Matt Harmon: We continue with our mammoth weekly series during the coronavirus pandemic today, university president Patrick Lehe is joined by board of trustee chairman Michael wick, to talk about the latest news financially involving the university. This is Matt Harmon as always. Thanks for joining us. It's time for episode five of Mammouth weekly. Matt Harmon: It is April 15th, 2020. We are week five episode five of our Monmouth weekly series, April 15th. Usually today that everyone is kind of biting their nails over, getting their taxes in. Well, obviously that's been put on the back burner for a little bit and, uh, some other more pressing and important news. It is the coronavirus pandemic, which continues not just here in the garden state in Monmouth county, but nation and worldwide. Uh, I'm Matt Harmon. We wanna welcome you back here and we've really appreciated the feedback we've been getting on our first four episodes. Now this our fifth one and as president Patrick Lehe talked with me a couple weeks ago, and even last week, we mentioned the implementation of bringing in a guest here or there we are very happy to be joined myself, president Lehe and board of trustee, chairman Michael wick, a proud graduate of Monmouth class of 1982, who was good enough to hop on here with USS today as well. And, uh, chairman plad, if you, if you don't mind, I know you had a pretty busy morning today with a board meeting, um, obviously with some of the latest news, which we'll get into what, what was the procedure process and when you get everybody together like that, Michael Plodwick: Okay, let me just back up a little bit and take this back to the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak and how reacted. Uh, it was March 9th, that president Lehe called me and said, we have a suspected incidence of the disease on campus. And, uh, they took the student away and I feel the prudent thing to do is to shut the university for the rest of the week. And then the following week would've been spring break and we thought that would've buying enough time back then. Well, it became clear it wasn't. And then we, uh, pat pushed back the start date from April 3rd, uh, to April 10th. And then after that, it became apparent that we would have to close the school and go distance learning for the remainder of the semester. It was at that point, uh, the board convened for a March 19th board meeting, uh, where pat announced all the actions he was taking to the full board. That was the last time the full board met until this morning in the interim. Pat and I have been in contact pretty much every day, sometimes several times a day. And we also recently implemented a meeting, a conference call, I should say, between pat, uh, myself and my two current vice chairs, gene Episcopal and John Brock Reed, and a vice chair elect and Leslie Hitchner. And we've been getting weekly updates from pat. And then at last week's, uh, vice chair and chair meeting, we decided it was time to reconvene the whole board today. So at 11 o'clock this morning, uh, we had a zoom, uh, board meeting, which was the first full zoom board meeting we've done in, uh, my time at Monmouth university. It was kind of fun. And, uh, I thought it was a good meeting. Um, pat laid out very clearly, what's going on the steps he's taken. And as you can imagine, there were quite a few questions from several board members and, uh, pat did a good job in handling them. Matt Harmon: Let's talk about some of the, uh, I don't know the connection right now, because as you said, the two of you maybe talk on a day in day out basis, president Lehe, I say a good afternoon to you. Uh, sir. And, and welcome you in with this question, how important is having that good, solid working relationship between you chairman plak and the rest of the board? Patrick Leahy: Uh, well, good afternoon, Matt. I can't believe it is our fifth episode already. Matt Harmon: Yeah, we're flying by. Patrick Leahy: It's amazing. And I'm thrilled to be, uh, uh, joined by Mike Mike plak. Um, the relationship between the board of trustees in general and the administration of any college university is particularly important. And to me, there's no more important individual relationship than between the chair of the board and the president of the university. It, it is the key to making so many things happen, uh, effectively at a college or university. And, uh, at the risk of embarrassing, Mike I've said this publicly before, and I'll probably say it again, every college or university president in the country should have someone like Mike plak as their chair. I mean, he is, Michael Plodwick: I appreciate that. Patrick Leahy: Totally committed to Monmouth university, as you said, he is an alum himself. So there's an enduring commitment there, uh, to the university that he loves so much totally committed, always available when I need him always has my back. Um, as a friend, as a, one of our colleagues says, has my backs from six feet away, uh, right now, but has my back, I always know of his support. Uh, but he also realizes