Matt Harmon: Recorded live on October 15th, 2025 from the studios of WMCX 88.9 on the campus of Monmouth University. This is the second episode of the monthly podcast series. Monmouth Matters with an Inside Perspective from University President Dr. Patrick Lehe. This is faculty member Matt Harmon. Thanks for your support and continued listening. Speaker 2: Broadcasting live from the second floor of the Jewels L Plan to your center for communication on campus of Mon University. This is 88.9 WMCX. It's time for our monthly look around campus in our featured podcast series. This is Monmouth Matters, the firsthand perspective from university President Dr. Patrick Legge and joined by two-time alum and longtime faculty member Dr. Matthew Home. Matt Harmon: It is a beautiful Wednesday morning post fall break, episode number two of Monmouth Matters. Excited to be back with you talking everything around the campus. We've got a great show for you today. Of course, our students are here back from episode one. We've brought him back for episode two. That is a good thing that they are all here. John, Nick, Chloe, and Frank. I'm Matt Harmon, university president, Dr. Patrick Lehe. Off to my right and great to be back with you, president Lehe. Hope you were able to enjoy a little bit of fall break. Patrick Leahy: I did get a nice fall break. Thank you. We are ready to get rolling today though. I just walked across campus. A place looks fantastic and thrilled to have our students back after what I hope was a nice fall break. Can't believe that it is. Fall break already. Matt Harmon: Yeah. Semester every year flies, flies by. I say that every year always flies by. We've got our normal kind of stuff. We always like to look around campus, kind of cover as much as we possibly can. We are also today excited to kind of dive into the world of the Urban Coast Institute with a couple of reasons for that. One big symposium over the course of the last week, two 20th anniversary, three, the upcoming retirement of founding director Tony McDonald. He will join us as Will who will be the acting director, Tom Harrington. Looking forward to those guys coming on and talking about the UCI. Patrick Leahy: Yeah, the timing is perfect on that, Matt, because of all the things that you just mentioned. So it worked out just perfectly that our next broadcast would be following the future of the Ocean Symposium, which was just last week and was, as you'll hear off the charts good, Matt Harmon: Which I think was the reason originally we were going to record last. Were you the keynote for that? Patrick Leahy: I was involved in that, but I was not a keynote. I don't know enough about the Matt Harmon: Did you do the introductions? Maybe? I don't Patrick Leahy: Know enough about the oceans to be a keynote. Yeah, I was involved in the program. Matt Harmon: You bumped Monmouth Matters for the, Patrick Leahy: Sorry, sorry. It won't happen again. I promise. Matt Harmon: This will be reflected in student Patrick Leahy: In the end of the year review engagement. Yes. Matt Harmon: When they do their serves for the end of the season fall break. What's it mean? Fall break a time for students to get a couple of days off Monday and Tuesday, Monday falling in line with a holiday Tuesday, just kind of a day. And for me, I saw it last week with my students. We're about at the midpoint of the semester, give or take a couple of days here or there. It is always important whether it's a fall break or the next time everyone will have off, which would be around Thanksgiving going into finals. This is kind of pre midterms right now just to kind of refresh, recover, get home for a couple of days and come back to campus with energy that kind of carries you for the second part of the semester. Patrick Leahy: I mean, I like having the break because my hope is that the first seven or so weeks of the semester are so chockfull of activities that you need that break and then of course the second seven or so weeks are so chockfull of activities. I mean we want our students to have the full experience here at Monmouth and then that can be tiring. So we sort of work in these breaks every now and then to give them an opportunity to refresh Matt Harmon: Going into fall break as it always is. Campus is busy all over the place and some fun stuff that took place almost leading right into it. Internship Fair was there on career day. You had open house over the course of the weekend prior. So it's a great way and I know maybe we can spend a minute or two on open house. Why it's so important. Number one is probably an obvious one, but when you couple it with the weather that we had on that Sunday, it really is a great opportunity to show off the campus. Patrick Leahy: Well, as you know, we have visitors to campus every day of the year it seems, but one day a year we have a major open house in the fall where we bring all interested prospective students and their families to campus and this year was another near record breaking showing, I forget the exact numbers, but a thousand prospective students and then you add 3000 more family members and the place was hopping on, as you indicated, a perfect fall day here at the Jersey Shore. I always say to the parents that it's the darnedest thing, the weather's like this every day here at Monmouth and they know that that's a silly president's joke because most of them are from New Jersey and know that that's not the case, but what a great opportunity to showcase our campus on such a beautiful day like we did. Maybe we talked about this or maybe we didn't a few weeks before at Family Day was also one of the most beautiful days of the year here at the Jersey Shore. So we've been very lucky so far. Matt Harmon: When you have an open house event, I know your involvement is addressing the large group, but then that