Matt Harmon: End of December, which means the semester comes to a close, and it is time for holiday break. We recap the latest happenings at Monmouth University and look ahead to the start of 2023 with University President Dr. Patrick Lehe. I'm faculty member Dr. Matt Harmon. This is Monmouth weekly episode number of 44. Thanks as always for listening. Little chill in the air, feeling like December, which is hard for the course because it is December as we get set for the last week of the semester, last week, meaning finals, which officially started today as we record here on a Wednesday. It is our 44th episode of our Monmouth Weekly podcast with university President Patrick Lehe. Really good to be back with the faculty member from the communication department Matt Harmon, president Lehe. It's, it's been obviously, you know, we, we talked just before. I love these November, December ones because you're talking about Thanksgiving and how great that is to have family home. And then real quick after that, you've got Christmas break and a little bit of downtime. Maybe not as much for you, because I'm sure you still have to be in the office while I, I, as a faculty member get a little bit of downtime, but, but, but family is kind of the issue, right? And when, when you get the family, and I know everybody was back for you on Thanksgiving, and I would think at some point during Christmas, everybody will be back in, in and out of the house. Patrick Leahy: It's a great time of year, and we did have a great Thanksgiving, had everybody around, and then you say goodbye to the family, send them to their respective areas, but fortunately, only for two or three weeks before you get 'em back again. And I, I will in fact, in fact, get a chance to get some downtime. So university presidents take their downtime as well. We'll get it between, you know, the Chris Christmas holiday and, and New Year. And it will all be all about family, as you point out this year. And I just can't wait. But as you know, December on a college campus is a very busy time, especially if you are on a semester you know, schedule, which we are you know, well, as a faculty member, this is a very busy time, end of the semester assignments, and then go into the exam period and get those assessments done and get those grades reported on time. Matt Harmon: I've got projects to grade immediately after we hang up this call. I have eager students waiting to find out how they did. Fortunately everybody in in really good shape, you know, wanted to start with just a couple of casual things. I think sometimes on the podcast, we always come in and say, we gotta talk about X, Y, and Z, which is a good thing today. We, we don't necessarily have a lot of that. So we can do some retrospective into 2022 as a whole and look ahead to 2023. I was I, I'll say very impressed as I looked the other night in Woods Theater when I was watching the annual Christmas concert that was taking place. That just happened to glance over my shoulder and who's there. But President Lehe also partaking in seeing some of the students doing their annual Christmas concert under the direction of, of David Tripod, who does such a great job. I thought the concert itself was amazing. I was there for, for personal reasons. My son, who's a senior as a music industry major is part of the, part of the choir. And it, it was just great to see the students perform. I'm used to seeing them perform, but in the communication department, radio, tv, broadcasting, journalism, to see what goes on on that side of the campus was, was stunning to me. I thought it was a fantastic night. Patrick Leahy: It was, I mean, the talent that we have on this campus, you know, in general, I mean, we tout in general the talent that we have on this campus, but in particular in the arts is just amazing. I mean, we, we have some really beautiful voices on this campus, and they were all sort of highlighted at that holiday concert. And it, it was fantastic. And I saw that you had a front row seat to, to make sure that Daniel saw that you were there. And maybe you heard me cheering from the, a couple rows back and that's why you turned around the look. But I just try hard. I, I don't get to everything and, and I'm always embarrassed that I can't, but I try hard to get to these marquee student performances and, and they know that I'm at a lot of the athletic events, so I wanna make sure that they know of my support, Matt Harmon: You know Patrick Leahy: The arts as well, Matt Harmon: You know what's funny? You, you mentioned that my, my wife Megan and I were fortunate enough and we did have front row seats, but we were like on top of everybody. Because Woods Theater is such an intimate little space, it's one of the, I mean, we have so many, I'll say cool venues on campus, like that is so unique. And I was reminded, you know, teaching in, in planer most of my classes, I don't get over that way very often on campus. And I reminded my wife as I was talking. I was like, my very first undergrad class at Monmouth was upstairs in Woods Theater. Like I had a, a communication class there. I walked upstairs, the