Matt Harmon: One in, into making the decision to teach remotely for the remaining part of the semester. We check in with the university president Patrick Lehe to get an update on all things, Monmouth. This is Matt Horman. Thanks for joining us. It's time again for Monmouth weekly. Matt Harmon: As we setting in our open, the world of remote learning is up and running at Monmouth university. Good to be back with you. It is episode three of Monmouth weekly. I'm Matt Harmon joined us always by the university president Patrick Lehe. And after a day's worth of trying to connect back and forth. I know you had some meetings, you had some conference calls that you had to take care of. We had some technical issues as well, and thank goodness we both have kids because the kids are usually the ones that can walk us through any kind of technical issues. Patrick Leahy: Well, I always say Matt, that whenever I run into a technical problem, whether it's a computer or the television or whatever, I try to find the youngest person in the house. And they're inevitably the person who can fix the problem. Matt Harmon: That's usually the way that, uh, that everybody goes. I was grabbing laptops to make sure that our connection could work. We couldn't get through to each other at times, but, uh, certainly good to be able to kind of recap. Maybe what's been one of the more interesting weeks since you took over and you think of all of the episodes and, and events that led into last week's decision to go to the remote learning, um, schedule for the remaining part of the semester. Now, just about a week in any feedback that you've gotten, whether it's been from students, parents, faculty, administrative staff, anybody who's had kind of a role or, uh, the opportunity to kind of be part of this unique system. What what's, what's, what's the feedback been that you've gotten so far? Patrick Leahy: Well, I'm pleased to say that, uh, the feedback so far has been pretty positive and I, I grant, uh, in that statement that a lot of people are showing a lot of patience, Matt, as we get migrated over to remote, uh, uh, instruction and learning, um, I have a call with, uh, students coming up on Wednesday, at which time, I'm sure I'll hear some more feedback from them about how it's going, but I recognize how abrupt change. Uh, this has been both for the faculty and for the students. And, um, to this point, I feel like so far so good Matt Harmon: When you think of it. I mean, not, not too far removed from being in the classroom yourself at, at one point or another. Um, what challenges maybe did you envision that this would be from a faculty standpoint of trying to deliver the information? And as you just said, make that quick change, uh, from seeing students, you know, two, three times a week, people popping in and out of offices, the interaction that Maha's always been known for that small kind of student to faculty ratio, but from a faculty standpoint, um, what kind of things did you maybe think there could be issues with that? At least until this point the university has, has somewhat kind of, um, navigated through the first week? Patrick Leahy: Well, the first and the most practical is, uh, ensuring that the connections all work. And as you pointed out, we had our own challenges today. And I suspect, uh, across all of the courses that are being offered right now, there's probably some episodes, uh, where the technology is hampering our ability to get things done. So we're working diligently on satisfying all of those challenges. In fact, I wanna shout out in a special way, our information technology team. I mean, they have been working day and night to try to ensure that, uh, our faculty and our students can remain connected. Once we get those practical considerations, all worked out, Matt, I think it goes back to the fundamentals of teaching and learning. And that is how engaged can the faculty members make the content, how engaging can they make the content? And some of it is, you know, is what they call asynchronous, which is the information, the assignments and the, and so forth are posted. And the students are given a certain amount of time to complete the assignments. Um, but increasingly I hope we're doing more and more synchronous learning, which is gathering 10, 12, 20, whatever, the number of students in the class gathering them together at the same time, all connected in the same platform. So that, that engagement, that personal engagement can still happen like you and I are doing right now, even though, uh, people are not sitting in the same room. So, um, one get the technology, right, so that, uh, we can make the engagement possible. Matt Harmon: And some of that engagement might just be, and, and it's not to, um, you know, say that the, that the learning is going to stop, but some of that engagement might just be the personal connection of, of checking in on one another, you know, the two times that you and I have done these Monmouth weekly shows over the course of the last couple weeks, you have made it almost a point to make sure of saying, um, we have to essentially be there for one another. So yes, the learning will continue, but even from a student perspective, if you're in a chat room or a zoom call or some sort of virtual classroom, you can just kind of connect and see people that you were so used to seeing on a day in day out basis for the first, um, several weeks of the semester. And, and for students that are in their second, third, fourth year, you've seen the same faces probably in a lot of cases over the course of those years. And to just have it be taken away from you is, is a frustration for a lot of students and just be able to use different technology tools. So very important right now. Patrick Leahy: Yeah, I mean, and in particular, at this point in the