doesn't stop for you. Maybe more individualized, personalized conversations that you will have with parents who may or may not know that they're talking to the president of the university. Right, because you could be walking around and somebody might stop you and say, Hey, do you know where such and such building is? Those probably happen all during the course of a day like that. Patrick Leahy: Yeah, so I wear a jacket so they know that I'm either a faculty member or an administrator, but they picked me out of a crowd. But yeah, they come up. I call that sort of the retail politics of admissions because I will get my opportunities to speak to the group as a whole, but those are, as you point out, those are individual conversations with individual prospective students and their families and I try to just have as many of them as possible throughout the course of the day because I want that to emulate what happens here at Monmouth. We're small enough that it's not unreasonable for students to get to know the president and I think that we try to demonstrate that at the open house. I also use it as an opportunity to go around and thank all of our faculty members who show up that day, all of our staff members who are giving up one of the most beautiful days of their fall to be here on campus and to do it willingly and to bring the enthusiasm and excitement. I just feel it's important for me to thank them for their participation as well. Matt Harmon: Yeah, great. And then as we mentioned between student involvement, fair career, internship day, I mean, again, there's always stuff going on and I love and I was actually happy to see a couple of former students, one that came back to still have that connection. I just graduated last year to still kind of feeling out what career-wise might be available and then another student who popped into my office last week going into the career day who graduated 10 years ago, who was back to just kind of help. Again, that's what makes Monmouth Monmouth in a lot of ways Patrick Leahy: And that career fair. So much of job searching I'm told today has moved to Handshake and some of these other LinkedIn and all those online platforms and that's a great way to reach out to employers, but I love the fact that we bring employers and potential employees together and give them a chance to meet and interact and sort of develop relationships. And that's why we keep doing these career fairs even in a 21st century high tech world, we still want to commit to doing those to bring people together Matt Harmon: On open house. I would imagine something that was discussed, whether it was to the large contingent or some of those individual conversations was where mama sits in some of the most up-to-date rankings of some of the higher level publications that talk about where colleges and universities sit overall. Patrick Leahy: Yeah, fall, fall every year is what we think of is rankings season because most all of the rankings get updated in the fall and we had a very good run this year culminating in the US News and World Report ranking now that is the marquee ranking of colleges and universities. We could have a whole episode Matt dedicated to talking about how rankings in general oversimplify the complexity of educating students today, but they are what they are and if they're going to be out there, you may as well go in the right direction. And we have been going in the right direction for 20 years. 20 years ago, 2005 I think it was, we debuted at number 76 in our category, Matt Harmon: Which was something to hang your hat on at Patrick Leahy: That point. We celebrated that I guess at that point because prior to that we had been unranked. We'd been in the same category but unranked. So then we debut first time as a ranked institution at 76, 10 years later or so, we had climbed all the way to 29, 15 years later, climbed to 29 and the last five years we've gone from 29 to 13 in our category. So I always say it's the trajectory that I'm most excited about because in any given year we could lose a spot or gain a few spots. I mean there's a little bit of variability in any given year because especially as you get closer to the top of that ranking, we're so bunched up together. So I don't want to dwell on just a year, although I should because every year, the last six years we've gone up, so that's good news. But what is unmistakable is our trajectory over the last first 10 years and then 20 years. And I hope that is evidence of that the work that happens here day in and day out on this campus is getting noticed by others in the industry and that's very satisfying to me and I hope to everyone involved here at Monmouth. Matt Harmon: I'm curious to know, I think the last time we talked about it, or maybe it was just based on an email with the university, talking about where we sit in the rankings. I think I pulled up that list and curious to know if you do it because if you're 13th, you're usually in a group of some other schools who are tied for 13th, but I spend a couple of minutes looking at the schools who were ranked a couple of spots in front or in that group of 13. Do you spend the time kind of looking around a little bit? Are you suggesting I'm hyper Patrick Leahy: Competitive? Matt Harmon: Yes, you do. Patrick Leahy: Yes you do. Yeah, I do look at that. But there's another thing that I look at and I hope you'll give me a chance to explain what I study and I haven't had a chance yet this fall, but what I study is our pursuit to be a national leader at integrating excellence in Access and the way in which we've identified in our strategic plan that we would achieve that goal to be a bonafide national leader is to be the highest ranked institution of our kind with our access measures. So what I do is I look at our growth in the ranking, our improvement in