Matt Harmon:
On this episode of Monmouth weekly university, president Patrick Lehe discusses the start of the spring semester, the announcer retirements of two key members of the university community and more. This is faculty member, Matt Harmon. It's time for episode number 22 of Monmouth weekly. Thanks as Zoe for listening.

Speaker 2:
Well, I'll go against a grain as we welcome you into 2021 and our mammoth weekly podcast. And I'll say happy Monday, I'm Matt Horman faculty member of the department of communication with university president Patrick Lehe. We've had a nice, uh, solid break president Lehe. You know, I, I teased you the other day when, when we talked about, um, putting together this episode now 22 and, and getting back up there, you were busy with some meetings, and I said, don't the people in your meetings understand the, the power of our podcast. You're gonna have to do some convincing to some people that, that when you, when it's time to record, you're gonna have to put all these other meetings to the side for a little while.

Patrick Leahy:
I think maybe they thought, uh, those meetings would provide some content for our podcast. Maybe that's what it was.

Matt Harmon:
Oh, so, so, so now you're giving me the opportunity as a journalist. I can go deep inside some of the meetings of, uh, all these confidential things

Patrick Leahy:
That that's right. That's right.

Matt Harmon:
That's right. Um, well, I, I say first and foremost, uh, it is good to be back broadcasting with you and, and recording. Um, as we start the spring semester in what just continues to be, you know, I always struggle for, uh, uh, the words to talk about how things are, uh, and, and, and the one that always strikes me is crazy. I mean, but in, in the middle of everything from 2020, essentially now rolling over to 2021, when you're talking about a worldwide pandemic, uh, you're talking about vaccines, you're talking about, um, racial issues. You're talking about social issues and, and so many of them, um, unfortunately I, I think so many people were just under the idea that once December 31st came in January 1st rolled in 2021, a lot of these things were gonna go away. And, and in terms of the scope of Monmouth university, most of them, if not all of them have not gone away.

Patrick Leahy:
Yeah. Maybe it was naive of, of, uh, us to think that when we turned the page from 20, 20 to 2021, that we might, uh, get a fresh start and, um, you know, just a few days into the new year, we have the assault on our capital down in Washington, DC and reminding us that, uh, those divisions in our country run, uh, extremely deeply and, uh, that, uh, we're gonna, they're gonna be with us for some time to come. So, you know, that was what, January 6th. And, um, that created a, a lot of rightful anxiety, uh, around our country and here on our campus as well. Um, I'm just glad that, uh, what was that a week or two, two weeks later, I guess, or, um, we were able to inaugurate a new present, you know, I'm not making the case here, uh, whether he was, uh, our listeners candidate or not. I'm just glad that we got our new president, uh, peacefully inaugurated and demonstrated to the world that, uh, our democracy, uh, um, maybe bent a little bit there in, uh, early January, but it, by no means broke. And, uh, that made me proud as an American,

Matt Harmon:
You know, it, it, it's so difficult right now. Um, I, if you're a member of this country and I, I'm gonna, I'm gonna err on the side of just saying it doesn't necessarily matter what, what party you're in, um, or support, or if you're just a full on independent, but, uh, you know, people, people turn to those in leadership under times of duress. Uh, and I know for you, it's probably something that's difficult because I I'm sure from a Monmouth university standpoint, community, people want to hear from you about everything that goes on, not just on campus, but in the area, um, locally, nationwide, globally, so that when these things happen, the immediate response is, well, what what's president Lehe think about it. Um, and, and, and, and to your credit, I think not only have you commented on, um, all of these issues as they've come up, but they haven't necessarily been maybe the, the quick, you know, I'll say 140 character because that's the world that we live in response that you can do in 60 seconds. Sometimes it, it could take a day or two for you to think of a poignant response that addresses, um, the issue as a whole.

