunds for unused housing, parking, and meal plan fees, and the first to get the funds back into the hands of our students. Throughout the spring semester, we also continued to fund all on-campus jobs, regardless of students’ ability to complete the necessary work. And, most recently, we distributed relief funds through the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act to all qualifying students. Some questions have been raised about the distribution of these funds, so I’d like to share some additional detail about the University’s methodology.

The federal CARES Act is the $2 trillion federal relief bill, aimed at supporting citizens most affected by the pandemic. Monmouth University received nearly $4,935,299, half of which the University will use to offset expenses incurred by the pandemic, and half of which was distributed to students enrolled at the University this spring, with some held in reserve to continue to assist students this fall. The Department of Education provided institutions with significant discretion for the distribution of the CARES Act grants to students, allowing each institution to develop its own system and process for determining how to allocate these funds. We chose to direct these funds, as equitably as possible, to our students who demonstrated the most need. Our CARES Act grant team developed a methodology to determine which students had the greatest need through an unmet need calculation. Using this formula, all students with any unmet need, a total of 2,516 students, including 1,020 Pell grant recipients, received a grant in the initial distribution. After the first distribution, we received messages from students who felt that they had been left out – Pell grant recipients who were not picked up in the original calculation because they showed no unmet financial need. We amended our distribution criteria to include these additional students and consequently issued a second round of grants to 272 undergraduate Pell grant recipients who did not have unmet need, as well as four additional graduate students with a “Pell-like” financial profile who did not have unmet need.

As of today, $2.14 million of federal CARES Act money has been distributed to all Pell-eligible undergraduate students and all students who demonstrated financial need through the unmet need calculation, including graduate students with a “Pell-like” financial profile.

Below are some frequently asked questions related to the distribution process.

We will continue to be motivated by the mission to support students during this challenging time. If you have questions about these FAQs, please feel free to contact members of our CARES ACT Team by emailing caresact@monmouth.edu. Or, of course, you are always welcome to reach out to me directly at president@monmouth.edu. Thank you.  

Sincerely,

Dr. Patrick Leahy
President

What criteria did the university use to determine eligibility for CARES Act grants?

The Department of Education provided institutions with significant discretion for the distribution of the CARES Act grants to students, allowing each institution to develop its own system and process for determining how to allocate these funds. This might include distributing the funds to all students or only to students who demonstrate significant need, but its guidance did stipulate that the grants be directed to students with the most significant financial needs arising from the coronavirus pandemic.

The University initially awarded CARES Act grants to undergraduate and graduate students who were enrolled at the time of the campus closure, who had made satisfactory academic progress, and whose financial need had not already been met by some combination of federal, state, and institutional funding.  Unmet institutional need is defined as direct cost (tuition, fees, room, and board for resident students or tuition and fees for commuting students) minus Expected Family Contribution or EFC (derived from the Free Application for Federal Student Aid or FAFSA) minus all grant, scholarship, subsidized loan, federal work study, and graduate assistantship financial aid awards. On June 3, 2020, the university amended its CARES Act grant eligibility criteria to include all Pell grant recipients who had made satisfactory academic progress, regardless of unmet need.

The university awarded CARES Act grants to all eligible students demonstrating any unmet financial need, including graduate students with a “Pell-like” financial profile, and all undergraduate students with Pell grant eligibility. (Note: Graduate students are not eligible for Pell grants.)

The Department of Education based 75 percent of it calculation of the amount of CARES Act funding that Monmouth received on the number of enrolled Pell-eligible students, so why weren’t all Pell grant recipients included in the first distribution of funds?

The initial distribution of grants included 1,020 undergraduate students with Pell grant eligibility.  Several Pell-eligible students contacted the CARES Act Grant team to ask why they were not eligible for a CARES Act grant.  Moreover, a colleague contacted the team and asked us to look more carefully at why some high-need students received grants and others did not.  After looking again at the appeal emails as well as additional financial aid data, we determined that the 272 Pell-eligible students who did not have unmet need should also be awarded. The university amended its CARES Act grant criteria to include all Pell grant recipients and issued a second round of grants to 272 Pell grant recipients with no unmet need. The university also awarded CARES Act grants to four additional graduate students with a “Pell-like” financial profile who did not have unmet need.

How many CARES Act grants has the university awarded and how many of those grants went to Pell-eligible students?