that his role as chair is to govern the university, not to manage the university. And I appreciate that in him as well. So, uh, it's a very important relationship and I'm, uh, pleased to say it's, uh, going very well right now, mama Matt Harmon: Chairman prick. If I can follow up with that and say, um, out of the meeting today and of all the discussions that you've had with all of the other members of the board of trustees, I'm sure everyone could, could have their own opinion, their own ideas, their own thoughts, and that's all well and good, but how do you maybe mold everybody to make sure that there's only one essentially unified voice coming out of the board, especially at a time like this? Michael Plodwick: Well, I viewed my job as chairman of the board is keeping the trustees. Um, I don't wanna say in logs, that sounds terrible, but make sure our trustees understand that we are there to govern. And as pat said, we are not there to micromanage the day to day operations of the university on December 4th, 2008, which seems like forever ago, the board unanimously voted pat Lehe, the 10th president in the history of Monmouth university. And since he officially joined on August 1st, I believe the board has given him the leeway to run. The university has best. He sees fit. Uh, Pat's got a terrific veteran cabinet. They're making all the right moves as far as the board is concerned in this unprecedented environment. And the board has a great degree of confidence in pat and his abilities and his teams. And, uh, you know, we think we're in a very good place in the university right now. Matt Harmon: Well, that's good to know. Um, I'm Matt Harmon university, president of Patrick Lehe. The third voice that you were just hearing the air board of trustee chairman Michael plak class of 1982. Who's good enough to give us some time here. It is episode five, mid April coronavirus, uh, still up and going, uh, here in the garden state and worldwide. And, and as we've mentioned in past episodes, Monmouth has already committed to a remote learning situation coming up through the end of the spring, through the summer. Um, and fingers crossed feedback open for that first Tuesday after labor day to get the fall semester up and going H how much dialogue in either one of you can take this, how much dialogue has the board and the university administration have about the possibility of this going a little bit longer and trying to maybe be as the university's done so far. I I'd say in a way, get ahead of things before it's apparent that they're gonna happen. Michael Plodwick: Let me just start by saying, I think the university has been ahead of things from day one. Monmouth was one of the first universities to tell their students to go home and, um, you know, clear the campus. And we were one of the first universities to ensure that the graduates this spring would get a real life commencement of some point the day, pat decided to close the university for the rest of the semester. He promised students that they would get a real life, real world graduation ceremony at some point. Um, pat, you wanna take it from there? Patrick Leahy: Yeah, I'll just add, thank you. You Mike. Uh, I feel really proud of the university that we were very early in announcing to our students, that they would get pro rata refunds for room board and parking fees. Um, we were one of the first, as I could tell to go out aggressively and say that we have a, uh, relief fund available for students who are facing financial hardship as a result of this pandemic. I hope you'll let me update folks later, uh, Matt, on the progress of that. Matt Harmon: Absolutely. Patrick Leahy: So we're, uh, really proud that we were out ahead of this, and we're gonna try to continue that momentum through our conversations about what might happen come the fall. We, we have had conversations through our crisis management team and of course our vice presidents have been actively involved in scenario planning, but I'm create, I'm creating a fall task force, which would be a cross functional team of important voices from around the campus community who can sit down now in mid April and start thinking about all of the various possibilities that might result come September, um, from opening up in a fairly normal way, which would be the best case scenario, um, all the way through to, um, the possibility that we may be remote again for the fall. I'm, I'm not suggesting that we're there. I'm just saying that that's sort of the extent of the spectrum as I see it with a lot of different iterations along that spectrum, Matt. And I just feel like it's gonna be important for us to think through some of these scenarios before we find ourselves in July and August confronting one of them. Matt Harmon: All right. Let's talk about the email that went out yesterday, uh, late afternoon and probably the one that I would say most employees were probably waiting for with, with baited breath, um, with, with it being about the financial fiscal realities of this situation. Um, and as most of the memos that have come