Patrick Leahy:
It's a fascinating question you ask Matt, because I, I do sometimes if I'm candid with you, um, I feel sometimes that it's not my place to make comments on national events. I mean, um, sometimes I wonder what standing, I have to comment on national events. I always say that as those events, whatever they are it, when, when they become more and more influential on the community that I am in fact privileged to serve, that is the greater Monmouth university community as those national events become that much more palpable on our community than, yes. I feel like my standing to say something rises. And, you know, in the case of the, the attacks on the capital, I thought about whether I should say something and I just felt like, well, those are, those are national events. And I hope our elected officials are, are speaking out against it. And, uh, so many others. And then as the days went by, as you, as you suggest, I just got a sense that there were members of our university community that were really hurting by this. They, they were just, uh, uh, really confused by it, uh, at the very least if not flat out hurt by it. And that's when I decided, uh, to send out a message to the campus community, just, you know, adding my condemnation to the con condemnation of so many others. Um, I try, uh, very hard to stay as a political as possible in this job because, uh, we need friends on all sides of the aisle of Matt, you know, Democrats, Republicans and independents alike. If you're interested in supporting our students, then, um, then you're welcome here. Um, but I felt that the events on, uh, January 6th were, uh, beyond, uh, politics and just, uh, rose to the level of, um, you know, condemnation. So I, I made a statement and, uh, it was very positively received at least from those who reached out to me.

Matt Harmon:
So I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna follow up with that. And, and I feel like on a, on a Monday in January where, yeah, we wanna talk about the semester getting back up and going. We wanna talk about some campus news. We wanna talk about hopefully an exciting spring, um, coming up and, and, you know, all, all the departments getting back up and going, and how can we turn the page? I, I, I, it does make me think that we could go on probably, um, for an extremely long time about this topic. And, and, and your role as president in a Monmouth university and, and something that you just said to, to paraphrase a, a little bit, you know, being inclusive from a university standpoint is something that you have stressed in all of these podcasts that we've talked about with any of these social issues.

Matt Harmon:
Um, it, it, it's been part of your addresses to the university committee since you took over two years ago. It, do you worry ever, um, especially in today's day and age, that, you know, I, I I'll use the phrase towing the lines. Do, do you have to tow the line because if you speak positive about one person, people automatically take it that you're speaking negative about, um, uh, something else or, or another person, or the way that somebody else might view things, um, where, where the idea of trying to be inclusive, unbiased, let people have their say it it's a difficult world to navigate right now in that regard.

Patrick Leahy:
It is. And that's why when it comes to politicians, I try to stay as quiet on it, you know, on them as possible. You know, if, if there's a, an elected official either at the federal level or the state level that is passing some legislation that I think is contrary to the service that we wanna offer to our students, then I'll speak up about it. No question in, in support of our students or in support of our university, no matter what party they're they're from. Uh, but I try to pick my spots, uh, so that I'm commenting on things, as I mentioned, that directly affect our community. Um, one of the reasons I think it's important for the president to be a political is because we wanna make sure we're fostering, um, as diverse, uh, a political discourse on campus as possible as well, because that's the world in which we live. And if not, um, the free exchange of ideas on a college campus then where, so, um, I just try, try hard to, to, uh, sort of stay out of it. <laugh> Matt, until, uh, as I said, until I feel like I have some standing to, uh, to, to say something,

Matt Harmon:
You know, let, let let's, let's at least hold on that. I mean, this can clearly be something that you and I can spend some more time on in another episode, but, but because, you know, we, we try and keep these to about 30 minutes, give or take a little bit, um, I, I do want to, um, discuss the idea that the spring semester is now up and going albeit a few days after, you know, it was funny people, um, you know, that, that know me, including my wife, we had a conversation and sh she, we were talking about basically having an extra week, cuz I'm so ingrained to Tuesday after labor day, Tuesday after Martin Luther king day. Um, what, what was the, what was the thought process about giving everybody that extra week in terms of getting students back to campus, which I would think, um, played a pretty big role in it and just, just making sure that everything was okay for that extra week starting today as opposed to last week.

Patrick Leahy:
Yeah, I think that extra week was helpful to us in particular, the, uh, quarantining that students coming in from outta state needed to needed to, um, you know, adhere to. So that extra week was really helpful in, in that regard. You'll recall Matt, that we, uh, are gonna make up that, that week, starting later by, uh, taking collapsing the, uh, traditional week long spring break, we'll have a couple day, a couple Fridays off as sort of mental health days, if you will. But, um, we're gonna be able to make up that time by collapsing spring break, we needed the week now more than we, uh, think we need it in the middle of the semester. So we've started bringing students back, uh, as of, uh, a week or so ago. Many of our athletes, uh, are coming back who have designs on competing in the spring. And we can talk about that. Um, as you know, our basketball teams were, were here pretty much through the entire break, uh, trying to compete. So, uh, we're back at it. We have 1100 students living with us. It's a lot lower than normal, but it's about what we had in the fall. So, um, those students that want to be back on campus, even if much of their academic programming is still online, are welcome to be here. And, uh, we, we love having 'em here. It provides some energy to the campus that, uh, we so desperately want. So, um, we're in a pretty good spot today is the first day of the spring semester. And, um, all courses, uh, should be up and running this week.

