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Today’s students are some of the most remarkable and resilient that I’ve seen in my career as a higher education leader. Faced with more twists and turns than any generation in recent memory, they remain optimistic, hungry and ready to make a difference.

But despite this self-assurance, there’s one major concern that looms as a challenge for this cohort: the ability to constructively manage conflict.

It’s been widely discussed that the pandemic generation around the world. But perhaps even more alarming is how quickly they fell behind in developing the interpersonal skills that are so important for living and working alongside one another. On college campuses, we witness the effects on a daily basis, with many of our students finding it hard to constructively advocate for what they need or to deal with disagreements in a solutions-oriented manner. The result is a worrisome rise in student conflicts on campus.

How did we get here? Today’s students have emerged as adults in a distinct environment for several big reasons:

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated rates of seclusion, leaving young people cloistered during the crucial years when they should have been building social capital. The problem is such that U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued in our country, pointing to showing that the time young people spend with their peers has decreased by nearly 70% in the last two decades.

Many of these students celebrated rites of passage like prom or graduation over Zoom. Perhaps they didn’t experiment with dating or were unable to spend quality, in-person time with others their age during critical growth years. As a result, we see a lack of sophistication and social acuity needed to help them manage relationships in college.

For example, we’ve seen roommates who – despite sharing a living space – only communicate over text. We’ve even had students ask faculty and administrators for advice on how to talk to someone they’re interested in dating. And we regularly see groups of students sitting together, glued to their smartphones instead of engaging in conversations with one another.

They’re overly reliant on their parents to problem solve. Students are highly connected to their parents, often inhibiting their ability to make autonomous decisions or manage conflict on their own. Students all too readily hand our staff their phones with a parent on the other end, ready to take control of the situation rather than allow their child to gain the independence they need for when they graduate and enter the workforce. I regularly receive calls from parents expecting me to mitigate individual issues.

We’re facing a broader degradation of societal norms. The rise of simultaneously caused a decline in our expectations of decent behavior. In the digital realm, people hide behind their phones as they troll or argue with others anonymously. And that’s if they’re even looking at content they disagree with – the algorithms are sorting us into camps based on interests and beliefs, making it less likely we interact with anyone outside our own echo chamber. This can make it tough to transition to “real-life” situations, where students are living in dorms and attending classes with people who hold a wide range of beliefs and values.

The adults aren’t setting a good example. Today’s students came of age when the former U.S. president – one of the most influential and visible people in the world – was embraced and celebrated for his strident and confrontational style rather than for encouraging understanding and compromise. His success paved the way for so many other politicians, business leaders, celebrities – really, anyone else with an opinion and access to a computer or a smartphone – to follow suit. The kids were watching.

So, in the face of all of this, what’s the solution?

Teach by example. As my colleague Mildred García, chancellor of the 450,000-plus student California State University system, put it at a recent , we must teach students how to have civil debates and dialogue. One of the most important aspects of being in college is learning how to live in a civil democracy, and it’s our responsibility to uphold those standards.

Anyone with exposure to young people should demonstrate this personally: Sit down with students, and explain a different point of view face to face. Teach them how to explain themselves, while having the patience to listen to the thoughts of others. Emphasize that you’ll get a lot further when you’re not always on the attack or immediately playing defense.

Help them find their voice through training and mediation. At Montclair, we employ a number of strategies to ensure students can self-advocate instead of being reliant on others for guidance and decision-making. These include skill development opportunities during orientation, a roommate mediation center run by graduate students in our counseling program, and a peer training program called Social Justice Education.

The programming helps students learn how to navigate difficult conversations and supports inclusive connection by encouraging them to speak freely and respectfully as they build alliances around an understanding of differences. These sessions have demonstrated that peers listen to peers, resulting in improved communication, problem-solving and conflict management skills. This is what our democracy desperately needs! That’s why I joined College Presidents for Civic Preparedness, an initiative of the , to promote a shared commitment to providing students with the tools they need to prosper in a pluralistic society.