out have been pretty easy to at least follow along bullet pointed, documented, um, president Lehe. I, if you could, not that any of these updates have been easy, whether it's been the spring semester is, you know, gonna be held remotely, summer classes will be held remotely. Was this one that was in a way, um, as difficult as others, because now you are essentially talking about perhaps people's livelihoods paychecks, things like that. Patrick Leahy: Of course, whenever you Wade into, into that territory, it's, it's, uh, sort gut wrenching for, um, you know, the decision makers, uh, the, the, the message that went out yesterday. Um, I tried to make as plain as possible that now that we have made the decisions that are in the best interest of everyone's health and safety and made the decisions about going remote for the spring. And as you point out the, the summer, the next thing we need to focus on, or what are those fiscal realities that this pandemic is creating for Monmouth, I'm thrilled to tell you that relatively speaking Monmouth university is an incredibly strong financial position. I credit Mike and all the other members of our board of trustees, as well as those seasoned, uh, administrators that Mike referenced for getting us to this point. I mean, I wouldn't trade our financial position with pretty much anybody in the state of New Jersey, but having said that there's some things that we needed to do. We felt immediately to, uh, to save money during this fourth quarter of the year. And they were all outlined there, you know, putting a clamp on, um, on hiring right now, making sure that we're saving, uh, non-essential operating funds, pushing off capital projects. Some, some of the senior administrators took, um, salary reductions, and we are developing, uh, the possibility of a furlough program, uh, which again, I would wanna make clear that is designed, uh, ideally to allow employees who are underutilized right now to go home and, and not have to work remotely and to get paid mostly by the federal government. So, um, you know, I'd wanna make sure our employees see that as a, as a positive thing and not, not a negative thing, but they're all part of the reality of the situation in which we're dealing Matt Harmon: Chairman wick. Um, you've been with mammoth for a long time. We mentioned class of 82, you're in your second decade as a board member. Now, as the chair, have you ever seen anything like this in, in any of your time? I mean, I, I, I can't imagine as you're thinking about it, that this is something that any board college world essentially could be something that you, you could thought and planned for Michael Plodwick: Now, to be honest, Matt, this is really unprecedented. I'm sorry, territory. I mean, no one could have imagined anything like this. Um, you know, where you have literally no students on campus right now. I mean, and I feel badly for the students because this is not what they signed up for and idealized, but it's reality. We're not the only ones in this boat. Every college in the country is dealing with this. And I think Monmouth has adapted, uh, much better than many other universities. I mean, pat, pat and I kid, because we both have children in college and we see what their respect of universities have done during this. And frankly, Pat's been out ahead of this much faster than some of the more well known schools in the country that our children attend. Matt Harmon: That has been an important, uh, fact, I would think president Lehe, when you, when you hear that, and that's been something that you and I have spoken about almost each and every episode, when you think of it going back over the course of the last four, trying to I'd say be more proactive than reactive, Patrick Leahy: Trying, trying hard. Uh, there's no playbook. As Mike mentioned, Matt, there's no playbook for this one. Um, none of us who, uh, either have served as college or university presidents before, or have gone through the various, uh, training camps to become, uh, university presidents have dealt with what are the, uh, direct effects of a global pandemic. We, we just is not in the experience or the curriculum, so there's no playbook. So what do you do when there's no playbook, you fall back on what are your values as an institution and try to make decisions based on those values. And we have tried really hard to this point to, to ensure that our focus is on first, the students who we feel so privileged to serve, and then quickly behind them, all of the faculty and staff who have dedicated their lives to serving those students. And I feel like, you know, if we keep, uh, the students and then those of you who serve them day in and day out, uh, top of mind, then it allows us to, to focus our decision making and make the right call, hopefully in a timely manner, Matt Harmon: If we can and walk through, uh, I'd say the five bullet points outta the email yesterday, and maybe just break 'em down a little bit, um, freeze hiring president Lehe. This is through the fiscal year, which if memory serves me correctly is