Matt Harmon: On this episode of Monmouth weekly university, president Patrick Lehe and vice president Maryanne, nay discuss the latest news around campus, including all remote delivery for the next two weeks leading into fall break. This is faculty member, Matt Harmon. It's time for episode number 18 of Mammouth weekly. Thanks as for joining us Matt Harmon: Boy, very good morning to start off another week. The first full week of October it's episode, 18 of our Monmouth weekly podcast faculty member, Matt Harmon joined by university president Patrick Lehe and today vice president for student life and leadership engagement, Maryanne, Nagy. Uh, I wish both of you a good morning. It has been certainly, uh, another up and down crazy week. When you talk about the coronavirus pandemic and the effects that it has had on schools all around the country, mammoth included, uh, president Lehe. I'll, I'll give you kind of the, we can almost make this, we'll make this debate style. I'll give you first word. You can have, uh, UN uninterrupted two minutes if you'd like, Patrick Leahy: it is that season. Isn't it? Matt, the debate season. So, uh, good morning, Matt. Nice to be with you as always. I'm really pleased to have, uh, Maryanne ne on with us this morning. She's been on before she was, she was on way back episode number five or something, I think. Um, but, uh, as you point out, she's not only the vice president for student life and leadership engagement, but she's been the, uh, chair of our crisis management team. So she's been instrumental in helping us manage this pandemic that I thought, uh, might make certain to get, uh, Maryanne's opinions on, uh, some things too. But, uh, yeah, we're, it seems like for the 18 times that we've been, uh, broadcasting, this it's been topsy turvy, uh, over that period of time, Matt and, uh, you know, the last couple weeks have been in particular, since we started bringing students back to campus in late August, we committed as a university that we would be transparent about, uh, our progress managing the COVID 19 virus. We have a, uh, pretty elaborate data dashboard that we've posted to the internet and that we update every day where there's cases, um, we're not required to do so by the state of New Jersey. We just feel that that's, uh, consistent with our transparency culture here at Monmouth. Um, and so we've been tracking that since late August and, uh, you know, in the last week or so have seen some, uh, you know, concerning signs of growth in cases. And so that's, what's, uh, led us to our most recent, uh, decisions about our fall operations, which I'm happy to get into in more detail. Matt Harmon: Yeah, we, we, we can certainly talk about those and we will, um, I I'll throw this one to, to vice president and Navy and say, I, I know as of last night, and as I looked at it even this morning, uh, it looks like the university has confirmed 199 cases between residential students, uh, commuter, non residential students and employees. Um, and I say 1 99 and I, I asked, was that number at, maybe at this point of the semester or about a month in, was that number expected or was it more, is this more unexpected, do you think? Mary Anne Nagy: Uh, well, good morning, Matt and, uh, president Lehe. Um, great to be with both of you. Um, I think that we knew from the beginning that we were going to see positive COVID 19 cases. Uh, I'm not sure that any of us at any point could expect any particular number. Um, but, um, it, it, it doesn't surprise me in some ways in that, you know, students are, um, are back and they, um, are together. And, um, sometimes they're togetherness, um, promotes, um, them to be too close to one another. And I, I know all of us are, are probably very tired about, of wearing a mask, but the reality is if we stay six feet plus a away from one another again, physically distant and we wear our masks, we, we, we can minimize the, the spread, uh, from one person to another. So am I disappointed to see this number? Yes. Um, but I, I don't know that it was UN completely unexpected, although I think this is a very quick, uh, jump to these numbers. And I think that we have some sense of, of, of why, um, the numbers have jumped the way they have Matt Harmon: President Lehe. Um, you know, is something that you and I talked about. I want to say an episode or two ago when, when the news had come out that, um, students would be returning to campus. And there were some classes that had the option and would go forward. Mine included of meeting in person to think that the university was gonna have no cases was, was probably very naive. Uh, but what, what's your take on, on the, the quick jump over the last week to 10 days of, of the numbers? Patrick Leahy: Well, let me just reiterate, uh, something that both you and Maryanne said that we expected cases, uh, even the state of New Jersey expected cases, because if you'll recall, part of our, uh, restart plans had to include setting aside room for, uh, you know, residence hall rooms for isolation. So that of course assumes that we're gonna have cases on campus. You know, for the first few weeks there, we, we had minimal numbers of cases. We felt that it was testing our protocols that we had in place, but that, uh, you know, the protocols were, were, uh, were properly, uh, implemented and that they were working quite well and