Matt Harmon:
Let's, let's talk a little bit about, um, for those either on campus, faculty, staff, um, students, obviously, what, has there been any changes to the, the testing protocol, the process, if somebody comes in contact, um, all of the guidelines that rolled over from the fall, they're, they're just continuing here in the spring semester.

Patrick Leahy:
Pretty much we we're gonna do a lot more, uh, batch testing this spring. Uh, some of those technologies have developed even over the last three or four months. So, um, we're gonna do a lot of batch testing. Uh, we'll still have all of our testing capabilities available for anyone in the university, community, student, faculty, or staff. Who's feeling the least bit symptomatic, anyone who's in direct contact we'll have access to tests. So, um, you know, our testing protocols are gonna be pretty rigid for all of the athletes. It's gonna be even more rigid because NCAA and conference protocols demand it. So we're happy to, uh, abide by those, uh, added protocols. But we see the spring semester hopefully unfolding a lot like the fall semester. Um, you know, we'll, we'll be able to open up the dining halls, but very, very limited capacity, lots of takeout, um, for our dining students. And, um, as I said, about 50% of the normal capacity in the residence hall. So we hope pretty manageable. Um, this spring, like it was in the fall

Matt Harmon:
From a, from a student perspective, you had mentioned, you know, the, the number of students on campus and bringing them back a little bit early. Um, I, I would imagine that if, if you are among those who came back to stay on campus, is it fair to, is it fair to say that the students have been tested already before classes started today? Or is it, or is it if you're feeling, um, you know, ill or have any signup symptom, then you go and get tested?

Patrick Leahy:
Yeah. Good question. If you are a residential student, you must be tested within 72 hours of your return. We were at one point, Matt requiring students to return with evidence of a negative test, but we found out from too many of our students and their families that they were having trouble getting the testing necessary in their home communities. So when they raised that concern, we decided that we'll do the testing here. We'll make sure that we take care of our students. So we change the policy just slightly to suggest that either bring us a negative test or, uh, you must be tested here on campus within the first, uh, uh, couple days of returning. That'll give us a chance to make sure that we sort of level set where we are, if there are any positive cases, which there have been a few, uh, we can move on those immediately isolate, uh, those, those positive tests, do the contact tracing, um, to make sure that all direct contacts are also quarantining and try to keep the, the caseload at, at an absolute minimum. So, um, yeah, everybody returning will be tested.

Matt Harmon:
You know, you, you had mentioned president Lehe as we talk here, mom, with weekly episode number 22 start of the spring semester, uh, 2021 faculty member, Matt Harmon. Um, you mentioned the, the athletes being on campus specifically men's and women's basketball. I mean, it's, it's been as an example, quite a roller coaster ride for them. Uh, women's team had, had been off for a, a long time, just played their first league game, um, over the course of the last day or so, um, men men's team has had some up and down issues with testing. They went through their own quarantine period. Then I just saw they, they were quarantined, but it was a false, uh, positive. So I mean this essentially right now, for lack of a better term, I feel like is, is in essence, the world we live in,

Patrick Leahy:
That's the measure of the complexity of this pandemic that we, uh, you know, we had a positive test in the program and that we retested multiple times it came back negative. So, um, as, uh, protocols allow, we determined that a false positive and activity can begin again. Um, we had enough challenge over the, over the winter break, managing just two teams. Imagine Matt, how challenging this is gonna be in the coming couple months, when we start managing, uh, over 20 programs, it's gonna be a challenge. And, you know, as I always say, and I hope I can repeat it to you, you know, there's one reason. And one reason only that we are trying to move heaven and earth to make these athletic programs available this spring. And that is because our student athletes want the opportunity to try to compete. That's it? I mean, there's this false impression that it's about money or anything like that. It is not, it is simply about knowing that our student athletes, how important their, uh, their sports activities are to them, how good it is for their mental health and their physical health and how important it is to them. So we, uh, are trying to do what we can compliant with all the protocols that are in place at the national level and the state level. Uh, but we're doing this only because, uh, we think it's what our student athletes and their coaches and support staff, uh, wanna do. Uh, I know there are gonna be bumps, uh, in the road along the way, and there'll be starts and stops for sure, but I think, uh, it's, it's an effort worth, uh, pursuing on behalf of our students

Matt Harmon:
Listen to, to be fair, you know, my connection to the athletic program as, as one of the broadcasters, uh, specifically for, for football, soccer, um, sports like that. So I, I mean, I can't wait to see some of these teams come back, but I, I, I do have to ask from a, from a reality standpoint, is it realistic for Monmouth, or let's say any other school, you know, mama size mama resources to have, as you said up to, you know, 20 sports taking place over the course of a spring season.