classroom is still there. It looks totally different. It's like a music lab now. But it, but it's one of those really unique buildings that I, I hope and no, no pressure, obviously, that I hope never changes because you, you could probably think, oh, we need to modern modernize this particular theater. It would lose the intimacy that is Woods Theater. Patrick Leahy: It's a very cool spot and a great place to watch performances like that and other you know, dramatic performances. It does need some work. I'm well aware of the fact that it needs some work. It's on the list to get some, some work done, but I'm with you. I, I don't want it. We'll get some work done in the building, but we, we don't want it to change the character of it because it's a very unique place. We're so blessed, as, you know, at Monmouth, cuz we have that smaller theater. I think it only probably accommodates 150 or so. A and then, you know, you need a bigger place. Just cross the street and go to the poll theater where you can accommodate 700. You know, you need a much bigger place than, well, I'll fit the Ocean First Bank Center and you can put 5,000 in there. But I mean, the assets that we have that make up our campus are incredible. And Woods Theater's one of them. And it, it always is always a delight to go in there because it's such an intimate environment to, to see our students performing. Matt Harmon: I was on your monthly open call to any faculty and staff member that wants to hop on, and I almost piped in and said, Hey, I had this great experience with 10 students that took place. You and I were just talking before I hit record, and I found out that you already knew about it. You had bumped into one of the students, Heider, who's in, who's an SGA member, and he is the president of one of the clubs that I am advisor to. The Sports Industry Club. Had an amazing experience at the end part of November, took 10 students up to Boston. We did a Bruins game, a Celtics game in between, we did a tour of Fenway, we did a tour of the New England Sports Museum, and we had an unbelievable panel from seven or eight members from the front office of the Bruins and the Celtics to talk to our students who are interested in kind of that field. And, you know, there, there were so many things that I was reminded of, first and foremost, getting students to have those experience and being hands-on. It was, it was, I mean, I've been teaching at Monmouth since 1999 in some level or another. It was one of the best experiences I had here in 2022 to see students interact with people at that level. Incredible experience. Patrick Leahy: You know, I ran into Heider and he was telling me about this sports industry club, and he's telling me about this trip he's taking. This was before you took the trip, this trip he's taking to Boston. And I spent some time living in Boston. I don't know if you, you, you knew that Matt, but I spent four years living up, up in Boston, and I love it up there. It's such a cool town, and it's a great sports town. And he's telling me about what you just said. We're going to the Bruins game, we're going to Celtics game, we're gonna tour Fenway Park, we're going to TD Garden. And I was like, that is amazing. Who's taking you on that trip? And he said, Dr. Harmon. And it made me quite proud that my broadcast partner, , was committed to our students like that. I mean, that is such a unique experience that I'm not saying that other institutions don't offer that kind of experience, I'm sure some do, but that is so indicative of the kind of experience that students can have here at Monmouth. And I'm just so grateful to you that, you know, I, I we all know anyone who follows our broadcast knows that you have family and I have family and to go away for a few days you know, to take good care of our students like that is a, is a real sacrifice. And I'm really, really grateful as I'm sure the students are. Matt Harmon: You know, while, while in case they are listening, I'll throw some thank yous out that made that trip possible. Amy Bolina and Vaughn Clay helped me kind of plan it and their staff and, and student life, obviously the students in the club did such a great job in, in preparing for it as well. I got help from athletics as well in, in Jeff Stapleton and Jared Weiss and Rich Cariger. I was able to use one of the 12 passenger vans. I was the van driver up and back and, and everybody from the Bruin and Celtic organization that made us feel so at home while we were up there, I thought, and, and I think you can appreciate Megan, Patrick Leahy: Of course, Megan Matt Harmon: And, and my wife Megan, who allowed me to go, and my kids, Patrick Leahy: Luke, everybody, , Matt Harmon: We're all Celtic fans in my house. I grew up as a Celtic fan because that's who my dad followed. And, and, and they were obviously upset that they were not at the game on that particular night. But they got plenty of plenty of pictures. And, and I'm looking forward to getting everybody back up there because it is such a great experience. And that's what I was gonna say for you, who has the two girls who are a little bit older, and