helping to identify potential contact and taking appropriate steps. I think what's happened over the last, uh, week or so as Maryanne suggested. I just think that there's social activity that is, uh, causing this jump in cases. I mean, if you look at those 199 cumulative cases, only three of them, uh, are faculty or staff members and the ones are students, almost all of them, undergraduate students, um, not graduate students. So the good news is, uh, it's not spreading around the campus, uh, across the generations. It's sort of contained at this point to our student population. I'm also pleased to, to report that it seems like the cases have been mild to this point. I'm not minimizing the seriousness, I'm just reporting the facts that they seem to be, um, mild cases. Uh, thank God. Uh, so I, I think this, the spike is a result of social, uh, activity, not academic activity and consequently, that's why our first step last week was to sort of minimize the, the amount of social activity on campus. Matt Harmon: Yeah. We'll get into, um, we'll get into the, the new guidelines and new protocols, um, vice president Naga. I think this is an interesting question for you because as the vice president of student life, and also as president LA, he mentioned, um, you, you head up the coronavirus pandemic task force on campus, the term student life, I, I, I would think has taken on an absolutely different and, and meaning that you would've never thought it, it could have because student life right now is so different. And, and in so many ways, so limited to what Monmouth usually is, which is this, this hustle and bustle, buzzing activity, uh, so much activity on campus, but, but that's just not the case right now. Mary Anne Nagy: Um, you're absolutely right, Matt, you know, in, in fact, you know, the first week of October, we should be, um, working hard and, and, and, uh, seeing lots of excitement in anticipation for, you know, um, one, uh, you know, our homecoming experience. And, and it, it's, it's very muted in, in, in that way, but there's a lot of things that are going on from a virtual activity perspective. And I think it's important that we continue to make sure that we're, um, providing students with opportunities to be able to still engage with one another, albeit in a very different fashion, much like they're engaging with each other differently now in the classroom. Um, but yes, um, student life is different. You know, you're not seeing, you know, groups of students who are out on the athletic playing fields in recreation intramurals. The, the fitness center is, is, is silent. This morning. Dining hall is, is very different. It's pick up and, and take out to go or, or just eat eating outside and, you know, look, it's, it's a, it's wonderful to have some what I call Alfresco dining, but at some point, you know, as the weather gets a little cooler, um, that, that becomes a challenge as well. So yeah, delivering a student life experience is, is, is challenging, but I think, you know, the staff has, has, uh, stepped up to it. And, you know, I think our, our, our other job is to make sure that we not only provide the experience, but we provide the support that students continue to need. And, and maybe actually need more now during the middle of a, a, a global pandemic and, and a, and a, and a challenge here on, on the university's campus, Matt Harmon: President Lehe, the announcement that, uh, you had made on Friday, um, it was a bit ironic. Believe it or not, I was up having, um, individual meetings with one of my classes, my public speaking class, given in back their, their first grading sheet to go over it and talk about things to improve. And I had one on one meetings on that day. Um, and then ironically, a couple hours after that had, had come to a close, the announcement was made official that I think everyone kind of anticipated that, that Monmouth would become all remote again for the next two weeks. And these two weeks now become really extremely important cause it will lead into fall break. And, and I will, I will lead you into this question, not knowing what direction you'll take it with a hope that after fall break things can go back to the way that at least they were when those, those hybrid or in person classes could, could pick back up again. Correct. Patrick Leahy: Uh, correct. I mean, we, this fall, we've positioned it all along as a modified reopening of the campus because we knew we would have many fewer students living with us, uh, by their choice. We knew that, uh, the majority of our academic programming was in fact going to be delivered online. Um, so some 60% of our academic programming is already online at the beginning of the semester, Matt. So we knew that it was gonna be a modified reopening of the campus. Uh, what we need to do now over this next two weeks is to make sure that we can control the, the spread of the virus so that we can go back to that modified reopening for the second half of the semester. We don't intend to reopen anymore. What we're trying to do is prevent from, uh, having to reopen for the second half less. So this next two week period is really, really important. Um, when we started seeing that cases increase, you know, we had our crisis management team together, our senior administrative team, and we decided that the first step, as I mentioned, would be