academic year, I mean, uh, I hate to say it, but you know, the campus, uh, has never looked more beautiful. And I think all college students envision spending their spring semester on campus. The weather's getting better and there's so much activity that they're, they'll miss that. And, and, and I understand that, and I'm so sorry that we can't deliver that experience for, um, for our students. However, I think you bring up a really interesting, um, uh, sort of upside to this, which is because of the way in which this migration happened to remote learning. Matt, remember all of these classes had to what six, six or so weeks, uh, eight weeks together in person. So the classmates were able to get to know one another. They were able to get to know the, uh, the, the faculty members. I hope that that makes this transition to remote learning a little bit easier, uh, because those relationships are already somewhat established versus going into a, uh, this environment, right from the start when you didn't have the benefit of that six or seven weeks together. So I'm hopeful that will aid our ability to, uh, complete the semester, uh, in a high quality way in this remote fashion. Matt Harmon: It is Monmouth weekly. We record the, uh, last couple of days here of March before the calendar turns itself into April I'm Matt Harmon, member of the communication faculty alongside president Patrick Lehe. Uh, you know, I think everyone can kind of drive themselves crazy looking and watching all of the constant news updates, especially where we are located, New Jersey, certainly a spot that's been hit hard by this New York city, a spot that has been, um, increasingly in the news all the time. H how often, just from a personal standpoint, if, if we can, how often are you maybe staying up to date with all of the things that are going on, not just within the area, but you know, the daily news conferences, how much, how much do you get to pay attention to those as they go on, Patrick Leahy: Uh, all the time? Um, Matt, I mean, I'm, I'm trying hard every day, to the extent I can to tune into the governor's, uh, uh, press conference. Of course, when the president is on I'm, I'm checking his press conferences to see what we can learn there. Um, I am in constant touch, as I've mentioned, a previous podcasts with the, uh, office of the secretary of higher education in the state. Who's, you know, who's got some pretty good advice for us on the one hand and is, and is, uh, you know, making recommendations on the other hand. And we wanna stay very close to, to her good guidance on these matters. Um, as I've said all along, I mean, we're, we're making decisions here based on the best public health information, we can get our hands on and, and those, those, those are all the sources that we check in order to make sure that we're making good decisions. Patrick Leahy: Um, I will say that because last week we made that really important decision that you and I have talked about at length to go remote learning for the remainder of the semester. Um, that gives us a little bit of clarity, at least on how the next six weeks will play out here. We will keep as few people on campus as possible out of safety, but, but all of the services that we, uh, make available to students on their educational journey are still available to them. It's just that they're gonna have to be delivered similarly in a remote, uh, in a remote fashion. Matt Harmon: So Patrick Leahy: Tell me, I watch it all the time. I, I don't like what I'm hearing, but I watch it all the time. Matt Harmon: Yeah. I don't think anybody likes what they're hearing and, and listen, we're not gonna make this a political show. So take that part of it out, but did, did you in a way, and I will say, feel good for lack of a better term. Did you feel good after the news came, uh, from, from the current president of the country saying that the, um, social distancing guidelines and everything that put in place is extended now, through the end of April, knowing that last week you had already made the decision to go remote, it was, it was almost, I would, I would say a little bit of a, a wipe over the brow and a, okay. We, we made the right decision last week, Patrick Leahy: Certainly conf confirmation of the decision that, that we, that we made. Um, there's just no way that we see a pathway to being back together, um, as an entire Monmouth university community. I mean, I will, I still will not give up hope that maybe the campus can be opened back up some in may and the, the faculty and the staff might come back together, at least in, in some part, but the idea that the entire campus could come back, all of our undergraduate students, our graduate students could all be back together. It's just not gonna happen. And I think president Trump's latest declaration, um, about, you know, the extension of the, of the social distancing guidelines is, is evidence of that. Matt Harmon: You know, a couple of days ago, I, I saw on social media, uh, that you commented how, how pleased to take your word that Monmouth was able to provide, uh, some of the medical supplies and equipment to, to some of new Jersey's healthcare, EMS workers, some of the different people. Um, so again, trying to keep and make that connection from university to community is so very important, even during times like this. Patrick Leahy: Yeah. Now that we have, I always say, take care of our, our constituents first. I mean, our students and the faculty and the staff who dedicate their lives to serving them, they, they are my number one priority, of course. Um, but now that we've made the decision to go remote, we've cleared the campus, uh, we've put in, um, you know, really aggressive remote work, uh, situa you know, a real aggressive remote work situation. Now, I feel like I need to