the rankings as a measure of our excellence, and then I study the other schools that are ranked ahead of us to see what their access measures are. That is how many students are there on federal Pell grants? I haven't run the numbers yet, but I'm pretty confident that we may be the highest ranked institution in our category with our access measures, which would be hard evidence that we are meeting our goal to become a national leader at integrating excellence and access. So short answer is yes, I study those so that I can see our relative position against other really excellent schools. Matt Harmon: Can I get you right now, episode two of Monmouth Matters to put a bullseye on a school that might be 1112, like, hey, we're coming after you. Will you make that declaration right now on this show? I wish I could. I don't have Patrick Leahy: The ranking in front of me, but of course, because I spent eight years of my life at the University of Scranton, we're going to be chasing them down. You know that. But they're such great schools. I'm just thrilled to be clustered with schools that are also dedicated to being first rate educators. So I better not other than and identify anyone, but our goal will be to keep doing the work that we need to do day in and day out and hope and trust that it's going to get picked up by third parties and we'll continue to do well in those rankings. Matt Harmon: No, I think it's fantastic. Before we take a quick break and we'll have Tony and Tom come on. Tell me before they come on and then we will bring it back with this as well. What the Urban Coast Institute means to Monmouth University. Patrick Leahy: Well, we have to pick our spots carefully because we're a medium-sized institution with limited resources, but one of the spots that we've picked to be experts at policy increasingly research are all matters related to the coast for good reason because of our unique location, less than a mile to the ocean. So this is one of our centers of excellence, our centers of distinction, which will continue to get support from the university because this is a marriage of two things. One is our unique location near the ocean and as you'll hear in a minute, the incredible importance of the health of our oceans to our future. And it's nice to position Monmouth University as a key player in one of the biggest issues of our day and that is the changing nature of our climate. So I just think it's one of our marquee programs Matt Harmon: Right then and there. That's why we call it Monmouth Matters with a perspective from Monmouth University president, Dr. Patrick Leahy. We'll take a quick break, we'll come back. We will talk UCI with Tony and Tom. We'll get into so many of the issues that UCI has covered in their 20 years. We'll celebrate Tony McDonald as well, who will be retiring at the end of this month from the university timeout for us. We're back with more Monmouth Matters. Matt Harmon: Middle of October. And as we just mentioned, really looking forward to this segment, urban Coast Institute, which has been here at Monmouth since 2005. We are really excited to be joined by current director Tony McDonald and who will be acting director in Tom Harrington. Guys first thanks for coming on and giving us a couple of minutes. I know as President Lehe and I we're just talking about a little bit, this is a perfect time to bring you both on number one, celebrating 20 years. Number two, celebrating Tony stepping and retiring. And number three, the symposium that took place last week. President Lehey, why don't we start with the symposium and talking about why that is important and how that continues to fall in line with what the UCI is all about. Tony, if you want to talk about that, that would be Tony MacDonald: Great. That'd be great. It really was one of the first things we did even before I got here in 2005, they had organized the first symposium. So we do two things. We give champion of the Ocean Awards to really notable national and sometimes international figures. We've had Jean Michel, cto, we've had really incredible people to give awards to, but we also have a topical symposium. So we actually like to bring right from the beginning we always wanted to bring kind of some of the biggest thinkers and the biggest doers in ocean and coastal issues to campus. So we really have this really fantastic annual event that's been going on now for 20 years where we bring in speakers this year. We had an incredible panel. It was really great. The topic was the future of ocean science and technology to support prosperity and security and we had two incredible, three incredible national champions. One who has been literally to the five deepest places in the ocean and also the top of the mountains and has invested in ocean. Victor Bocobo, a fantastic explorer, fantastic guy. And another one was Larry Mayer, who's from the University of New Hampshire and he literally has mapped the entire ocean floor. He's mapped 30% of the world's ocean. So these are people who really understand everything about it. And the last one was a local champion is Congressman Palone, who's really been a consistent champion for Monmouth and also a leader in Congress for environmental issues. So really a fantastic opportunity to bring Monmouth to the world and the world to Monmouth Matt Harmon: UCI, which stands for Urban Coast Institute. You are the founding director from 2005. Would you have imagined 20 years ago that the UCI would be where it is now in 2025? Tony MacDonald: Absolutely not. I think the one thing that has been actually consistent is we really understood, I came here from Washington, I'd been in DC for 18 years and before that I'd worked for the city of New York as a lawyer. So I knew this area very well. I worked, I actually grew up in Englewood and had a place, my family had a place