Patrick Leahy:
Well, we're blessed as you know, well, we're blessed with the, with the facility that could allow it. Um, that's, that's good. We're blessed with, uh, you know, a first rate athletics department that is, uh, interested in trying to make this happen. Uh, we can afford the testing protocols that are required. So I would like to think that compared to a lot of other, uh, institutions, we're in a relatively better position to pull this off, but, um, how realistic is it? I, I, I don't know. Um, it'd be hard for me to try to handicap, you know, which sports are likely to get all the way through without interruption or which ones, uh, won't the good news is most of the sports that'll be kicking off here in the next couple months are all of course outdoor sports. So, uh, the just being outside will aid our, our efforts, uh, quite a bit. So, you know, it's gonna be a challenge. I, I won't, I won't sugarcoat that,

Matt Harmon:
You know, you brought up a, a really good point in there. Mammoth may be equipped for it because of fields, stadiums, uh, good facilities, good staff. And, and not to say that other other schools, universities that Monmouth will play during the course of the spring. Um, you know, it, it's not just Monmouth, Monmouth may be ready to go, but a, a school that might be on MoMA's schedule might not be ready to go. So I, I would imagine, as we've seen during the basketball season, you know, you, you keep your fingers crossed essentially up until, you know, an hour before game time that you hope that you can move forward.

Patrick Leahy:
<laugh> I was gonna say, uh, you keep your fingers crossed all the way up to the opening tip because, uh, you know, if we ever had evidence that there's a positive case on either side, uh, it would, uh, necessitate an immediate shutdown. So you're right. It's not just what, what we do here on this campus, but it's what all of our, um, competitors do on that point. I am, um, confident in our, uh, the other schools in our respective athletic conferences. I think, uh, the Mac in particular, where I'm very involved, uh, they're all very good colleagues and they're, we're all to a person committed first and foremost to student, uh, health and safety. And so I think all of us are gonna take the protocols, um, equally seriously, and, and that'll give us some comfort. It's one of the reasons that we're, um, greatly minimizing or, or even eliminating non-conference play, because we just don't know what other conference protocols might be. If we keep most of the competition in conference, we do know what the conference protocols are because we've all agreed to them. So, uh, um, you're right though, that we have to be, uh, not only mindful of our own efforts, but of our competitor's efforts as well,

Matt Harmon:
Very good segue into some, some pretty significant news in terms of, um, staff and, and part of essentially the, the cabinet that you have those in, in fairly high roles. And when I say fairly high, uh, not just high, but those that have been affiliated with the university for an extremely long time, um, news coming out just over the, over the course of the last week, um, that university vice president director of athletics, Marilyn McNeil will step down at the end of the academic year. So for the first time, in an extremely long time, there will be a new athletic director, uh, come July of, of 2021. I know that's not the only one that we're, we're gonna spend a couple of minutes on, but let, let's start with Dr. McNeil.

Patrick Leahy:
Well, what can you say about Dr. McNeil and her legacy here at Monmouth? I mean, we'll, we'll be benefiting from her, uh, good decisions over the last, uh, 28 years. I think it, it is, you know, we'll be benefiting from those decisions for decades to come. I mean, our, the number of sports. So we've sponsored have grown during her time. Consequently, the number of athletic opportunities we can offer to student athletes has grown, uh, significantly, um, as you know, well, uh, most of the teams that we field, uh, we field very competitively. That is a Testament to Dr. McNeil. Um, I am, have always been so impressed with, um, what a fierce advocate she is, uh, for her coaches and for the support staff, uh, mostly for the student athletes. Um, there's not an ad in the country, in my opinion, who is, um, as advocates as fiercely for our student athletes as she does. And in particular, if I may say our female athletes, um, I have to believe back in the early nineties when she was hired, there were not many female ADSS at division one athletic programs. Uh, I'm sure even today, there are not enough female ADSS in ath in division one athletic programs, but what a, uh, pioneer in many, in many respects she was then, and, uh, she will be missed sorely at, uh, at this university,