turn my attention to figuring out how can Monmouth university aid, the healthcare response to this global pandemic. And the first of many ways I hope we can do that is what you said is emptying out our, all of our storage rooms and supply rooms of anything that might be perceived as personal protective equipment that could be made available to either local EMS or the healthcare systems. Patrick Leahy: As you know, we have two major ones right in the community. We want to be supportive of both of them. Um, so we were able to, to send some initial supplies out then the state of New Jersey, of course, uh, sort of mandated that we, that we inventory our supplies and then make them available. So we were able to, to, uh, send a second large batch to the state and then they'll distribute them where they're most needed. But, um, it was an interesting thing, cuz I just did, I guess I had not thought about how many supplies we would have for our own health center and for our own science labs and our own sports medicine labs. And when we thought about it, you know, a school of our size has a pretty significant, um, amount of supplies. And I was so pleased that we were able to share those with the individuals who need them the most. Right now Matt Harmon: This is Monmouth weekly, Matt Horman and university president Patrick Lehe joining us, uh, episode number three, as we continue through the crazy world involving the coronavirus, everything set in place until April 30th, president Lehe. When you think of it and, and share whatever you can, just from a curiosity standpoint, um, you, you have mentioned a couple of times the, the campus obviously pretty Barron in terms of those deemed not essential, no disrespect to anybody's work. I'm sitting here as well. So you can throw me in that mix, who, who are the people on campus that are actually still kind of taking care of whatever day to day type issues might arise, even on an empty campus? Patrick Leahy: Well, the first are we, we still have 47. I think it is students who are living with us and it's either because they have not been able to get home yet or quite frankly, this is their home. So of course we wanted to make sure that they felt welcome here. So with 47 students here on campus, we need to make sure that we have a minimal number of residents, life, people here, uh, sort of checking up on them from a safe distance, but nonetheless checking up on them from time to time to make sure they're okay. And also to make sure they're not terribly lone, you know, too lonely, if you think about how much time they're spending by themselves. Um, and then because we have those individuals living here, we have a very small food service operation, which is, uh, serving them meals that, uh, uh, they can come by and pick up. Patrick Leahy: There's no, uh, social dining of course, but we wanna make sure that they're well nourished. So we have a few individuals here working in food service, and then of course there's a few facilities folks that need to come in from time to time just to make sure they're checking on the, you know, the HVAC systems and everything else. And then finally, a few individuals here all the time from our Monmouth university police department, just, uh, making sure that, uh, the campus remains safe and you know, the right people are on campus at any given time and it's limited to those numbers. So you take all those together and we're down to, I don't know, 10, 10 people or 12 people on campus at any given time that is, uh, significantly fewer than the 1500 who typically, uh, uh, populate the campus, Matt Harmon: You know, two follow up questions to the, uh, commentary that you just gave about the students that are still left on campus. Uh, obviously being taken care of from a dining perspective, wh what I'll say restrictions, what restrictions or guidelines are put in place for those students. Um, during this, you know, I'll say social distancing stay at home as much as possible type, um, guidelines are, are, are they having to follow rules that anybody else would, or does the university kind of give them guidelines in terms of, you know, going out, not going out or what they do during the course of a given day? Patrick Leahy: I think we feel it's our obligation to make sure they're aware of the, the state guidelines that we've been given. I mean, we are under a stay at home executive order and in their case, it means basically a stay in your dorm room or, you know, in your residence hall room as much as possible U unfortunately, Matt, the libraries are closed, the fitness centers are closed, the gyms are closed, uh, again in compliance with the executive order. So we can't even offer those sort of, uh, services to those students. So they pretty much have to remain in their rooms. Uh, hopefully they have, uh, access to the, um, internet services that we offer here on campus. So there's an opportunity for them to continue their remote learning. They're allowed out of their room of course, to get exercise or to, to get some fresh air. Um, but, um, they're under the same stay at home guidelines that, that all of us are. And, um, we're gonna have to, you know, keep an eye on 'em and make sure that they adhere to those out of their own safety. Matt Harmon: You know, we didn't talk about this last week when we kind of focused our whole episode on, uh, the student life perspective and how things changed with remote learning. And, and I have read in, in an increasing number of articles in terms of not just the economic issues that people are gonna have coming out of this, um, or the, the medical issues that obviously go right along with the coronavirus itself, uh, but the psychological issues. And you talk about a student population that's anywhere from 18 to 23, 24, generally not counting graduate students, but