then your two boys who are a little bit younger you, you've probably experienced this. For me, one of the best parts of it, and I think from a student organization perspective was hearing 10 students, eight of which had never been to Boston, which I thought was crazy, that if you live in the New York, New Jersey, Philly area, you've never taken a four hour trip to Boston. To hear those students all leave and say, this was a great trip, and at the top of everybody's list was, wow, I, I, I never knew Boston could be a place that I could see myself living and working and trying to get either a job or maybe I go to grad school here. Like, to me, that was what it was all about. All the sports stuff. Aside, listening to students say, I can see myself here in the next phase of my life, that's really what we're all about. I, I feel like at Monmouth, and it was like this, this all encapsulating trip of a small private university. Let's go to a city that you've never been to and hope that it works out. And, and again, it w it was a fantastic trip. Patrick Leahy: Yeah, I mean, kudos to you again for exposing the students to one of the great cities in our country, one of the most historic cities in our country. Again, a a sports mad city in our country. But just to expose 'em to that in general and then to put together such a great program of sports industry executives, it's just a, just a great thing. Matt Harmon: You know, I know the I know just last weekend, or, or the weekend prior, I should say, was the winner ball that took place in the Great Hall big fundraising event and an opportunity to showcase the campus in a little bit of a different light. Speaking of one of the more unique buildings we mentioned, mentioned Woods Theater, obviously the Great Hall with its history there. And it, and it is always a place that around the holidays look so festive and look so nice. And I know the changes that have taken place, making it more student-centered and making it with the coffee shop and an opportunity to get more people in and out of the building. But when it comes time for something formal, like a winter ball type event, it, it's the building that shines the most, I think, on campus. Patrick Leahy: I mean, I think maybe it's the building that shines the most in our state. may maybe even more broadly than that. I mean I saw an article the other day. It's the largest private residence ever constructed in the state of New Jersey and the fifth largest private residence ever constructed in our country. The Great Hall is, so I can't imagine a better place to have our marquee scholarship fundraising event, which we now call the gala at the Great Hall. And we, we changed the model of, it used to be a sit down dinner. We changed it to more of a you know, a lo really long, protracted, you know, cocktail party, if you will, in large part to accommodate more people, because we want this, this event to grow and, and to grow and to grow. And this year we had 350 people attend. We raised close over $500,000 for this access fund, which is a, a new fundraising effort we put together, it's a, it's a, a pool of money that's available so that we can plug holes with high financial needs students who, when they emerge, and the goal is to you know, to take it to five, 500 or 600 people and ultimately someday raise a million dollars at this event. So it's a great, great first start, and you start with one of the, the best locations you can imagine to, to host it. Matt Harmon: And, you know, during, during the course of that, I saw number one via the Monmouth Instagram, it's black tie. I saw you in the tux breaking, breaking out the tux for the event. And number two, you had the opportunity, if I'm remembering, collect correctly from your open call this morning, just the second time in your tenure here at Monmouth to give out the, the President's medal. Right? Why don't you, why don't you walk the, our listeners through that a little bit more? Patrick Leahy: Yeah. So the, the President's medal, I arrived at Monmouth three and a half years ago now, and you know, we have a lot, a lot of different ways that we recognize people that have been important to our university, including the Honore degree. But it dawned on me that we did not have basically that lifetime achievement award, you know, that lifetime committed to advancing Monmouth University Award. And so I did hear what I did at the previous place at which I worked. I petitioned the board to create the president's medal, which would be basically the highest honor that we can offer at the university for individuals who have dedicated through a lifetime of service their commitment to Monmouth. And so it, this whole program rolled out last year, Bob Sculthorpe who was a, an alum of the university and former chair of the board, and longtime supporter was the inaugural recipient. And then this year I went to Charlie and Trudy Parton, whom I know you know, Matt, but one of the things that's so unique about them is they are not alumni of the university. You, you know, you might think at a university, w would you naturally go to alums for this? Well, they're not 40 