to clamp down on a lot of the social activity, try to minimize the amount of activity on campus from a nonacademic standpoint, if you will, knowing that the majority of our academic programming was already delivered online and that we had already densified the campus from an academic standpoint and that we were managing, uh, academic progress, uh, in a really responsible way. So we took that first step and we implemented a whole whole range of, uh, additional protocols. And then, uh, a few days after that, we con you know, we didn't see, uh, an immediate drop in the number of cases. So we just decided the, the next most responsible thing to do would be to take that two week break academically, as well as you point out and to convert the remaining in person and hybrid courses to a hundred percent online and to do it for the two week period. So we could have a concentrated two week effort to minimize the amount of activity on the campus. We will be watching very carefully, the case counts over that two week period in the hopes that we can return for that modified reopening for the second half of the fall semester. Matt Harmon: When you think of it in terms of right now, um, if you are a student living on campus, I know in the email that president Lehe distributed and then the subsequent video message that he could after the university community as well, trying to encourage students to actually remain on campus rather than head home because of the, the different parameters and the different, obviously, you know, the, the idea of we can keep everybody in one spot for two weeks, and then hopefully the numbers go down rather than go up. But how frustrating, trying to think of the best way to phrase this, how frustrating has the student body been with, you know, students that maybe have been on campus that now could go home for two weeks, but actually the university is asking them to stay. Mary Anne Nagy: Um, good question, Matt. Um, you know, I, what I would say is I, I think it's more of a frustration, um, that I'm hearing of students saying I'm doing the right thing, and I'm maybe seeing others not, and they're more frustrated with those that are not, which are putting them in the situation to one modify the way, um, their education is being delivered, um, to, um, tamping down some of the social activities that they have responsibly participated in. And, and three, um, maybe to a certain extent, um, you know, minimizing their ability. Um, not that we have said you can't go home, but we are encouraging students to remain with us for those two days of fall break. Um, so yeah, I think there is some frustration on the part of students, um, uh, right now in general. And I can understand that, you know, I, I think that they, um, you know, they, again, particularly those who are, um, maybe ad, you know, adhering a little bit, bit better to the protocols, they they're, they're frustrated. Um, what I would say to them is, um, you know, we're a community. We all have to work together. Um, we, you know, at this point, our, our advice is to encourage them to stay with us, but that is also something that we will continue to monitor as we go along. And as we discuss further with some of our public health officials, um, the best strategies for the next several weeks, Matt Harmon: Faculty member, Matt Harmon, university, president Patrick Lehe, vice president, Maryanne, Nagy, talking about the latest update that Monmouth will go, uh, to a remote schedule for the next two weeks leading into fall break 199 confirmed cases as of, uh, this morning, president Lehe. When, when you look at it, knowing that there were going to be cases there were going to be numbers. Um, I, I, is there anything that, that you would hope for in the next two weeks, other than those numbers going down, obviously, but is there anything that you would hope for that you could, that you could foresee, um, from a university community standpoint that things could, could turn back around? Because I think especially, you know, listen, if you watch the news, if you listen to the media, um, it, it, it does seem like numbers everywhere have gone back up. What, what would make Monmouth, what would put Monmouth in a position where the numbers could go back down? Patrick Leahy: Well, we don't, we don't have a specific metric. I mean, I, it's not as though, uh, we can say the number needs to be exactly at this number in order for us to either stay remote or to, to go back to that modified reopening. Um, but we need to make, we need to see, uh, a leveling off of the number of cases the governor keeps talking about bending that curve. Well, we have that, we have our own little curve, uh, here on campus that we need to make sure that we're bending over the next two weeks. And we need to make sure that we get back into a comfortable position that even if there are, uh, you know, a minimal number of cases that they are minimal and that it doesn't seem like it's, uh, has the potential to spread, uh, you know, very, very wi uh, widely. So we'll be watching the case numbers very, very carefully, and we'll be in touch practically daily. I would say Maryanne right daily with, uh, Monmouth county, uh, public health commission. Uh, they have been such great partners in this effort, uh, every, uh, move we make, uh, we do in consultation with them to this point, they've