in Avon, so very familiar with this place. So what I did know in the beginning that this was a place that was unique in terms of what we could possibly do. So I really understood that, but I didn't know, don't tell all your students, but I was kind of making it up as I was going along Matt Harmon: Too late, too late for that, too late for that. Tony MacDonald: I was opening up my ideas, but I really realized at the time we developed submissions that have been consistent for 20 years around the beaches and sea level rise and resilience. This is something that was important 20 years ago and it's important now. We looked at really important issues having to do with water quality monitoring. Everybody in New Jersey cares about being able to fish, being able to swim. So we really worked on those issues consistently. But we've really built this built staff partners like Tom and others over time that really has made a big difference. Patrick Leahy: Now you've heard of fake it until you make it. I think Tony just admitted that on air that that's what he was doing for 20 years, but he's made it. Let me tell you, he has made it. It's incredible and it's such a source of pride to have the UCI here, as I just mentioned a minute ago, to take full advantage of our incredible unique location as a university at the shore. It's just a fantastic Matt Harmon: Tom on so many levels. It's part of a bigger picture listening to Tony kind of talk about where you swim, where you fish, why the ocean is important, and you're talking to someone who has grown up here my entire life, have worked on the different beaches as a lifeguard for almost 40 years. The ocean is the lifeblood of New Jersey and I think probably sometimes people, they remember it but they also kind of forget about it At the same point. Tom Herrington: Absolutely true. The New Jersey is the economic driver of New Jersey and without that shoreline, we don't bring in the tax revenues we do and we don't have the job growth we have in the state of New Jersey. So as Tony said, the issues we focus on around sea level rise and community resilience and being protected from that next storm. We got a big reminder this weekend about that, right? We saw our beaches are in really bad shape after that storm. And so we need to keep working on these issues to make sure people understand the importance of our coast, not just for all the recreational benefits and joy it gives people, but for the economy it drives Matt Harmon: When you think of it. Tony, I'll ask you this one and the continuation of Tom's point. When you think of it, is it a hard sell for people to still get behind what goes on the beaches, what happens in the ocean? I mean, I can remember being a student here in the mid nineties and having someone come in from clean ocean action to do a conversation within one of my communication classes here at Monmouth. I mean you're talking 30 something years ago now, and it's still a lot of the same issues that we talk about. Tony MacDonald: It's absolutely different. People have short memories and I think there's two things. First of all, most people are motivated by what they remember from their past, so what their experience is. So on one level it's easy to get people's attention. They do love this place and they care about the issues. I do think though sometimes really thinking about change that's needed within communities needs consistent attention. So we forget after Sandy about sea level rise. We do a lot of building and increasing our exposure. So how do we find that balance? I'm actually partnering with the Kila Real Estate Institute to host a session next week on sustainable development with the real estate industry. Thinking about how we think about people want to live here, people want to work here, we want to build here, but we do need to be thinking about what's at risk. So we do need, I think one of the reasons for UCI is constantly that the issues stay the same, but the stakes change and what we need to address those change, our water quality is a lot better, a hundred percent better than when I was growing up here. It's incredible. So there are some things that have improved, but now we have things like microplastics and other issues. We still have pollution issues and legacy issues. So we need to think about constantly focusing on that. And UCI provides an opportunity to do that. Patrick Leahy: One thing I remember from last week's symposium, Victor Vo, who as you mentioned has been to the deepest parts of all of the oceans and what did he say? He said, one thing that I discovered in each one of those areas is plastic. So if that is true, that deep in the ocean, imagine the potential problem that plastics cause. It's incredible. And to have someone of his prominence here on campus talking about these issues, again, just elevates not only UCI but Monmouth University. Matt Harmon: Tom, tell me from a standpoint this before we came on and before the show started this morning, we were just talking timing and you said, well, I got to make sure I'm out by a certain point because you have class, you still teach. Tell me from a student engagement level right now on campus at Monmouth, the interest level that students have in UCI, Tom Herrington: It's really broad and varies. So the Urban Coast Institute kind of sits within the marine sciences, but we try to create a big tent. We have students that have worked with us from communications, from sociology, psychology, social work, and we look to support anybody with an interest in an issue around the ocean and we'll help them. We actually have grant programs. We give 'em research funding to help them work with their mentors to really focus on what they are very interested in about this place, right? And it's just been a joy to work with these students that they come in and they