Champion intentional collaboration around shared interests. To combat the challenge of separating students from their phones and video games, we’ve launched groups like the Montclair University Gamers, which offers lively community and social engagement. This approach takes a commonality between the participants and introduces it in different social contexts, allowing them to contribute to real-life interactions without giving up their safety net.

But we find that others actually crave activities away from their screens. A group that’s risen in popularity post-pandemic is Montclair Unraveled, our knitting and crocheting club. Students make conversation while doing something productive with their hands.

We also strongly encourage public service and create opportunities for students to engage. While working in the community, students often find themselves in unfamiliar situations and interacting with people from different backgrounds. Yet when they know their purpose is to collectively focus on a shared goal that is bigger than themselves, interpersonal conflicts take a back seat.

Our goal is always to inspire students to look at the bigger picture as we prepare them to become responsible and engaged citizens. That mission is even more heightened during a critical election year. I’m focused on bridging the gap between our students and society by serving on the ’s 2024 Presidents’ Council to help create a culture of nonpartisan civic engagement and voter participation on all campuses.

No one purposely set out to prevent young people from appropriately engaging with their peers. But I do believe that all of us need to make a concerted effort to change the path that was charted over the past several years. We need to be more intentional and teach by example the necessary skills to navigate conflict with confidence, understanding and empathy.

At a time when our nation is more divided than ever, it’s on us to double down on helping students learn how to engage with each other respectfully.

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The popularity of pursuing education abroad is on the rise. The number of Indian students studying abroad rose steadily after the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, reaching a six-year high in 2022, and the U.S. welcomed more students from India than ever before. Second only to China, India reached an all-time high in international student enrollment in the U.S. last year, as America issued a record number of student visas.

Both countries gain a great deal from this valuable partnership, propelled by significant changes in immigration policies. Students are exposed to academic excellence, diverse programs and research opportunities, professional development, and cross-cultural immersion. American universities benefit from the talent and diversity Indian students bring to campus, enriching their intercultural exchange of ideas and expertise.

For students and families, choosing where to study abroad can be overwhelming when faced with thousands of choices. While it might be tempting to focus on the more well-known or exclusive schools in the U.S., it’s important to keep in mind that many others pair excellence with accessibility. By looking beyond the most “famous” institutions, you will realize that some schools are not only more affordable, but they offer even more opportunities to transform the lives of students.

Several practical considerations, interests, and career goals must be carefully considered when choosing a degree program. Beyond academic quality and cost, here are some other areas to explore:

Location

The location of a university can have a huge impact on the student’s overall experience, both in terms of feeling “at home” as well as proximity to external opportunities. Factors to consider include an urban, suburban, or rural environment; climate; access to job, internship, and networking opportunities in the region; and the cultural makeup of the area.

If retaining close ties to India while studying abroad is important, refer to organizations like Indian American Impact to better understand the Indian presence in different states. For example, Indians make up the majority of the state’s immigrant population in New Jersey, where ĚÇĐÄvlog is located. In February 2024, Governor Phil Murphy announced the launch of the New Jersey-India Commission to further promote cultural and educational exchanges between the two.

Inclusive Environment

Beyond the wider region, consider how important diversity is within the campus community. One of the best parts about studying abroad is the opportunity to engage with others from all over the world. To get that experience, which is so important for fostering future leaders who understand and appreciate cultures outside of their own, it’s crucial to be in a truly inclusive environment.

Schools like Montclair offer resources for student belonging and assimilation, with dedicated programs to make sure all students are positioned to thrive regardless of their background. But this is not the same at all schools, as recent legislative changes in parts of the country have changed how these initiatives are structured. It’s important to do due diligence to explore what is available to meet your needs.

Employable Degrees

Schools must move quickly to update and introduce programs to meet the changing needs of the workforce. For example, consider programs that are specifically designed to meet growing demands for computer & data scientists, address the public health crisis, and tackle the global teacher shortage.

Many university programs offer hands-on learning experiences outside of the classroom, offering the opportunity to engage in internships, apprenticeships, and networking opportunities with employers. These experiences offer transferable skills for job prospects all over the world.