been very supportive of our actions and, uh, we envision, uh, following the cases very closely talking with, uh, you know, our, our local public health officials and in concert with them making the decisions that make the most sense, uh, for the university and for the surrounding community. Of course, we have a, a campus that is part of, uh, long grant west long branch ocean township and, you know, the surrounding community. And we wanna make sure we're doing the responsible things, not only for our campus, but for our community. So, um, I think that's how we, we will assess our progress over the next couple weeks Matt Harmon: When you think of it. Um, presently in another, another question now that the university has gone back to, uh, this remote delivery, at least for the next two weeks, does that set off you, you mentioned the, the, the working with the state and with the county, does that set off any, any sort of protocols or plans that now that Monmouth has become remote, that they now have to go back to and get approval to in, in essence Reback open, if, if things do level off and, or go down? Patrick Leahy: No, I don't think so. I'll ask Maryanne as well, but I don't think so, because if what we are complying a hundred percent with what the state is requiring of us as an institution, this, the latest move on our part is more restrictive than what the state requires right now. So, um, as long as we are doing things that are more restrictive than the state, it doesn't require any additional, uh, approvals from them. If we wanted to, uh, petition for some waiver to be less restrictive than the state. I think, uh, the state, would've something to say about it, but this latest move, I don't think requires any specific, uh, approval from them. Do I have that right? Maryanne? Mary Anne Nagy: Yeah, no, it, it wouldn't require any approval from the state. Uh, I think what we would want to do is as we progress through the next, um, week to week and a half, um, have, um, uh, as part of our continuing conversations with our local health officials, you know, some sort of a conversation about, um, the, the timing of, uh, the return, uh, and, or, um, what, if anything we may need to do in addition to what we're currently doing, or do we have to continue to, uh, go another couple of days or a week, uh, on, uh, from a remote perspective, but those are all, all very premature, um, conversations at this point. Matt Harmon: Sorry, I had to unmute my mic there for a second. we think about how, uh, how the semester has gone so far. And, and, and I can talk from a personal perspective, all four of my classes as a full-time, um, faculty member have been hybrid. So I, I have seen each and every one of my classes, I feel, I feel better about going back to remote, knowing that I've, we've been able to get off to a little bit of a normal start. Um, but you know, now delivering that message how important, and, and I think either end or both of you could answer this question, um, how important is the communication that will now continue whether it's from administration, whether it's from staff, whether it's from faculty to make sure that the, the students, which is ultimately while we're why we all are there, um, having a job and being able to work at Monmouth because of the student population, how important is delivering the same message from top to bottom president, staff, administration, faculty, to the student body right now? I, I, I would think more so than, than, than ever. Patrick Leahy: Yes. I mean, more so than ever communicating on a college campus, uh, has its challenges in a normal, uh, situation, just because there are so many constituencies, but in a, uh, public health situation in which we find ourselves, it's that much more important, Matt, and, you know, it's on me, let's, let's start there. I have to make sure that I'm communicating as frequently and as clearly as possible, uh, to our, uh, not only our on campus constituent our faculty and our staff members, but then ultimately to our students and their families, cuz you can imagine how engaged the families are in this. Uh, and I understand, um, as the father of college age, kids, myself, I'm very interested in, uh, in knowing what the, the administrations at the various schools have in mind. So, uh, it's very important to, uh, communicate as, as often and as clearly as possible. Patrick Leahy: It's one of the reasons that, um, you know, we send out these, these messages as frequently as we do, uh, via email, we do these podcasts and I'm very grateful to you for, uh, your energy around this, the, this series. Uh, I, I get on these open calls with, uh, faculty and staff. I'm doing one again here this morning at nine o'clock. I do these at least biweekly. Uh, but, but that says nothing of the number of meetings that Maryanne and I, and, and Dr. Donna and all the other vice presidents, uh, jump on on a regular basis, uh, to try to, uh, communicate the message as clearly, clearly as possible. I understand Matt that things are changing and that there's nuance to the changes. Uh, well, what what's different about this set of protocols from the last set of protocols, and that really is incumbent upon, uh, coming upon all of us to communicate as clearly as possible. Matt Harmon: Can you on that as well, because you, you clearly are the one who's in