years ago they moved to the community. They were looking for places in which to get involved and, and causes in which they could believe they discovered then Monmouth College and then have basically created as I said, publicly, a 40 year love affair with Monmouth. And they've been engaged in every conceivable way you can be as a volunteer. And so it was only fitting that they be the second ever recipients of the, of the president's medal. What, what a, there's so many, I guess, privileges to being a university president, but one of them is when you can do something like this for people who mean so much to you. You know, I just wanna say a quick word about the tux. So it was black tie, optional, and I knew fully that here at the shore, a lot of people are not gonna wear a black tie. But I said, I announced publicly I am wearing black tie. Maybe it's just because I'm still proud of the fact that I fit in the same black tie that I purchased 25 years ago, . So whatever reason, I, I did have my tux on, and it still fits quite well. Thank you very much. Matt Harmon: I'm hoping that in, in the years to come, maybe in 2023, if you make it black tie optional, throw in something for someone who's not a fan of shoes, can you make it footwear optional? I'd love to wear my flip flops to it. I'll wear this, I'll wear the, the tux, but can I wear my flip flops as Patrick Leahy: Well? I think it goes without saying, you know, black tie and then wear flip flops. I mean, I've seen you in the broadcast booth with your nice coat and tie on and your, and your, your slacks and your flip flops. So you'd be very welcome next Matt Harmon: Year. Listen, I always say N tv, it's what you look like from the waist up. It doesn't matter what your feet look like. That's, that goes without saying. But, you know, to, to follow up on that, again, having been in one way or another connected to the university from, from starting in 1993 as a student to now in 2022, almost 23 tho those names that you mentioned, Mr. Schor, who I had the opportunity to talk to a couple of times on broadcast and just meeting him in and out, just such a good representative of Monmouth, obviously. And, and I think the story of Mr. And Mrs. Parton is so unique that they are so committed to Monmouth, but yet didn't have the affiliation with it. I mean, and, and just genuinely two of the nicest people that you'd ever want to have a conversation with, throw out the fact that yes, they've obviously contributed a huge amount of money that benefits me and my sports broadcasting students and our communications students and our athletic department and the university as a whole, but they're just good people, which makes it all that much easier to sit down and and say thank you. Patrick Leahy: Oh my gosh. It does. It doesn't ever, I said that to them that, you know, it's just so, it's so much fun for me to, to, to offer this I hope prestigious award to people whom I like so much personally. And you have it absolutely right. You know, our, our listeners might remember that it's the part in broadcasting center out of which all of our broadcasts are produced. But one of the things I always tell about them is, you know, they, they come to all the athletic contests. I I don't just mean the football games, they're there. I don't just mean the men's basketball games. They're there, they're also at the women's basketball games. They're at the women's soccer games, they're at the, you know, women's field hockey games. I mean, they, they spread their support of our student athletes around. And that says a lot, says a lot about the, the, the type of people they Matt Harmon: Are also, I know this morning at your open call and you're in the middle of the huge capital campaign trying to fundraise and, and, and make mention. I was hoping I was gonna get like breaking news because you said an anonymous person had donated a seven figure donation basically to the university. I was hoping you were gonna spring it on me today. I know that's not gonna happen, but, but what an, what an amazing gift, right? Yeah. To have somebody say, here's, here's seven figures, whatever that means at the end of the day, that's tremendous. Patrick Leahy: Yeah. Seven figures in this case does, does mean a million dollars. I mean we're just now getting into our campaign and we're just now starting to solicit contributions to that campaign. And, and we're basically batting a thousand so far. I mean, we've, we've gone to three people basically, and we have, when you know it, you know, two, $2 million gifts and one half a million dollar commitment. So it's off to a very good start. I'm sorry that I can't share with you quite yet, the name of the person, but maybe at some point I'll be able to, but I also hope that at future podcasts, you know, I can, I can share with the community more and, and even bigger results from our campaign. This is intended to be the largest campaign in our history and we want it to be as transformative as possible. And I'm dedicating a lot of time and effort to this effort. Matt Harmon: Well, it sounds like you're off to a, a fantastic start, as you said, batting