the undergrad population. And for those students that are still on campus and the ones that have moved out and gone home, um, what, what kind of services does Monmouth still have the ability to offer in terms of, of psychological services? If students are dealing with any sort of, I'll say, anxiety, depression, things that would probably go right along, um, with a situation that this coronavirus has kind of thrown a lot of people into. Patrick Leahy: I'm so glad you raised this, Matt, because, uh, psychological services are, do remain available to students. It's just that they're similarly gonna have to be delivered in a remote fashion, but, um, I think we've seen it, you know, an increase in the, in the interest in just some support services in this area, as you say, um, this is a very tense time for, for people they don't know what's gonna happen. Ultimately with this global pandemic, we've never been asked to be so socially isolated before ever not in my 51 years here on earth. Um, I've never been asked to be this, uh, socially isolated. Um, so I, you can imagine how all that together could, could, uh, amp up anxiety. And, uh, we just, again, wanna make sure that, uh, if students are feeling this way, they know that they can turn to their university for support. So all those services remain available. They just have to be delivered in a, in a, in a slightly different way than normal. Matt Harmon: If you can, uh, president Lehe, could you give us an update, something that I know, um, you, you were excited if excited is the right word to talk about last week towards the end part of our episode two. And that was the president's relief fund. I know you had said, um, right away when you opened that up and we recorded last week, you had gotten several, if not, I, I think the number was about 150 that you had mentioned, um, applications. I, I would only have to think that that number has not only just gone up, but you're also starting to give certain awards to certain students if, if the need is there. Patrick Leahy: So we, uh, I think it was on your podcast last week, or maybe it was, uh, yeah, just before that, perhaps I, I announced the creation of this president's relief fund and remember the, the, the core money from this had come from, uh, very supportive donors to the university over the years that had created this president's discretionary fund. We never really envisioned using it for such a situation, Matt, but it was there. And I went to the, the chair of the board and I said, I have this, uh, discretionary fund there. And I Don can't imagine a more suitable way to use it in the spirit of these donors, uh, generosity from years past then to try to be helpful in real hardship cases because of this, uh, global pandemic. So we launched it on Tuesday. We closed down the first round Friday at 5:00 PM, and we had over 280 requests, which is certainly evidence of, um, how this, uh, this pandemic is changing people's livelihoods. Patrick Leahy: Uh, so quickly 280 requests. I'm so pleased to be able to share with you that in round one, we had over 170 requests fulfilled. Now, not always at the, the number that was requested mind you. I mean, we're trying to make sure that this money, uh, can, can aid as many of our students as possible, but I'm so pleased that today's today's, uh, Monday. So tomorrow, maybe Wednesday morning at the latest 170 checks will be in the mail to individual students who, uh, have petitioned us for just a little bit of help to help them get through this, uh, this tough period. And since we closed round one or another 50, or so requests have come in already. So I see this continuing, um, for, for weeks to come and it'll be my responsibility to figure out how I can keep filling up this bucket. Patrick Leahy: Um, you know, we're not, we're not at the bottom yet, but, um, as we continue to, to, um, satisfy some of these requests, uh, we'll start spending down those accounts. And I've got a couple of ideas about ways I might continue to, to fill it back up, but even the individuals who are not getting, uh, uh, money, you know, to help them through this mat, they're getting good information. So we have, I told you, uh, one of our top people, Amanda clause, who's monitoring this, uh, fund and managing it for us. And every single person who submits a request gets an answer very quickly. Sometimes they get information that they didn't have otherwise, you know, like, you know, can I get my room and board and parking fees refunded to which we say, not through the relief fund, that's coming in a different way, but it's coming. This relief fund is for things outside of that. So the students are comforted that they're getting good information if they're not getting actual, you know, resources that they can spend in this, in this situation. So I'm really proud of it. And I'm really proud of the way that Monmouth university community has mobilized to be, uh, that source of comfort to our students during a difficult time. Matt Harmon: And I just wanna say too, just to, just to follow that up, I mean, when you say checks are going out, this is this isn't alone. This is money that the students can use, correct. This isn't anything that has to get paid back to the university. Patrick Leahy: No, these are, these are grants to, uh, to students. And, you know, most of the, the average grant size is about $400. So I don't wanna overstate how, how significant it is, but, um, $400 that will arrive shortly to help, um, pay for food that I was otherwise planning to pay for from my part-time job off campus that I no longer have. Um, I think that's significant. And, um, so no, these are grants and, and they're from, you know, the generosity of donors over the years who, who would wanna be, uh, there to support our students. One of the questions actually