touch, um, with all of the student groups and organizations on campus. And again, having a consistent message just so important right now. Mary Anne Nagy: Yeah. I, I, I can't echo enough with what president Lehe said, but, but also I think the, you know, the challenge too is, you know, in communicating with, in particular with our students and, and Matt, you know, this as a faculty member in communications, the way students want to be communicated with today and the, and the way that perhaps, you know, we, we are used to communicating, I E email and, and, and lengthy explanations is, is not cutting it. So, you know, we're, we're re constantly reworking to see how we can bullet things, um, do infographics, um, use social media in such a way to get the message out, um, that we might need to get out. But, you know, the challenging part is there's a lot of information that we have to, uh, share and, you know, sometimes the best way to do that is in writing. And, and, but what, what we also know is, um, everyone, you know, sort of reads to a certain point and then they, they can tune that out. So it is a challenge for us, but it's something that, um, we have to, you know, just constantly be on top of Patrick Leahy: Matt. Let me, let me just join, uh, join in again, here with, uh, a comment. I learned this from a, from a colleague of mine at one of the New Jersey, uh, uh, higher ed institutions. And, uh, we agreed that you can boil all of the protocols down to really one simple phrase, mask up, back up and wash up. I mean, you can really boil it down to that, and I've added a fourth, which is, and whatever you do, don't touch your face because that is the way in which you can, you can spread this virus, uh, yeah, I guess, most easily. So, you know, the, the protocols do get complicated. Is the fitness center open or not? Can I sit with my friends, uh, uh, when I'm eating or not? Yes, you can outdoors. No, you can't indoors, but you must stay six feet apart. It can get complicated and that can obfuscate the communication, uh, uh, plans, but you can really boil it down to mask up, back, wash up and whatever you do, don't touch your face, Matt Harmon: President Lee, how many times, um, as we start to wind down here, how many times in the last, I'll say 72 hours since you made this announcement, how many times have you been asked? Is there a chance that mama does not return to what, what was last week, but might not be again until, um, I mean, the T B D in essence, I mean, there is a chance that after fall break being remote is, is a possibility, correct? Patrick Leahy: Yes. I mean, I, again, in the interest of full disclosure, yes, it's a possibility, uh, we will do what we have to do to control the spread of this virus and to keep all of our university constituents as safe and as healthy as possible period. I mean, that has been our mantra all along. We just want to keep making decisions, Matt, that integrate that primary, uh, goal to keep everyone health healthy and safe, but also with what we know to be the interest of our students to be on campus, if possible, and the interest of many of our faculty to be teaching in person a as much as possible and so forth. So we continue as we manage this pandemic to try to integrate those sometimes competing demands. So yes, to be candid, it's possible that we may have to decide over the next two weeks to go remote for the entire semester, but I'm not committing to that right now, because I do feel comfortable that with the new protocols that we have in place for the next two weeks, I do feel confident that we'll be able to control this spread and, uh, and do so in a way that would allow us to bring folks back to that modified reopening, uh, for the second half of the semester, Matt Harmon: Uh, vice president Agie LA last question for you before we talk about, hopefully some, some non pandemic information on campus, um, all the student groups on campus and, and they are so important to the, the liveliness and the lifeblood of what Monmouth has always been. H H how have you been able to keep track on how they're meeting, what they're doing? You know, what's taking place. I know it's not necessarily all you, but you do have, um, you know, your, your finger on the pulse of so many of them have, have all the student groups in essence, tried to meet and do things remotely just to try and have that connection. Mary Anne Nagy: Yeah, absolutely. Matt, you know, they're very adept at, um, using zoom for, for their virtual meetings. Uh, I would meet on a weekly basis with student government and we will routinely have 35 to 40 of our, um, um, members on that call and, and actively participating. Uh, I know there are many other groups that are doing the same thing. Um, even our fraternity and sorority community are working, um, to be able to meet as chapters indivi, you know, as individually online, but also, um, as, uh, a Greek Senate and, and, and governing boards. Um, a lot of our actually all now are of our programming is being delivered virtually whether it's a comedian or a concert or bingo or, or, uh, anything else. And, you know, we had a murder mystery, uh, event the other night that was all virtual. So, yeah. Um, I, I, I think that we're, we're, we're seeing that adaptation and, um, students are, are continuing to participate and, and actually participating in some