a thousand. It certainly sounds like that is the that is the case with University President Patrick Lehe, faculty member Matt Harmon. Were on episode 44 of our Monmouth Weekly podcast President Lehe, maybe let's just take a couple minutes, as, as everybody always does, at the end of a year, looking back before we can look ahead you know, I, I'm not gonna put you on the spot and say, tell me your, tell me your favorite moments of the year because there's so many of them, right? Like, if, if you think of the university as a whole in totality, there are so many things to hang your hat on and be proud of. Patrick Leahy: I mean, we could spend the whole time just recounting things that happened in the last calendar year. It pro probably is hard for me to identify one, but I will give you one if, if if you don't mind. And that is all the way back in January when I had the great privilege of announcing a move to the c a a that stands out to me because I said at the time it's not, it, it's a privilege that isn't afforded every college or university president to make an historic announcement like this. And just was so grateful that it happened while I was here. So that, that stands out as one, one of the big moments just because of how unique an opportunity that is for me. But so many other, other great ones. I mean, we had a very, very good year executing on our strategic plan cuz so many of the things that we did grow right from that, Matt Harmon: You know, and I, and I think when you mentioned the move into the, the C A a, I can remember being there for the broadcast. We did a live broadcast to, to cover that event on the Monmouth Digital Network. And I, I think so many people, I I hope that that perception has changed. And I don't mean that it was this huge perception that was a university move that was so much bigger than athletics and so much bigger than just sports too, from the academics side of things. Go to the ca a conference and, and look at the other schools that Monmouth is now affiliated with. It's not meant disrespectfully to any school that Monmouth was at in any other league or conference, but right now you, you've positioned yourself with so many great schools from top to bottom. Patrick Leahy: Yeah, most of whom are, most of which are, are known as national universities. The way the, you know, the classification system r r rates them, we will as well in the next year or two in the next, the next time these classifications come out, we will achieve doctoral university status and then we will become a national university. So it fits us well with, with those institutions. We'll be one of the smaller ones in the conference as we've discussed. But nonetheless, we are with schools that we increasingly think of as our peers and hope to be more alike. I, I've said this many times, it's a big move for us athletically, no doubt about it. And that in and of itself is a source of pride, but it's really the exposure it gives us up and down the east coast, which is really important for a university. It needs to increasingly recruit further a field and to be able to associate with these excellent institutions, which for our university wants to continue to burnish its academic reputation. This is all part of what's embedded in our strategic plan, and we were able to make that move with athletics to help support both of those. Matt Harmon: Let's finish the last couple minutes of our, of our podcast. Thinking of what, what's to come in 2023 Capital Camp campaign, I would imagine is right at the top of your list over the course of the remaining part of this academic year and all the way through the calendar year. But gi give me a couple other things that you're thinking. This is what Monmouth needs to continue to grow, make that next step, make that next jump. This is what you're hoping for in 2023. Patrick Leahy: Well, I hope we make substantial progress on our wellness center. I think I've, I think maybe we've talked about this on previous episodes, which is, you know, a, a big investment in our students and staff and faculty wellness by expanding the Ocean First Bank Center. We have plans in place. We're finalizing those plans. We're continuing the fundraising. I I said on a previous call to the community that, you know, additive space will be paid for with additive resources. So that's on me to find outside money to use to build that wellness center. So I'm, I'm really excited about that. I hope that come the springtime you and I can dedicate a podcast to our Springsteen archives and Center for American Music. We've got a lot of really interesting things brewing there. And I'm not sure we've ever had Bob Santelli on our podcast. He's our executive director. He would be a home run guest for us. So I, I hope we can dedicate it the right time, maybe a whole episode on that because so many interesting things to, to roll out. I also hope at a future podcast we might have Alison Gilbert, who is the new director of our Center for Entrepreneurship, which is another real interest of mine and of our business school dean and our provost and so many others to become the place for