that comes up quite a bit is, um, I've lost my on campus job and consequently, I need resources. And I'm proud to say that the answer to that request is you haven't lost your on campus job, cuz we made a policy decision as a university that if you had a part, a, uh, a part-time job on campus before we had to, um, to, uh, thin out the campus, then you will have that part-time job. You will get the money from that part-time job throughout the next five or six weeks of the semester. Um, just a commitment that we've made as a university to our students. So we don't have to fill those requests. They're already being filled. Matt Harmon: I think it's an amazing thing that, uh, the university is, is trying to do through the president's relief fund. You can find more information on that and all things coronavirus related by going to the Monmouth website, that of course is mammoth dot, uh, EDU president Lehe. Let's finish with this, you know, you have, um, mentioned in episodes one and episode two about having your family, uh, together during this time, something that you probably didn't think would happen. Um, but now everybody kind of underneath the, the, the same roof, what have you guys been doing to stay, I'll say active as a family? Has it been, uh, I'm trying to think of the things we've been doing. Card games, Netflix, any binge watching, any favorite shows that you've been able to catch up on? Patrick Leahy: Well, I, the other, the other day, I, I was looking for a quiet place in the house and couldn't find it up too, Matt Harmon: Too late for that, right? Patrick Leahy: Yeah. Yeah. It was exactly, couldn't find it upstairs in the kitchen. So went into another room and uh, one of my boys was, uh, playing on one of his games and, and he gets quite animated when he plays the game. So I couldn't couldn't get it, there came running down the stairs. I said, I bet there's a quiet place here on the first floor turned, the corner, came into the first floor of the darty house and there was a yoga session going on with my wife and two of my daughters. And I thought to myself, I wonder when the last time they had a yoga session in the, uh, foyer of the darty house, you know, which is typically reserved for, uh, um, you know, university entertaining. Um, we, we there's so much activity happening in the house. Um, a lot of it, we do together. Patrick Leahy: One of the things we said the other day, we remarked just yesterday, Matt, we haven't had dinner as a family, so many consecutive nights, maybe ever cuz every night at 6 37, o'clock, it'll be a little later tonight cuz we're recording now, but seven o'clock the whole family gets together and uh, we have dinner together and, and you know, in, in a different scenario, our lives are so busy that it's harder to pull that off. So again, I'm trying to find the silver linings here in this, in this crisis. And that's definitely one of them the time that we're getting to spend together, we have dinner and then we're doing some, uh, binge watching ourselves. Um, we just started, I, I, I know this is a old, old guard for some people, but we just started VEP. Do you know the, Matt Harmon: I do Patrick Leahy: The TV series V and uh, I know that that ran a few years ago, so we're just now catching up. But, uh, we just started that that's the most recent one that we're binge watching. So there's a lot of learning going on as well because the, all of the kids have of course their own commitments from their respective schools. So once we get that cleared out, we're trying to just take advantage of the time that we can spend together and, and it's precious time and it's a darn shame that, um, such a, such a crisis has, um, you know, uh, given us that opportunity, but we'll take, uh, we'll take it because it's, uh, such a precious, precious time. Matt Harmon: Well, I know that, uh, the, the two boys that you have, they are very familiar with kind of, uh, the ins and outs of campus a little bit. And this is just a terrible way for you to start your first spring as university president. But, um, can't wait to see everybody back up and, and running around and as always president Lehe appreciate your time. Um, kind of talking everybody through what has been a, a tense interesting and challenging time from all perspectives, whether it's student, faculty, administration, those that are still on campus. Um, I'll look forward to doing this with you again next week. And, and obviously if anything comes up, we can always pop on before that, but appreciate your time, enjoy that family dinner tonight. And hopefully you can continue working your way through the binge watching Ave. Patrick Leahy: well, thank you, Matt. And again, my thanks to you and a special shout out to all of our faculty members who, um, again, they had to change their, their teaching modalities so abruptly and, um, and they're, and they're responding to that challenge and they're having to do it at home where they're, they have their own families at home to, to take care of. And I just appreciate so much, um, the added stress in, in all of our faculty members' lives. And I'm just so grateful, um, for the way in which, uh, everyone has responded. It's really evidence that, uh, this university is student center. Matt Harmon: Hopefully, uh, Molly gets a little extra dinner tonight. She's the MVP of making sure that this podcast was able to get up and going from a technical standpoint, president Lehe will talk to you again next week, enjoy the rest of your Patrick Leahy: Week. Thanks a lot, take care and be safe. Matt, Matt Harmon: You too, we will, uh, say goodbye. It's episode three of Monmouth weekly, again, for more information, anything mama three related, make sure that you connect to the school via any of the social media platforms and as always at Monmouth EDU.