June 30th, correct? Patrick Leahy: That's right. Yep. So, Matt Harmon: All right. So June 30th, as of right now, essentially there are no open positions because we are not hiring anybody for at least a couple months. Patrick Leahy: Yeah. There are a few positions that are, uh, the searches for which are well underway. So we decided that we would go ahead and allow those to, to, to come to completion. And if it results in a, an individual whom we wanna make an offer to whom we wanna make an offer, we'll do it. And if, and if we don't find the right person, we'll just, uh, uh, fail the search and then we won't reopen the search, but, um, pretty much academic and non-academic alike. We're just asking folks to, to take a pause on any replacement positions and certainly no, no new ones, um, between now and the end of the fiscal year. Matt Harmon: How is that something that could let's make the assumption that things are relatively back to normal in the fall school is open. The university is, is alive and, and going, how, how is something like that saying essentially, we're not gonna hire for open positions the next couple months. How could something like that? Um, follow through, come September when the fall semester gets back up and going? Patrick Leahy: Yeah, I mean, I think we would, once we get a better read in the summer, uh, Matt in particular what our enrollments look like, you know, both our new, new students and our returning students we'll have a much better feel at that point, whether we can relax those constraints and go ahead and, and fill some positions that might be open or, or just decide that, you know what we're gonna have to figure out a way to do without them. I, I have this, uh, maybe it's a goofy, uh, little concept, but I say to our folks that we need to be thinking of this as a ship at sea. You know, when you need additional people and you are a ship at sea navigating a storm, you don't have the luxury of going back in the port, picking up more people and bringing 'em back out in order to deal with the storm. You have no choice, but to redeploy people ask people to do things that they haven't done before or whatever, in order to navigate the challenges that, that ship confronts. I call it ship at sea. And, um, it's a new concept around here because we've, we've always been, uh, blessed with the opportunity to replace open positions and add new ones. When we felt like we needed them. We just may not have that flexibility in the short term, Matt Harmon: Let's continue. And, and chairman plow with, please hop in at any point, you know, the three of us kind of tested this yesterday, and I had made mention to both of you, it's not as if we're looking at each other. So if anybody has a point that they wanna, uh, piggyback on by all means hop in the, the second one control non-essential operating expenses, uh, president Lehe, I'll toss it back to you first, tell me what a non-essential operating expense would be for a university like Monmouth. Patrick Leahy: Well, it starts in this, in this period, this fourth quarter, quarter period, it starts with money that we've allocated to activities that are not happening on campus. Those should be the easy ones, right? The different kind of events that we had planned, uh, for the spring that are just not happening. Other kind of functions that are not happening, they can be closed down easily and there's money there. Fortunately, the next level up from that is anything that is nonacademic. I would just argue that, you know what, that is not critically essential at this time, uh, leaving the last, which is academic spending. Now, I don't want us to waste any money at all. If there's, if there's non-essential academic spending, I would hope that we could save that as well. But I tried to make clear in the memo, Matt, that we will continue to invest in the academic side of the house to support the faculty who are delivering this remote instruction and learning throughout the remainder of the semester. We owe it to our students. Uh, the students have paid us for top shelf service. So, um, I consider essential to be what all of you are doing, serving our students, not only the faculty, but, you know, the re the support services, and then everything below that, in my opinion becomes pretty much non-essential Matt Harmon: Chairman wick. I'll ask you about this one, the third on the list to spend capital projects, um, being part of VA for as long as you have capital projects, make the university, what it is, make the university look good, make the university pop to the eye. Um, what concern is there that the postponement of this would, would, um, impact the university in maybe a long term type situation? Michael Plodwick: Well, first of all, we'll have to see how far this runs, but you're right. I mean, the campus is dramatically different from what I graduated in 1982. I mean, there was no football stadium. There was no Mac, there was no stock, uh, no bay hall, uh, no McAllen building. Um, so, and all those were pretty significant capital projects. I mean, I know pat