entrepreneurship in Monmouth County. And I hope that will take off in 2023. So those projects I will be dedicating a lot of my time to finding the money to support all those projects. It's gonna shape up to be a very full year again here at Monmouth. Matt Harmon: Well, from a member of the university community, I, I would tell you, I don't know that you'd get many to fight you on a new wellness center. It was definitely the one piece of the Ocean First Bank Center that I think everyone would say, ugh. You know, like, can, can we, can we get a mulligan on this one and really make it something special? And I love hearing you talk about that. Excited to have Allison on to talk about the entrepreneurship side of things as well. And I'm not sure if I'm reading between the lines too much, but did you say with Bob Santelli we're also gonna have Bruce on the podcast to talk with him as well? Or did it? Patrick Leahy: Oh boy. Matt Harmon: Maybe I missed that in translation. Patrick Leahy: That might be a tough, a tough lift, especially with him going out on tour. Although he could zoom in from somewhere I guess, but it's true. Not likely I'll be able to deliver Bruce directly, but I can deliver in my opinion one of the next best things, which is Bob San, who is himself an alum alumnus of this university. He taught here for a while. He went on to an extremely distinguished career developing basically music centers all over the country, including the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame the Grammy Museum and countless others. So to have him back full-time as the executive director of the Springsteen archives, which we see, you know, take to a whole nother level next year is, is fantastic. And, and, and I, I pretty much can, can guarantee I can get him . I don't know about anyone else, I'm afraid. Matt Harmon: Well, that sounds like you know, a, a couple of great episodes that we're gonna have coming up in the spring semester. I, I, I really, you know, this, this fall, you and I, even though we still call it mom at weekly, we kind of made the determination, let's just make sure we do this once a month and make it really comprehensive and great detail and, and, and, and as we close here in 2022 I, I know you're always thinking like, is there, and I know as a university president, is there value in what we're doing? I don't think there's any question that there's value in, in continuing this. And I have extremely appreciated now over the course of the better part of 2021 and 22 being able to do this with you. I wish you and your family nothing but the best with the holiday season and can't wait to continue and, and get off to a good start in 2023. Patrick Leahy: Yeah, I look forward to it as well. I think, you know, for now, the monthly time timeframe works, works pretty well and I hope people see value in it. You and I certainly have a ton of fun doing it. So I'm hopeful that members of our community see some value in it. And I look forward to continuing it. I would like your impressions on one final thing before we wrap up Uhoh, and that is who in fact is going to win the World Cup? Matt Harmon: I, my heart is telling me Argentina, now, there, there's a game actually going on right now as you and I are broadcasting. France would be a heavy favorite in their semi-final with Morocco. I know that they've already scored cuz I got an alert on my phone. So it's probably gonna be France and Argentina. My, my son Cooper is one of the, you know, I mean he's one of millions of people who love the game, who want to see messy getta World Cup before he retires. My heart says Argentina, my head says France. Unless Morocco comes back and pulls off a big upset, but, you know, listen, I'm, I'm feeling, I'm feeling in that spirit, so I'm gonna go with my heart and I'll say Argentina gets, gets to win. Patrick Leahy: Yeah, yeah. I, I share the same sentiment about Messi's, one of the great athletes of all time. And it seems like the only thing missing is that, is that World Cup trophy. So I hope, I hope he Matt Harmon: Gets it. I'm waiting for him to announce at some point before he retires, he's gonna come to Major League Soccer. So then I can say, nah, I, I get to call a game with messy in it, which would be something, something pretty cool. My best obviously to you and your family. I hope you do get to enjoy some downtime and have the kids back around and, and you and I, I'm sure we'll bump into each other. We got a couple basketball games coming up over the holiday break. And, and enjoy the holiday season. Patrick Leahy: Thank you, you too, Matt. Matt Harmon: We wrap up episode number 44 here on our Monmouth Weekly podcast. If you've got any comments, questions, concerns with what we do here on our monthly episode of our podcast, feel free to reach out to myself or President Lehe for all of us here on the Monmouth campus. We wish you nothing but the best over the holiday season and a great start to the 2023 year and a fantastic ending here in 2022 with University President Patrick Lay. I'm faculty member Matt Harmon. Happy 2023. Thanks as always for listening to us here on Monmouth Weekly.