Matt Harmon:
You know, among, um, Dr. McNeil, um, Patty Swank, also vice president, who we can spend some time on as well. I mean, I, you know, despite the, the message that you sent out last week, I I'm sure that these moves weren't a complete surprise to, to you maybe specifically, although when, when you did send the email out last Wednesday, I believe I'm, I'm sure it, in a way kind of sh shook the campus a little bit because of how long both Dr. McNeil and, and Patty Swan, who, if, if memory is serving me, correct, goes all the way back to, to the 1970s when she first started at Monmouth.

Patrick Leahy:
Right. If you think about, uh, Patty Swank, who's our vice president for administrative services. She started at this university, I think, as a clerical worker and, uh, went to work, uh, in various very low level, uh, positions put herself through, uh, through, uh, college here at, at Monmouth, you know, uh, went to school at night, earned her bachelor's degree, took one successive job after another, after another. And then it was, uh, as I understand it, it was, um, Becky Stafford, president Stafford, who put her in the vice president position, uh, way back in the nineties. And she has served with distinction in those, in that role ever since. I mean, she, as part of that basket of responsibilities runs the police department, human resources, facilities, um, you know, compliance, you know, so many administrative functions that, uh, need to happen day to day at a university and she's done it so well. So to, to have both of them leave at the same time at the end of this, uh, fiscal year is, uh, a big loss for Monmouth. I think I wrote that between them, that's 73 years of service, um, that we will celebrate in advance of June 30th and then, and then lose on June 30th. So, um, yeah, I could see how this has sent some shock waves through the, the university, but, um, this is all, all them. This is their, uh, a choice entirely. I've known about it for a couple months now, and we just decided we'd wait through the holidays and get into the spring semester before an announcement went out. It gives me, uh, an opportunity to, uh, work the next four or five months to figure out how to replace the irreplaceable. Um, so that'll be on me now for the next, uh, few months to figure that out.

Matt Harmon:
Yeah. I was gonna follow that up, uh, president Lehe with, uh, with the, with the inevitable question of how, how do you replace such experience, um, at, at a place like Monmouth in, in which two specifically have seen so many changes and probably, um, almost important of, uh, as their experience in their respective fields, they can put it in a mammoth perspective because they've both been there for so long. Um, you know, I'm, I'm sure the searches will, will be vast, you know, whether it's internally, externally, um, but, but these two positions specifically, and then we can spend a minute on talking about, uh, a business school Dean, a provost also jobs that are, uh, essentially open right now in the administrative area at Mammouth. These are extremely important positions to kind of shape the future of the university moving forward.

Patrick Leahy:
Yeah. And you can imagine how important they are to me personally, um, hiring the right people to cover these functions, you know, while I'm the president here on the one hand, it's kind of, kind of ironic Matt, on the one hand, we, we will not easily replace these positions because of the incredible shoes that we have to fill. On the other hand, uh, on the contrary, it will be easy to replace them in that they've left these, you know, the university in such a strong position they've left in the case that Dr. McNeil they've left athletics in such a, an enviable position who wouldn't wanna be the athletic director at Monmouth right now. So, um, I, I have a process I usually go through when a, when there's, um, departures like this, I spend a little bit of time talking with the people, our colleagues in those functional areas, uh, through open calls and open meetings. And I just try to take some soundings on where they think we can go as a university and sort of what kind of leader we need and try to determine based on that feedback with, uh, with our colleagues, you know, should I do an, an internal search? Should I do an external search, or should I do, uh, you know, both my goal is simple and that is how to try to figure out the best way to cover the function, uh, that those, uh, two leaders, uh, led so well and, uh, to do it, make sure I have someone in place, uh, well, before their departure in June, as you mentioned, we will also, while we're searching for those, uh, replacements, we're in Theros right now of national searches for our senior vice president and provost, and also for the Dean of our Leon Leon Hess business school. So, um, when we're together at our sort of late spring or early summer podcast, I'll have a lot to share with you about, uh, the leadership team that's gonna, um, lead Monmouth, um, in the next sort of decade.