As of June 8, 2020, the University has distributed 2,792 Emergency Financial Aid Grants to 2,179 undergraduate students (2,146 full-time and 33 part-time) and 613 graduate students (371 full-time and 242 part-time). Of the 2,792 grants awarded, 2,516 were awarded to students who had unmet need, including 1,020 Pell grant recipients. An additional 272 CARES Act grants were awarded to Pell grant recipients with no unmet need. All students with Pell grant eligibility, a total of 1,292 students, have received a CARES Act grant. Additionally, although graduate students are not eligible for Pell grants, we did award CARES Act grants to graduate students with a “Pell-like” financial profile.

When did Monmouth receive its CARES Act grant award and when were students notified of their eligibility?

The U.S. Department of Education notified the university on Saturday, May 23, that its CARES Act grant application had been approved for funding. The university notified the first round of students on Tuesday, May 26. A second round of students were notified of their eligibility on June 3, after the criteria were amended to include all Pell-eligible students, regardless of unmet need.

What pandemic-related expenses is the University incurring?

As of June 1, 2020, the university’s pandemic-related expenses total approximately $10 million, including the cost of refunding unused housing, meal plans, and parking; technology expenses associated with a rapid transition to online learning and instruction; increased costs for sanitation and disinfection on campus; the loss of the university’s NCAA revenue distribution; and lost revenue from programs, activities, and events that were cancelled.

How does Monmouth plan to use the $2.5 million institutional allocation of CARES Act funds that are not restricted for direct student aid?

The university’s CARES Act distribution will be used to offset the $10 million in pandemic-related expenses we have incurred thus far.

Whom may I contact with additional questions about the CARES Act funding?

You may reach members of the CARES Act Grant team at caresact@monmouth.edu.

Dear Monmouth University Community:

Last night numerous students and alumni brought to my attention the existence of vile and racist text messages and posts from members of the university community shared on social media. These two incidents have already been reported to various offices on campus, including the Office of Judicial Affairs, the Office of Equity & Diversity, the Intercultural Center, and the Monmouth University Police Department, for further investigation. We are working with the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office, consistent with the Attorney General’s Revised Bias Incident Investigation Standards. The investigations are just beginning.

On behalf of all of us here at Monmouth University, I condemn this behavior in the strongest way possible. These incidents are particularly discriminatory to the Black members of our community. They are an affront to the values we hold most dear and a violation of everything we stand for as a university. Hate has no place here at Monmouth, and discrimination of any kind will not be tolerated. Given the context of current events, this responsibility is more important than ever. 

I will share additional information as appropriate.

Dr. Patrick F. Leahy, President    

Dear Members of the Monmouth University Community:

Our community is experiencing grief, confusion, heartbreak, and anger in light of George Floyd’s death. This incident comes on the heels of the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor, as well as the racial harassment of Christian Cooper closer to home. All of this has occurred during a time of great loss, anxiety, and uncertainty brought on by an unprecedented pandemic. During these challenging times, I am certain of this: the Monmouth University community stands in solidarity for racial equality and equity.

While our university has – by no means – met our goals for diversity and inclusion, we will never stop striving to build a genuinely fair, just, and supportive community for all of our students. This commitment cannot just consist of rhetoric, but must also be seen in our individual and collective actions. As an institution, we have taken several steps over the past few years towards fulfilling this commitment. Under the leadership of the President’s Advisory Council for Diversity and Inclusion, we have developed the Intercultural Center that has been tasked with creating a more inclusive campus community for all students, faculty, and staff. The Intercultural Center has already led the expansion of diversity programming and training across the campus. And, in my first year as president, I have commissioned a university-wide culture study to help inform needed changes in the years to come. I am also proud to announce that the class of 2024 is our most racially diverse incoming class in university history. We certainly have more work to do, but we are actively making choices to strengthen our commitment to diversity, integrating excellence and access at all levels of the university.

As individuals, we must also make a commitment to step out of our comfort zones and seek understanding across lines of difference. If you are a student who is unsure where to begin, we are fortunate to offer an outstanding education that includes incredible faculty skilled at facilitating critical learning opportunities. I encourage all members of our university to come together as a community, to check in with your peers most impacted by these injustices as allies and not shy away from difficult dialogues, and to continue to build an intellectual community of care, compassion, and inclusion. For any member of the Monmouth University community who is understandably struggling with recent events, I want to remind you that Counseling and Psychological Services is a continually available resource.

Please join me in recommitting Monmouth University to developing a diverse and inclusive community that can be a model for others throughout our region and around the country. If you have questions or concerns, please contact Dr. Zaneta Rago-Craft, Director of the Intercultural Center, at zragocra@monmouth.edu;

Dr. Rekha Datta, Interim Senior Vice President & Provost, at provost@monmouth.edu; or me directly at president@monmouth.edu. Thank you.

Dr. Patrick F. Leahy, President