do such great work and oftentimes go on to do better things. We have many of our students that have done research with us are now in graduate programs at Columbia, Florida, Atlantic University among others. And so having that connection into the classroom to touch to the students, that's why we're here. It doesn't make sense to just be an institute to focus on big policy issues if we're not bringing that into the classroom and creating student experiences around that. And that's really creating that next generation of knowledge and people that are going to go solve these problems. Matt Harmon: Here on Monmouth Matters. A second episode of our newly rebranded podcast with Tony McDonald, Tom Harrington talking Urban Coast Institute, celebrating 20 years, starting back in 2005. President Lahey, when we were just going to break, I said, tell me why UCI is important to campus and now I'll throw you a follow up listening to Tony kind of talk about partnering with the Real Estate Institute and putting the two of those things together. That's a president's dream, isn't it? Patrick Leahy: I just thought of that when Tony mentioned it, that they have two institutes, two of our centers of distinction partnered up like that on issues that are particularly important in New Jersey. But anywhere where there's development near the water that takes, it's an opportunity for a medium sized university like us to have an absolutely outsized influence on matters around the country and frankly even the world. And that is a president's dream to be able to see that kind of collaboration. The breakthroughs in an increasingly complicated world are going to come at the intersection of disciplines and the more we can create cross-disciplinary work, the better. Tony MacDonald: Appreciate that. If I can add on a little bit, I really think of UCI as a force multiplier of all these efforts across the university. So really thinking about making these connections and partnerships. But right from the beginning, we're unique in one particular way, which we are always looking to take the science that's out there to take the engagement that people have and apply it to policy and how we can make recommendations for how we can do these things better. So you can have deeper science into Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute and other issues, but our core focus is to be sure that we can turn some of the science, some of the student interest and the faculty interest. What's in addition to the growth of UCI that what you've seen is also a growth in our academic partners. The research funding that is brought in by the faculty in the school of Science and the Marine Environment biology program has been incredible. Our funding, we now manage over $6 million in external grants. We give out over $30,000 in grants to students that leverages what they're doing in the classroom. Patrick Leahy: I love the fact that you explained it that way because I think of it as use inspired research. Research, not just for research sake. There is, I guess the corollary is curiosity based research and that's really important to make original contributions to knowledge, but to be able to take what we're increasing understanding and turn it into policy recommendations to improve communities around the country. It is just a very satisfying for me practical use of this work that we're doing together. Matt Harmon: Tom, question for you would be, if you think you just mentioned last Noreastern storm that we had beaches kind of beat up. Now last couple of days you see replenishment as part of something that's almost a yearly occurrence, somewhere up and down the coast, water quality to Tony's point, way better than it was 30, 40, 50 years ago. When you think of New Jersey in the context of being a really tiny piece of all of the coastlines that exist worldwide, how does maybe what we do here in a small area trickle out to a larger area? Because if you said, well, New Jersey does whatever it is, X, Y, and Z to make sure their water's clean, how do you get other areas, not just in the United States but worldwide to think that this is an important issue as well? Tom Herrington: Yeah, great question. So interestingly, New Jersey has been a leader all along. Back in the 1920s, some of the first research on how sediment moves along our coast was done right here in Long Branch and it was funded by the Beach Erosion Board of the United States government. And we've been doing that since the twenties. All those groins and jetties, you see kind of a grand experiment, but they were done here first to see how they would work. We now understand some of the detriments they cause. So now we've been a leader in looking at how do we recreate our natural systems to provide those protection benefits we need from sea level rise and coastal storms. And we share that knowledge both nationwide through organizations like the American Shore Beach Preservation Association. I'm on their board of directors, Tony's on the National Ocean Science Board. It's another way to get this kind of information out to the nation. And then mainly due to Tony's activities. He's an international traveler too. So we were actually out there in the international stage also taking what we learned here in New Jersey and bringing it out to the other places around the world. So Matt Harmon: Tony, when you see, let's just say the random picture of somewhere and their ocean is littered with garbage, plastic, I mean things like that when I see it, knowing that I work in that environment, that must just drive you crazy. Tony MacDonald: It drives me crazy. But I really appreciate the question because everything we do here, I said this in the beginning, this is an incredible laboratory that the lessons we learned here and the leadership we could do in the Mid-Atlantic region, not