really, you know, positive, strong numbers, Matt Harmon: President Lehe from, from the idea that, uh, under the category, if we've done pandemic, um, through the first 29 minutes. And I said, what else is going on on Mammouth? There are other things, and there are other, uh, there are other pieces of news. There are some, some really good things and some new initiatives that the university is trying to get up and off the ground. Patrick Leahy: Well, I, I think, you know, uh, Matt, that I was, uh, educated by the Jesuits and, uh, the founder of the Jesuits has, has said that, um, leaders, high performing leaders and high performing organizations by extension must keep one foot firmly planted in the present and one foot raised to the future. And so with that image in mind, you know, we're going to continue to move on some initiatives this fall, despite the, the, the time and effort that it takes to manage the pandemic. And I include in that things like we have launched are the search, the national search for our permanent senior vice president and provost. I'm, I'm really excited about, uh, the prospects of that search. We are getting our strategic planning committee up and running again, as you know, right before the pandemic, we were just about to roll out thoughts about our strategic plan. Patrick Leahy: And, uh, we had to put that, uh, on hold, and we wanna revisit that and start re-energizing that committee that will help us work five years out as an institution. We're expanding our diversity and inclusion advisory council so that we can keep, um, keep, uh, you know, the idea of creating a genuinely welcoming, diverse, and welcoming community at the forefront of our efforts, despite the challenges in our, um, uh, managing the pandemic. So, so many things that I want the university community to feel comforted that as we manage the day to day crisis, we are also keeping that one foot raise to the future so that we can look beyond this pandemic and continue to build Monmouth university. I I'll just finish with one piece of good news. You know, this is ranking season in American higher education. And we received in, in the midst of all this, some really positive news about the university's relative standing in, in higher ed. Patrick Leahy: Once again, included on the Princeton review list of best colleges. Once again, included in money magazine's best value university's, uh, included once again, in the wall street journal times, higher ed, uh, uh, listing of, uh, best universities. And then you may have heard Matt that, uh, when the us news and world report rankings came out, we were, uh, ranked, uh, number 23 in our category, which high ranking, uh, in the history of the university. So, uh, I have my feelings about these rankings, um, in general, I think they oversimplify the complexities of educating students in the 21st century, but they are what they are, and I'm pleased to see our, um, relative standing, improving in all of these rankings, uh, rather than the alternative. So I hope that's evidence of, um, you know, the great work that happens on this campus day in and day out. Matt Harmon: Yeah, it's clearly, it's good to be involved in the rankings when, when the rankings are, are very good for the, the university and it, and it is fantastic news to hear, um, that Monmouth continues to kind of carve out its spot in higher education, uh, vice president Agie thank you so much for coming on this morning. You're welcome. And walking through what has been such a challenging, uh, last six months and continues to be a challenge, but I know, um, president Lehe ha has, has full faith in you as the, as the, um, head of the, the task force with this coronavirus pandemic. And obviously if there's anything, um, that the faculty can do from speaking for myself, please, please keep me posted and let me know. Mary Anne Nagy: Great, thanks so much, Matt really appreciate the opportunity to be on and participate in the, in the podcast with both of you Matt Harmon: President Lehe, we will do this again soon. I appreciate your time. Uh, as always, we'll get this up and up and going for the university to community to listen to, and as always sits mammoth.edu, that's the spot, right? To continue to get the information and, and the most up to date news Patrick Leahy: Out. Yeah, that's the spot. I mean, not only our, our COVID, uh, 19 response website, but every communication that I send out email or video or podcasts are all linked on, uh, my site, my part of the site. So, um, again, that's an effort, uh, to ensure that we're being as, uh, as transparent as possible. So feel free to check out our site for both of those pieces of information. Matt Harmon: We will be back, uh, shortly with episode 19, we closed this episode, the 18th of the mammoth weekly series for university president Patrick Lehe, vice president, Mary Ann, NA this is faculty member, Matt Harmon. Again, it's monmouth.edu, your spot for all of the latest news and happenings involving everything that Monmouth has up and going follow the school on all the social media channels as well. And we'll talk to you very soon as always thanks so much for listening and be a part of it. If there's anything that you'd like us discuss in a future episode, feel free to reach out to myself or president Lehe, uh, stay safe and stay healthy. We'll talk to you very soon.