Focus on Output

Many schools will boast of their exclusivity and low acceptance rates, but the marginal effect of attending that university should matter much more. The main question to ask is not “How many students got rejected?” but “How will earning a degree from this institution alter the trajectory of my life?”

Media outlets like U.S. News, World Report and Wall Street Journal have tried to answer this question by focusing on factors like graduation rate, value added to a graduate’s salary, and the amount of time it takes to pay off student debt. Their rankings show how institutions change the lives of students and their families by evaluating who offers affordability without compromising quality. They, therefore, describe the best institutions as engines of social mobility, something that resonates with Indian students considering earning a degree abroad.

The increasing trend of Indian students pursuing higher education in the US is promising and exciting. Linking the deep talent pool in India with the academic resources and research opportunities at American universities is a recipe for advancement that benefits the entire world.

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The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision striking down affirmative action in college admissions last June fueled heated debates and raised questions about the distribution of opportunities to attend highly selective education institutions.

Among them is: How will we ensure diverse leadership in this country if student diversity decreases at Ivy League and other top colleges?

That question, while well-intentioned, is overly narrow. We should instead be asking this: Why are we so laser-focused on the graduates of a tiny number of schools, presuming they are the rightful inhabitants of leadership posts in business and government?

As a professor, dean and now a college president with decades of experience at public and private schools (including the Ivy League), I’ve found that the most impressive students often come from less prestigious institutions.

So why are we unwilling to recognize that great leaders can and do come from a wide variety of educational backgrounds? And why do we lean so heavily into a highly flawed filtering system that privileges people of means and connection?

The answers are rooted in the mistaken but prevailing narrative that selectivity equals quality. We adhere to the notion that the more competitive an institution, the better it must be — and that students admitted into these coveted spots must be superior to those who are not.

Unfortunately, this is why many employers looking for the best talent narrowly focus on graduates of “elite” institutions. Research reveals the degree to which these schools fuel the pipeline for some of the most prestigious leadership roles in America.

found that although just 1 percent of U.S. students attend Ivy-Plus schools (the eight Ivy League schools plus MIT, Duke, Stanford, and University of Chicago), they account for more than 13 percent of those in the top 0.1 percent of U.S. income distribution, a quarter of U.S. senators, nearly half of all Rhodes Scholars, five of the last 12 U.S. presidents and almost three-quarters of Supreme Court Justices since 1963. And “Attending an Ivy-Plus college instead of a flagship public college triples students’ chances of obtaining jobs at prestigious firms,” the research found.

If we treat those outcomes as fixed, unless these schools diversify, we won’t have diverse leadership in government, business and academia.

But those outcomes are not fixed. The study’s authors didn’t question the imbalance of opportunities perpetuated by the heavy reliance on these 12 top schools out of thousands of other fine colleges and universities.

Why only 12? Tweaking the composition of the student body at only 12 elite institutions was never going to fix our diversity problem.

Countless outstanding graduates emerge from non-Ivy institutions that embrace students from varied backgrounds and with fewer resources.

Yes, these students frequently display incredible “grit” and “resilience,” but that praise is too-often offered as a kind of offset for an assumed talent deficit. That’s nonsense. Many students at more accessible institutions can run intellectual circles around their peers at “top schools.”

To disregard their talent because they don’t have the “right” degree is to leave acres and acres of human potential wasted.

We need to wash away the prevailing attitude — among those making hiring decisions, graduate school admissions decisions and other evaluations of college graduates — that attendance at an elite institution is a perfect proxy for excellence. This requires reformulating ranking systems that reward institutions for being exclusionary.

If everyone in a hiring position focused on individuals’ attributes, abilities and achievements, it would have an enormous impact on increasing diversity in leadership.

And diversity is what we’re looking for. Recent found that, when asked to evaluate how current business and political leaders are reacting to societal challenges, the vast majority of Americans somewhat or strongly agreed that “even great leaders are not suited to handle all crises” and that some emerging crises faced by society today require “a new crop of leaders to emerge with new skill sets.” Poll respondents also overwhelmingly indicated that “having more diverse leaders would allow for better outcomes in government, business, etc.,” and that “society would be better if we evolved past the ’traditional’ leader (e.g., male, white, older, etc.).”