only New Jersey, but the regional issues. We are dealing with issues on regional ocean planning, which we've taken a leadership role in to really coordinate the five states in this regional and developing regional ocean plans and the Mid-Atlantic Ocean data portal, which is a phenomenal asset. Anybody in this room could go online right after this thing and find out what's going on in the ocean, where's the navigation, where are the fisheries areas, where's the proposed wind farms? A little bit unpause right now. So we really have recognized that the international framework for what we do here, we can be a model for the world. And as it was said, I actually am participated. I was at the UN OCEAN Conference, not heavy duty. I was a niece in June, so it was a nice, I had to go there. I was forced to go there. But I would say that when I was there, Patrick Leahy: We're all feeling so bad for you Tony MacDonald: Right now, I would say, well, I was there. Patrick Leahy: Where is it next year, Tony MacDonald: Tony, go ahead. I would say that no, but quite seriously, they are looking to places like New Jersey as being models for implementing. We have an urban sea here, which is unique. Think about the world, all these urban areas that are facing these issues. If we can provide them some models for how they might address that, if we can provide some frameworks to do that. I actually gave a presentation at last year's climate conference on why our region is a model for ocean planning. So really we are a model for the world. Matt Harmon: Does this go President Lehe with what you and I have been talking about for years, which is how does Monmouth become in the national spotlight? This is the blueprint in some ways, right? Patrick Leahy: How does a relatively small institution have a relatively huge impact on issues around the world? That's a perfect example. And like I said, we have to pick our spots because we can't study everything. We can't become experts in everything. And this is clearly one. And one thing I wanted to mention earlier, Tony mentioned about that $6 million of external research money. We've talked on this, a version of this podcast in the past, how proud I am that we've achieved research college and university designation. There's R one, there's R two, and now there's this new category, research college and university and there's only 500 research designated universities and colleges around the country. Remember there's 4,000 higher ed institutions. So to be one of 500 says something. And we would not have that designation through the Carnegie classifications if not for the Urban Coast Institute and the way in which they're attracting research grants. And the thing I love about it too, and I said this last week is if you didn't really know the Urban Coast Institute, our collaborators, woods Hole, noaa, the US Department or the Navy, I mean you know those entities and they are all routine partners with us in these efforts. So that is one of the ways that the urban coast I institute burnishes the reputation of Monmouth University. Matt Harmon: Let's finish with a couple other things. Tony, listening to you talk about the partnership that you're going to do with the Real Estate Institute actually made me think, believe it or not, of our conversation in the hallway when you said, Hey Professor Harmon, are you still the surf club advisor? And I've got an opportunity for you to get some of those kids involved with what UCI does uc, and I would imagine over 20 years it's developed. You see Urban Coast Institute as a way to be, use President Leahy's term interdisciplinary, bring so many students on campus that might be majors of anything from math to biology, communication to business, but get involved with what UCI does and be part of the solution when it comes to beach and clean water and all of the things that you can do in a small microcosm a mile down the road. Tony MacDonald: Absolutely. Two quick examples. One is we have this year we have a psychologist in residence. So we're working with psychology professor who believes that you can actually be healthy mentally if you relate to your environment. So we recognize that that's part of our responsibility too. How do you work with folks who have climate anxiety? How do you think about getting out into the ocean? There is some studies that say just being associated with water can be psychological help. We've had an artist in residence, so we work with all facets of the university and what we do. But I want to shout out particularly you mentioned the Ocean Future Symposium. We had, first of all, we just posted all of those presentations online so you can witness that, everybody can do that. But I want to shout out particularly for a student, our last thing. So we had these world renowned speakers. We had former President Gaffney, we had World, I said the best, and I would say this in front of everybody, presentation was by one of our students. So we had a youth voice concluding that and she said exactly what you said, everybody can be part of the solution. So I recommend everybody in this room. And you said, why were we successful in the beginning? Because I would encourage the students, I was a little facetious about thinking about I didn't know what I was doing, but I never hesitated to think I had something to offer that Monmouth has something to offer. Everybody in this room has something to offer to the solution. So never be afraid to knock on the door or ask people saying, how do we work through this problem? We recognize it and you'll find a role for yourself and you'll find a role for your partners to do that. So really I appreciate that very much. Patrick Leahy: I mean, Victor Vesco, one of the nation's leading explorers, Larry Mayer, one of the nation's leading academics in this area, Congressman