has a wish list of what he initially wanted to do, but those probably have to be postponed for now. Patrick Leahy: In fact, Matt, that wishlist was just about ready to get codified in our new five year strategic plan, um, which we have decided at this point, given the situation, we're just gonna pause for the time being, um, get through the, the pandemic, get a feel for what the lasting effects of the pandemic might be on the university. And then we will refresh and finalize our strategic plan for, for another five year period, uh, included in that strategic plan were a lot of, uh, small, but nonetheless, uh, impactful capital projects. And we'll just put them on, on hold. As Mike suggests for the time being Matt Harmon: Implement senior administrative salary reductions, I'll read it here effective May 1st cabinet members taking a 10% reduction in salary for going any salary increases for at least the next six months for my part, which is you, president Le you'll be taking the 25% pay cut. Um, other salary restrictions could be considered in the weeks ahead as we look at summer and fall enrollments, um, again, difficult conversations I'm sure to have when you are telling people, but to be fair, it's happening all over. We need to cut back when we can. When I say, how was the news taken with something like this? What, what would be the best way to answer something like that? Patrick Leahy: You'd be surprised Matt, how easily the, uh, cabinet members jumped on board. This concept, which I think is evidence of the values that those, uh, good colleagues share. Um, everyone understands that that's not alone. That alone is not gonna solve our financial challenges, but we just think it's the right thing to do. And it sends a signal that before we ask anybody in the coming weeks to sacrifice, we better demonstrate at least some of that I, I did say in there that, you know, any other salary reductions would be contemplated in the weeks to come. I, I didn't mean that to alarm people. I, I just wanna be as transparent and as open and candid as I can be, that if our enrollments really weaken in the summer, then we're gonna have to put some things on the table that we just don't wanna put on the table. And that might be something like, um, modest, you know, salary, uh, cuts for people. But, um, it was an attempt to signal that, that, that we have to be honest with ourselves, but I certainly didn't wanna alarm anyone at this point, Matt Harmon: Chairman plak if I could get your comment there as well, when you think of it, um, I, I would imagine anything from a financial type idea involving the university, something at this level, what, what was the board's take on, uh, some of the things that we've been talking about so far, including the salary reduction? Michael Plodwick: I think the board gets it. I think they recogniz the environment in many of our board members run their own businesses and they're facing challenges, uh, in their own lives as well. And, um, I think it was well received by the board. Um, and I think the board is cognizant that, you know, we're probably not through this yet. And a lot of things are gonna be determined over the summer when we see the enrollment numbers, Matt Harmon: Let's talk a little bit, president Lehe, and again, you are listening to the, our Monmouth weekly series. I'm Matt Harmon member of the communication department, chairman Michael wick from the board of trustees and university president Patrick Lehe on a what's turned out to be a beautiful springlike day at the Jersey shore. Unfortunately, we are locked down in quarantine with the coronavirus, um, president Lehe. Let's talk just for a moment, if you can, in terms of what the summer enrollment looks like as it is right now, has the fall enrollment been something I'm I know it's a, a, a talking point obviously, but have you seen any numbers that would be alarming from students that had already committed to Monmouth now, maybe thinking, geez, I just can't do this from a financial standpoint. Patrick Leahy: No, we haven't seen it yet. I don't, I don't want to be naive and expect that we won't see it, but we haven't yet. Um, I think the good news is we are running behind, uh, in our summer enrollments at this point, but our, our marketing efforts just go into the market today. In fact, Matt, um, I think we wanted to give, when we made the decision, we wanted a few days between making the decision and doing the aggressive marketing effort to make sure we could get the schedule set and migrate the courses over that could be migrated over to, uh, online instruction. Get all that set before our marketing campaign, uh, rolls out, which it will today. And our hope is that we can, you know, we can at least meet our targets from last year, so that we're even in the summertime. And then in the fall, we're, we're a few deposits down this year, over last year. I won't kid you, but I think what our enrollment folks will tell you is that we're pleased at how the, the deposits are holding up at this point. Uh, now when we get to episode number nine or 