Fortunately, it was never necessary to believe that 12 schools could alter the leadership landscape for our entire country. There are many colleges and universities working hard to foster diversity simply by increasing access to high-quality education. Just by leveling the playing field, they are producing a diverse set of highly capable graduates prepared and eager to make an impact on the world, and changing lives in the process.

Many of us are steadfast in our belief that accessibility and excellence must go hand in hand. Yet too often, our schools — and by extension, our students — remain in the shadow of a small but influential group of institutions built on histories of exclusion and privilege.

New Jersey’s second-largest higher education institution, ĚÇĐÄvlog, where I serve as president, is one of these overshadowed schools. Built on an ethos of inclusion and excellence, we are a minority-majority and Hispanic-Serving Institution.

Last year, 44 percent of our incoming class were first-generation college students, while 48 percent of our undergraduates received Pell Grants. Our accessibility does not undermine our results. Indeed, Montclair’s exceed national medians. And Montclair to defy expectations based on its broader accessibility.

There is no question that Ivy-Plus schools offer a small number of people a remarkable education — including me: I was fortunate to study at Harvard, and I’ve undoubtedly benefited from my association with this august institution. Those advantages have fueled my conviction that real progress requires broadening the pathways to power. To do so we must support the institutions that are cultivating new waves of talent reflective of the diversity of our country.

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

I am pleased to announce that Althea Broomfield-Michel has been appointed as the next University Counsel. She will start on August 8, succeeding Mark Fleming, who retired at the end of June.

Althea brings over 20 years legal experience in higher education and government agencies. For the past 14 years, she has served on the legal staff of Teachers College, Columbia University, where she rose through the ranks to become Senior Associate General Counsel. Her duties include supervising attorneys and working on matters related to higher education law, civil and commercial litigation, complex commercial transactions, contracts, construction, labor and employment law, data security and privacy, intellectual property, international collaborations, policy development and implementation, procurement, risk and crisis management, disability law, student and faculty affairs and governance.

She has also worked as a staff attorney for the New York City Transit Authority and the New York City Department of Education. She earned a BA from Colgate University and a JD from George Washington University.

Althea’s experience with complex legal issues in higher education and public institutions and her collaborative approach will help ĚÇĐÄvlog move forward on our journey to becoming New Jersey’s premier public service university.

Maria Anderson, who has served as Interim General Counsel since Mark’s departure, will be promoted to Deputy University Counsel. The University thanks Mark for his service and appreciates Maria’s continued dedication and skillful work on the University’s behalf.

Jonathan Koppell
President
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The U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of the landmark abortion rights decision Roe v. Wade will have profound consequences for millions of Americans, including members of the ĚÇĐÄvlog community. We recognize the strong feelings this significant change in American law will create even for those not directly impacted.

It is important to underscore that here in New Jersey, this ruling has no effect on our ability to access all reproductive health services. State law protects access to abortion and contraceptives and the New Jersey Supreme Court has held that the protected right to privacy encompasses a woman’s right to control her own body. Learn more at the .

Once again, we are reminded of the pivotal role participation in public affairs has in shaping our communities. As a public-serving university, we encourage all Red Hawks to become engaged in the civic life of our state and our nation. The Office of Civic and Voter Engagement website provides information on how to register to vote and how to contact your elected representatives at the state and federal levels.

Students who have questions about their health care should contact the University Health Center or Health Promotion, and employees should contact their personal health care provider. For any emotional or mental health needs, students can contact CAPS at any time, and employees can make use of the Employee Assistance Program.

We encourage you to take good care of yourself and each other during this tumultuous time.

Sincerely,
Jonathan Koppell
President

New Jersey wears its egalitarian spirit on her sleeve. No royalty here. Each of us deserves our own shot at success. So as the new president at ĚÇĐÄvlog, I was shocked that the unequal treatment of New Jersey’s college students is shrugged off like traffic on the GWB, just an unavoidable fact of life.