Palone, one of the leading public service voices on these issues. And there was only one standing ovation. And that was for our students. Serena, how about that? Matt Harmon: Tony, I hear the passion in your voice. So that would lead to my last question for you, which is, is it bittersweet to step away after 20 years? Tony MacDonald: Well, I would say I can't, you said retire. I won't quite accept that term. So I am staying honest a fellow step away. I just said to Tom before this that I need three months to let the dust settle. But the reality is it is bittersweet, but I am going to stay engaged. I'm going to try to figure out what that lane is that can be most productive for the university and for me personally. I also feel like it's very important to step away when things are good. And we are in a fantastic position as UCI as a university right now. So really realizing it's time to step away and give younger and different voices and opportunity to think about this. I kind of think we've grown to what I call late adolescence. 20 years sounds like a long time, but for institutions I hope it goes for another 20 or 40 years. So it's really time for somebody else to step in and hopefully I can hand it off in good shape. Matt Harmon: Tom, tell me, as acting director of UCI where you see the immediate future of the Urban Coast Institute Tom Herrington: Like Pat Lay, he said we have great partners Right now we're working very closely with the Navy. We're working very closely with the state of New Jersey on developing a way to engage communities around building their own resilience and creating new knowledge to do that. And that's really exciting for us. So that's the short term. The Navy has all kinds of issues with sea level rise and storm impact. So we continue to work with them on try and use natural oyster reefs and other things to help the Navy. So we have a lot on our plate, but I think Tony just gave me a challenge because he's sleeping at the top, so we have to make sure that we continue that uphill climb and not see this as a plateau. Patrick Leahy: Nothing like setting up your successor for success. Yeah, Matt Harmon: That's the goal. Patrick Leahy: Yeah, Matt Harmon: That's the goal. Patrick Leahy: One thing I'll add real quick, Matt Harmon: Yeah, of course, Patrick Leahy: Tony, before he shifts into another gear, went out and raised close to $3 million to put the Urban Coast Institute on firm financial footing for generations to come. And those fundraising efforts continue. So he has left the Urban Coast Institute in a really enviable spot. Matt Harmon: Tony, I'll finish with someone who's been involved with the university one way or the other since 1993. Thank you for all you've done for Monmouth and enjoy stepping away, letting the dust settle and also being involved. Your name and your voice, what you've done here on campus will not be forgotten for a long time. Tony MacDonald: Thank you, sir. Appreciate it very much. Well said. Matt Harmon: Tony McDonald. Tom Harrington University President, Dr. Patrick Lehe. I'm Matt Horman. We'll step out for just a minute. We'll come back. President Lehe and I will wrap it up from inside the Raymond j Elli radio studio here, the campus WMCX. And we're back right after this. On Monmouth Matters. Matt Harmon: Fantastic to have Tony McDonald, Tom Harrington in talking about the Urban Coast Institute, all of the Centers for Distinction, president Lahey had been something that had been, I know a source of pride for you and that was great. I mean you can sense the passion and the enthusiasm that both of them have and hopefully that handoff and the transition of power, for lack of a better term, will be seamless. Patrick Leahy: It should be because they've worked together for many years. Tony, the policy chops, he's a JD trained lawyer and then Tom, a bonafide PhD academic with the research chops. They've been working in a complimentary fashion for many years. So I see perfectly seamless transition here and great things ahead for the Urban Coast Institute Matt Harmon: Coming back from fall break and as we finished our last segment rolling into homecoming this weekend, a great transition of one part of the semester to another part of the semester Homecoming, always fun. And right now a lot to celebrate in what is a top 10 football team at the FCS level, which will host Stony Brook on Saturday afternoon Patrick Leahy: For our homecoming game. And it looks like we will have another good weather day. We got a great crowd coming. One of those polls incidentally, there's a couple FCS polls. One of them has us, I think at number 10. Matt Harmon: One's 10, one's 11, Patrick Leahy: And the one where we're number 10, we are the highest ranked private institution in the country. And I don't know what that means other than it's just the source of incredible pride for me because most of those other schools are much, much, much larger than we are. So come out Saturday to watch the Hawks five in one. I think for the first time in since 2017. Since 2017. Leave it to the voice of the Hawks to come up with that statistics. So Matt Harmon: Yeah, enjoyed seeing the team. Last weekend was down calling the game at Towson. That is one of two nationally ranked teams that you have under your helm right now as president in the fall. Football being one field hockey, which has been quite honestly, and I think we said this not too long ago, and I actually had Carly Figlio on our halftime a couple of games ago during our football broadcast. I said this to her program, it gets attention, but probably not the attention it deserves because she has been so good for so long and now the rankings are starting to catch up a little bit. Patrick Leahy: I think they're ranked higher than they've ever been this season for good Reason. Their first rate program. And that is