10, I'll have a lot more information for you about that. But, um, right now we feel pretty positive. And I wanna shout out all of the folks around campus who are involved in our enrollment effort, who themselves had to take what our tried and true on ground yield events and convert them to, um, virtual delivery in the same fashion as we had to convert our academic programming. And they've done a great job they've responded and we're gonna fight for, um, for every student, because we think we have something really special here at Monmouth, frankly, the crisis maybe exposed how much we have to offer here in a way at Monmouth. And I hope we can get that message out too. Our returning students and prospective students. Matt Harmon: If I am reading the last part of the memo from yesterday, develop a furlough program, if I'm reading it correctly and, and please correct me if I'm wrong. Um, furloughing someone that, that, that during this particular time period could actually help them, correct? Patrick Leahy: Yes. And I wanna make clear some people, I think casually interchange, furlough, and layoff, and they're totally different. Uh, a furlough was a short term, um, suspension of, of duties when work dries up. And it's pretty clear that some of our work has dried up, uh, over the last few weeks and into the coming weeks. It's a short term thing. Um, and with the way in which the federal government has, has pumped additional money into the unemployment, uh, program, it actually for a lot of our, uh, employees, they could actually go home for four weeks or six or eight weeks, not have to do any remote work and could make at least as much money, if not more money, uh, in a furlough program with the guarantee that they will be invited back when the work returns, if you will. I either students return, um, they'll be invited back into their old job again. So I, I, I, I wanted to mention it in the memo, but I don't have all the details yet. You'll notice I mentioned in there that our vice presidents are meeting with, uh, the heads of our unions and the head of our staff council, so that we can develop a program with them and make sure that they understand that, uh, this is, uh, could, could conceivably for a lot of employees be a really positive thing for them. Imagine for a minute, Matt, if, if, you know, you're worried that, you know, your kids are home from school and some of our employees wanna be home taking care of them, but we have to have them rotating through, or we have to have them doing remote work from home. This could clean that up for them in that they could go home for some period of time, tend to the affairs at home, uh, still get paid by the federal government, not by Monmouth, but still get paid with a guarantee that their, uh, job is waiting for them, uh, at the end of the term. So I hope it can be perceived across campus as a really positive thing, Matt Harmon: Chairman, uh, wick. I, if you can thinking about the, from a trustee standpoint, from the university leadership standpoint, looking ahead, um, what are the conversations like today ongoing the last couple of weeks about how this, and again, you had mentioned it before. We're not really sure how long this is gonna go. So this answer could be in flux and clearly changed, but, um, with president Lehe mentioning earlier, and he has indicated this in previous episodes, the university financially is in a really good position. Um, how much of a wear and tear could that come the longer that this goes on? Michael Plodwick: Well, we're constantly checking in our endowment. We got updates today. Yes, it's down. But frankly, I was pleasantly surprised at how much it wasn't down. As pat said, we're in very strong financial shape. We have virtually no debt. So, um, and pat and his people are still hopeful that, you know, we could run at break even next year if we control our expenses the right way. So I don't think the board worries a lot about the financial stability of the institution, but we are cognizant that we are in a very difficult environment right now. And I think most of the board, I would say all of the board understands that Matt Harmon: Presently, Matt Harmon: Yeah, Patrick Leahy: Just sorry to interrupt, but, you know, I wanna make sure that we amplify something Mike just said, which is, um, that Monmouth university has virtually no debt. I mean, do you know how abnormal that is in American higher education for an institution, uh, that has our infrastructure? Uh, I always say that if you take the two, if you saw our campus and how fantastic it is, and you hadn't seen our balance sheet, I would naturally assume, well, it's a beautiful campus. Like that must have a lot of outstanding debt, not the case. If you looked at our balance sheet and saw virtually no debt on it, and you hadn't seen the campus, you might think, oh, well, that's a strong balance sheet, but I can't imagine what the physical plant looks like. It must not be up to, uh, 21st century standards. We have both of those together. And when you put the two of those together, the, the