I am pleased to inform you that today our Board of Trustees approved an agreement that will formalize our relationship with Bloomfield College and enable its merger into Montclair as a new constituent college of the University. The board of Bloomfield College approved the agreement last night.

The University has been and will continue to work with the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, the New Jersey Office of the Secretary of Higher Education, and other entities to take all steps necessary to consummate the merger.

Both institutions will continue to work together over the next several months to address the details of integration and to develop comprehensive plans to ensure a smooth transition. Our goal is for the merger to be finalized on or before June 30, 2023.

We have engaged  to help Bloomfield College and its students because the missions of both institutions are closely aligned around providing access to high-quality educational experiences for our students. This strategic initiative is entirely consistent with our institutional identity and our values. Since our founding more than 100 years ago as a normal school, Montclair has been an innovator and a leader.

Over the past several months, as we have explored and analyzed a potential relationship, my top priority, and our Board’s top priority, has been to ensure that this would be a benefit to the University and its students and not a burden, financially or in any other way. We would not be proceeding if this fundamental test was not passed. This will be our approach as we continually strive to find new ways to deliver our mission as a public research university committed to advancing the public good.

We are grateful for the support of Governor Murphy and the state legislature for providing $12.5 million to sustain Bloomfield College through this process.

This partnership has the potential to serve as a new national model for integration in higher education. It will allow us to further the missions of both institutions and ensure future generations of student success while strengthening our university.  This is a win for students of both institutions, for the State of New Jersey, and for the future of higher education.

For more information on the agreement, read the full story on our website.

I am writing to thank the many hundreds of people who pitched in to make Investiture Day wonderful for me and my family, and for the entire University community. The comments from our guests were universally positive about the entire day.

You gave me an incredibly warm welcome, for which I am deeply grateful. But even more importantly, we celebrated together all that makes our University remarkable, and underscored for ourselves and our visitors all that is truly inspirational and amazing about Montclair.

From the Campus Festival highlighting the many amazing programs, research and initiatives of our colleges, schools and administrative units and our work with community partners, to the Ceremony, which included uplifting student performances and inspirational speeches, the day was truly spectacular. I was so happy to spend it celebrating with you.

Myriad employees and students worked hard to make this day possible. Foremost among them is Nicole Fleming ’06, our talented, dedicated Director of Special Events. She worked tirelessly to plan and produce this event. I also want to thank the planning committee: vice presidents Joe Brennan, Colleen Coppla and Dawn Soufleris, Dean Dan Gurskis, and my chief of staff, Keith Barrack, a team that was ably supported by Pamela Fox in my office and Kaitlin Kurdyla in Conference Services.

I also want to thank the many departments and units who played important roles, including The College of the Arts, Student Development and Campus LIfe, University Communications and Marketing, Development, University Facilities, and the Office of the President, and of course all of the departments and programs who were so well represented at the Campus Festival.

And finally, thank you to everyone for your support and enthusiasm for our University. Together, we make great things happen.

Jonathan GS Koppell, PhD
President

You may recall that last fall Bloomfield College announced that it is facing financial challenges. It sought potential partners with which it could form a strategic relationship to ensure that its vital mission serving predominantly Black and Hispanic students in our community could continue.

I immediately opened up a dialogue with Bloomfield’s president, Dr. Marcheta Evans, to explore the opportunities for collaboration. After evaluating many institutions that responded to the call for a partner, Bloomfield determined that ����vlog is the ideal match. Indeed, the missions of both institutions are closely aligned around providing access to high-quality educational experiences to underserved students.

Today, the ����vlog Board of Trustees authorized the finalization of an agreement under which the University will provide a “line of credit” to ensure that Bloomfield College will remain open for academic year 2022-23. This support, along with assistance from the state included in the Governor’s budget, creates a window of opportunity to design an innovative collaboration that is fiscally sustainable and advances educational outcomes for both student populations. Over the next several months, we will work together toward this shared goal. The structure of our relationship has not yet been determined and we have many questions to work through before final consideration. Please read the details here.

This strategic initiative is entirely consistent with our institutional mission and our values. Since our founding more than 100 years ago, Montclair has been an innovator and leader with our eyes always focused on serving the public interest. We continually strive to find new ways to deliver on our purpose as a public-serving research university committed to advancing the common good. That means not letting an important neighboring institution founder, especially one that is focused on the success of marginalized students, but also, and more profoundly, it means taking the lead at a time when higher education requires critical self-examination and re-invention.

Across the nation, colleges and universities are facing novel challenges and heightened expectations in an increasingly complex operating environment. Our work with Bloomfield College is part of our effort to develop a new model for American higher education for the 21st century. Hopefully, we will chart a promising path that is relevant for other institutions that, like Bloomfield, are open-minded and opportunistic about embracing new approaches to delivering on their mission.

As we work to define a sustainable permanent relationship, our first priority will be to ensure that our commitments to Montclair students and the communities we serve are met without compromise. I am confident we can successfully take on this critical assignment because I am already deeply impressed by our faculty, staff, students and leadership. Your creativity, knowledge and commitment to generate solutions to our most vexing challenges enables us to be bold and capitalize on promising opportunities,

Together we will seize the day and do great things.

Jonathan Koppell
President

I am pleased to announce that Associate Vice President for Finance Michael Galvin has been appointed Interim Vice President for Finance and Treasurer, effective March 21. He will assume Donna McMonagle’s role when she leaves later this month to become Vice President for Finance and Chief Financial Officer at Seton Hall University.

In addition, former Vice President for Finance and Treasurer Jon Rosenhein has rejoined the University as Senior Advisor to the President for Finance and Administration. In concert with Michael, he will provide strategic counsel to my office on University operations.

Michael brings a wealth of experience and expertise and has held several positions during his nearly eight years at Montclair, including the role of University Controller in addition to Associate Vice President.

Please join me in congratulating Michael and welcoming Jon back to our community.

Jonathan Koppell
President