a bonafide national ranking of all division one programs. The football team were quite proud of its ranking, but that's the FCS. So that's the subset of division one programs across the country. The field hockey ranking is of all division one programs that play field hockey. There is no segmentation as I understand it. So to have a nationally ranked program in field hockey means we are frankly one of the best programs in the country with a lot of games still to play. But that is a first rate program from top to bottom inside the classroom and out on the field to play. You've also Matt Harmon: Got leading into homecoming Saturday, you've got blue white night on Friday night with men's and women's basketball already kicking things off. Oh Patrick Leahy: Yeah, basketball already. Matt Harmon: Basketball Patrick Leahy: Already. Oh my gosh. I think the first exhibition game's next week, next Monday is the first exhibition game. It won't count toward the record, but is a full game here in the Ocean First Bank Center. And I have a particular interest in basketball. I just love it. First of all, it's one of my favorite sports, but I think it's pretty well known that my son is one of the reserves on the team. And so that gives me an added interest in the basketball program and can't believe that they're starting already, but can't wait for that action as well Matt Harmon: For you. And we're going to sneak this in and then I'm going to finish with something. So you have talked about at many times on our podcast and outside of the podcast obviously as well, some of the challenges facing higher education. You were just a keynote speaker at the CQA fall conference in Chicago. When you go to a conference like that, and here on Monmouth Matters, we're always talking about the good, the UCI, the athletics, how great everything is. You've openly talked about some of the challenges that face higher education despite Monmouth being highest ranked that they've ever been, despite you saying best class that's come in, there are still issues. And I'm curious, just in a quick answer, and we can go back over this a little bit more in our November episode coming up when you are around others that also are facing challenges, how you feel like Monmouth kind of stacks up in that conversation? Patrick Leahy: I feel like I'm the envy of the situation. I mean, when we get together with other college presidents and people talk about the challenges they have, I recognize them, I appreciate them. We are feeling them ourselves, but our relative position compared to other schools is enviable. And at this conference out in Chicago, I was speaking to a bunch of money managers from around the world and they wanted to hear what was going on in higher education. When they gave me the topic challenges facing higher ed, my first question was, how much time can you give me? Because there are a lot. But the thing for which I was most proud, Matt, was one slide I created to brief everyone in that audience about Monmouth University. And I can't tell you how proud I was to single out for them. All the things that make Monmouth University unique, our unique location, our incredible program mix, the Centers of Extinction that we just talked about, including the Center for American Music with Bruce Springsteen that's going up our research, college and university designation. The fact that we don't have any debt as an institution. The fact that Netflix is building the largest television film production studio two miles from our campus and on and on and on. It was an incredible source of pride. And I said to these money managers, you can see now why I am as bullish as I am about the future of Monmouth University despite all these challenges. And that was the key takeaway for me. Matt Harmon: And finish with this one, if you can, you'll be able to share that message. I know we said it is homecoming this weekend and a great opportunity for you and the campus community to reconnect with alums that come back. And it might be just their one time that they come back to campus all during the course of the year. We'd love to get 'em back more. But if this is the weekend, that's your opportunity to connect with so many people that on some level, whether it's been student, past employee, past athlete, whatever it could be, have a deep connection to this place we call Monmouth. Patrick Leahy: So if there's any alums out there, my suggestion is to come home to Monmouth this weekend or any weekend as you mentioned, see what's going on at your university. When you decide to come to Monmouth University. You are deciding on a lifelong relationship with Monmouth, and I hope that that is the case. Whether you graduated a year or two ago or whether you graduated 25 years ago, this is your university and I welcome you back to have a look around and hopefully you're as proud of how we're developing it as I am. Matt Harmon: Awesome. Fantastic. Love it. Great episode. Looking forward to doing it again in November. Thanks to our entire crew here today, our students, especially Frank John, Nick and Chloe for university President Dr. Patrick Leahy. I'm faculty member Matt Horman. We will see you in November, episode number three of Monmouth Matters, coming up in about 30 days from now. Thanks for listening to this one and enjoy Homecoming this weekend. Speaker 9: All episodes of Monmouth Matters, the President's perspective are for download and listening. Pleasure on Apple Podcasts and the university website, monmouth.edu. Technical assistance is provided by engineer Eric Recher and Dr. Aaron Ferguson. This show is produced by Nick Tonio, John Grano, Chloe Goss and Frank Corley. The executive producers and hosts of Monmouth Matters are University President, Dr. Patrick Leahy, and faculty member Dr. Matt Harmon. Thanks as always for listening.