Matt Harmon:
So re respectively with, with this question, it's interesting that with so many, I'll say high level positions, I, I would think that in the normal hiring process, not just, um, you know, you, you being involved, but the board of trustees, but you'd also lean on the other members of the cabinet to get a sense, um, of what they think. And, and because you are, you are replacing those cabinet positions in, in a way, are you leaning back on, on the people that are leaving, um, you know, to talk to Dr. McNeil about what she thinks about a potential replacement coming in to talk to Patty Swank about, um, you know, the administrative side of, of things, the provost role, you know, I would think so many of your conversations would be with people that they're going to be working with at their, their level. Um, when in essence, you don't, you don't have a, a full cabinet at the end of the year.

Patrick Leahy:
It's my style to engage, uh, all the cabinet members in these kind of hiring decisions. Anyway, I mean, obviously these positions will report directly to me. So I'll retain not, not the business school, one that reports of course, to the chief academic officer, but the other positions, the three, you know, uh, vice presidential level, uh, positions all will report directly to me. So of course I'll make the final hiring decision, but it's just my style to get, uh, the other members of the cabinet involved. Um, I am ultimately trying to build a team, uh, at Monmouth that can, um, uh, navigate, you know, the challenges in the coming years. So, uh, why not let the other team members who are here help me identify the best possible person to join that team. And in the case of, uh, Marilyn and Patty, because they were so successful, it would be silly of me not to ask their opinions about, uh, the kind of person we need to follow them. And, um, if we have any of, you know, candidates here or on campus, or any other candidates that they know about again, the, the final decision will be mine and I don't, uh, run from that responsibility. But, uh, my style is certainly to, to, to take a lot of soundings in the process before I make a decision

Matt Harmon:
President Lehe, uh, let let's finish with this one. Um, a as, as you turn the page, as the university turns the page into this spring semester of, of the academic year, 20, 20 21, um, what, what's your, what's your hope for the future of, in terms of just from a personal standpoint, from a standpoint of being in charge of a private university, that's been hit so hard by COVID in, in terms of just trying to move forward and get to the next level of, of even if it's a new normal, some kind of normal

Patrick Leahy:
Yeah, yeah. Two, two things, uh, at two tracks at the very same time, Matt, the first is I desperately hope that we can continue day to day to manage this global pandemic, to do it in a way that keeps everybody in the Monmouth university community as safe as possible. Um, we are still in the throes of a pandemic as much as we want to get past it. We can't, we have to keep focus. We need to make sure our energy is, is, uh, directed toward getting us through this pandemic. At the same time, Matt, we will be rolling out to the campus community and then ultimately to the board for approval, our strategic plan, uh, for the next, uh, five years. And so, uh, I always say it's like the one foot, you know, firmly planted in the present, but, uh, as, uh, an old Jesuit, uh, professor of mine used to say, uh, one foot continually raised to the future, uh, because, uh, w we want to make sure that we put Mon university in the best possible place to succeed and to compete, uh, once this pandemic, uh, is behind us. So we have to work on both tracks this spring. So my hope is we get to commencement day in may, um, whole, um, like we did in the fall, and then we're ready to launch, uh, a, uh, what I hope will be a, a very ambitious, uh, five year strategic plan. Uh, if we can do that, then I will consider this spring semester to be, uh, hugely successful.

Matt Harmon:
President has always, uh, appreciate your time covering a variety of things, probably most important. The fact that the spring semester is back up and going, um, among the faculty members that will be in person. Hopefully I'll be able to catch you up with you on campus. Um, and, and at some point this spring semester, I am very hopeful that you and I can do one of these podcasts in person

Patrick Leahy:
In studio, what a concept

Matt Harmon:
Would be, would be tremendous. Right? Yeah.

Patrick Leahy:
Wouldn't that be great.

Matt Harmon:
Good, good to be back though, at least talking some, some happenings around campus, um, and, and look forward to doing it again really soon over the course of the next week or so.

Patrick Leahy:
Yeah. I look forward to it as well, Matt, uh, welcome back. I know you, uh, start, uh, your spring teaching duties tomorrow, so I wish you well, as you convene your, uh, your classes for the first time

Matt Harmon:
That is university president Patrick Lehe, I'm faculty member, Matt Harmon, as always, if you've got any comments, uh, questions, concerns in terms of our mom with weekly podcasts, feel free to tweet at either president Lehe or myself, feel free to email us as well. Um, look forward to getting this endeavor back up and going in the spring semester and providing the resource of getting information out to the Monmouth university committee, uh, and community until then we will talk to you for episode number 23, episode 22 in the books. Thanks as always for listening to Monmouth weekly.