quality of our physical plant and the fact that we have no long term outstanding debt, I mean, we are in an enviable position, um, across American higher education, Matt Harmon: Let's get into, uh, president Lehe, the latest update for the president's fund. Uh, I saw some more envelopes being tossed into the mail yesterday. That continues to be a little bit of a, a beacon of light and a beacon of hope during this time. Patrick Leahy: Well, you're one of my loyal followers on Twitter at Patrick Lehe. So you already saw this, but, um, yeah, I'm proud to tell you, we've got now three waves. We do these in a week, a week at a time. And so far we've had 736 applications, uh, requests for money from the president's relief fund, 547 of them we've been able to accommodate to some level. I don't, I don't wanna suggest at a hundred percent of the request amount, but at some level, and even the 189 or so left that did not get funds from the, from the relief fund. They're getting great information, Matt. I mean, uh, Amanda clause is, is responding, uh, very quickly, very personally, to all inquiries that come in. Sometimes it's just a student doesn't realize that we're gonna give their pro Ratta refund in room and board, or maybe a student doesn't realize that they, that we've committed their on campus job for the remainder of the semester or whatever. So not only is a large percentage of the applicants getting a little bit of relief money, but a hundred percent of the applicants are getting really good information in a timely fashion. So I am really proud of it. Uh, Mike's been supportive of it and many of our other board members, um, I've said, we're not gonna do any aggressive fundraising right now. It's just not appropriate, but I have heard increasingly people as they hear about this fund, they wanna be a part of it. And so of course, I wanna make sure they, they can be a part of it if they so choose Michael Plodwick: And seems Matt Harmon: Like, yeah, seems like a good way. Chairman PLA Rick to bring you back in, um, with this president's fund. It certainly sounds like something that the board not only supports, but you know, on board with, and really getting behind to try and help lend a hand to some of the mama students. Michael Plodwick: Well, this turn out to be a fairly big topic our conference for today after pat said what he just sent to you to the board. And, um, I think some of our trustees, perhaps weren't as aware of the president's fund as they maybe might have been. And, um, I've gotten three or four emails since our board meeting ended at 1230 today saying I'm contributing to the president's release fund and I would expect to see many, many more Matt Harmon: Well, that is certainly good news. And, uh, anytime we can kind of finish one of these with good news, I think that's a good place to get out chairman plak. I really appreciate you hopping on with president Lehe and I to kind of talk about the latest financial news. I, I wish we both wish I think that we were doing this at a different time and sitting in the studios of WMC X and being able to record and talk and laugh and kind of, uh, talk more about just the mammoth experience for students, but at a time right now, where information is so important, really do appreciate you coming on, giving us some time today. Michael Plodwick: Uh, my pleasure, anytime, man, Matt Harmon: President Lehe, I will, uh, talk to you next week. You and I will brainstorm a little bit on maybe who we'll have on to talk about some of the other, uh, issues and people that have been affected and how we can kind of pull them in to this Monmouth weekly series. But as always said, I appreciate your time. Um, and, and wish you nothing but a, uh, nice relaxing week going into the weekend. Patrick Leahy: Yeah, me too, Matt. I, I, I'm so grateful for, uh, this opportunity to be with you. And one of the things I've learned during this, uh, stay at home exercise in this remote work is that I will always forever more appreciate when we are all back together and we can meet together in the studios. And when I can convene with my colleagues around the table again, and Mike, I can be with you and the board together. Again, I will cherish those opportunities. Uh, like I've never cherished them before. I just hope that it is sooner rather than later. Michael Plodwick: So do I, I'm actually holding out hope that we can have a, a June board meeting in person. Cause I look forward to seeing all my fellow trustees. Matt Harmon: I think everybody would sign for that. Uh, for all of us here at the university community, our president Patrick Lehe board of trustee, chairman Michael wick, I'm Matt Harmon member of the communication department. We thank you for giving us, uh, your time week in and week out, Monmouth weekly. We'll continue. We'll be back with episode six next week, but we stay so long for this episode. Number five, for all information related to Monmouth coronavirus, university news, whatever it is, you might need check out all our social media platforms and of course go to monmouth.edu.