The complex structure of New Jersey’s state investment in college students obscures this surprising reality, but the picture is clear if you pull it apart. Start with the core appropriation to each of the Garden State’s 11 public universities.

A student’s choice of school may mean that the state invests more than $7,000 per student annually in her school or less than $3,000! Some of this disparity can be explained by differences in institutional profile but that only gets you so far.

Consider my students at ĚÇĐÄvlog who receive one of the lowest state investments, just $3,047 per student each year in state funding. That’s 30% below the average per student at the other 10 public universities — and a staggering 50% less than the per-student appropriation at the three other public research universities.

Indeed, the inequities are even greater if you include a confusing but critical component of state investment in higher education: coverage of health care and pensions for some university employees. The number covered varies by institution. It is set by the legislature, not guided by enrollment or any other formula.

Just do the math to see how this plays out. At the average NJ research university, it takes seven students to “earn” a single state-supported faculty or staff position. At Montclair, it takes 14 students! Are Montclair students worth only half the investment of students who attend other schools?

Now funding is not destiny. Grit and hard work have a lot to do with success. I am proud that ĚÇĐÄvlog students perform as well as or better than students at other senior public universities.

Graduation rates are similar overall and higher for Hispanic and African American students. They are supported by a Montclair faculty and staff that operate at an incredible level of efficiency – 20% fewer employees per student than the average – with a cost per degree lower than all but one in-person, four-year state institution.

We are a recognized leader in social mobility and our students defy expectations. Indeed, Montclair students outpace the graduation rates predicted by their family income by the largest margin in the nation. And they do so while achieving excellence in key fields including education, business, science, communications, health and the arts.

We make this happen by running a lean, mission-focused institution made up of faculty and staff who are passionately dedicated to student success.

This is what we owe our students and the people of New Jersey, our largest investor, and we should be held accountable for these results.

Now there is a highly uncomfortable reality about the disparity in funding that must be addressed. Each institution has a different demographic profile. One strength of Montclair is the fantastic diversity of our majority-minority student population. Here’s the thing though. When you look at the state’s investment per student through the lens of racial and economic equity, it is obvious that New Jersey invests less in minority and low-income students. Let me be clear. I am not saying the intent is discriminatory but it is the effect nonetheless.

This is simply the result of students flocking to Montclair and other growing institutions, drawn to high-quality programs and stellar results in terms of graduation and employment. These hard-working minority students are being shortchanged as a result of their shrewd focus on outcomes. It’s not right, and I must call out this unfair and counterproductive policy because these are not abstract statistics to me. They represent real people.

Like Hunter, a hard-working student from Elizabeth who is the first in his family to pursue a college degree. Or Sienna, a senior from East Orange, who launched her own line of hair-care products for women of color while attending Montclair full-time.

My students speak passionately about their dreams, about the meaning of a degree for their families, and about their plans to give back to their communities. They are not just working hard in their classes but holding down jobs and taking care of families. It isn’t easy, and I am so proud of them.

The people of New Jersey have no interest in continuing the indefensible disparities that are obscured by the politics of budget-making. They see that all of Montclair’s 21,000 students — and underfunded students at other institutions — offer the same fantastic return on public investment. That is, after all, the premise of enlightened, important policies like the Garden State Guarantee.

Our legislators have the power to start righting this wrong in the current budget. My colleagues at six public universities have come together to propose a common-sense starting point: set a floor of $3,750 annual investment per student. That would still allow for significant variation reflecting institutional differences. It will not erase all of the inequities, but it gets the ball rolling. Now is the time to bring an equity lens to our higher education funding system. Let’s get this done. Our students deserve no less.

Jonathan G S Koppell

Tuesday, April 19, 11 a.m. – Noon

Conference Center, University Hall, 7th Floor

Please wear a mask, which may be removed briefly when drinking.

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 ĚÇĐÄvlog 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 ĚÇĐÄvlog 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