CIANJ Commerce Magazine September 2020 Live | Page 48

■ Annual Best Practices Guide
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HIGHER EDUCATION
Berkeley College
By Michael J. Smith,
President
It was essential to maintain our
culture of high-touch, visibility,
collaboration and connectedness
with our communities.
The hyper-accelerated use of web-conferencing
technology such as Zoom has been a standard,
but not enough. While web-conferencing
makes it is easier for faculty, students and
staff to come together, we still needed to do
more. So, we increased our communications
methods and frequency including more written
communications and e-mails—I periodically
send associates a 60-second video update
and we have virtual town hall meetings. The
annual tradition of my all-college, one-day
campus tour, where I visit each campus in
New Jersey, New York and online at the beginning
of the summer was conducted remotely
through Zoom, allowing for greater involvement
across the institution, but still personalized
to each location. Throughout COVID‐19,
frequent communication over alternative
platforms have been effective in maintaining
our collaborative, high-touch, response and
personalized work culture.
New Jersey
City University
By Dr. Sue Henderson,
President
To thrive under the challenges
of COVID‐19, we have learned
to be nimble and creative in
providing our students with a high-quality
educational experience. We stayed focused
on our core mission and made necessary
adjustments as needed. I am grateful to the
committed members of our university community
who immediately stepped forward
and demonstrated leadership in serving others.
That leadership emerged in March when
we moved to remote delivery and our faculty
deftly adjusted their teaching. Now, we are
working diligently to ensure we have a safe,
secure and robust learning environment this
fall that includes experiential learning and
student development activities. This may well
be our new normal for a while. The ability to
adjust and be forward-thinking will determine
the organizations who will thrive and
those who won’t.
NJIT
By Dr. Joel S. Bloom,
President
I am proud of the manner in
which NJIT has adapted to
the circumstances created by
COVID‐19. We are deploying
a converged-learning model this fall that
will, so long as state guidelines allow, enable
students to work collaboratively and learn
synchronously in-person or remotely in many
courses, depending on which mode of learning
they prefer. We also have made changes
to Makerspace at NJIT in order to move from
a facility that is used for prototyping to one
that has been manufacturing thousands of
face shields for healthcare workers who are on
the front lines battling this pandemic. Additionally,
we recently announced a collaboration
with University Hospital and the Tuchman
Foundation to develop modular, mobile
medical care facilities to be deployed to areas
of surging disease outbreak or other disasters.
NJIT is meeting this moment by serving its
students and also contributing to the broader
fight against the COVID‐19 pandemic.
HIGHER EDUCATION
Stockton University
By Dr. Harvey Kesselman,
President
As a university, part of our
mission is to create a community
of learning. That community
transitioned online
almost overnight in March. While technology
has been crucial to maintaining our connection
to students and making new connections
with potential students, our most
successful asset has been our people. Even
while working remotely, the faculty and staff
have been dedicated and creative in meeting
with and serving students, families and the
public. For example, student admission ambassadors
held live social media events to
connect with new freshmen and answer their
questions. Special events that moved online
were livestreamed and recorded, reaching
hundreds and, in some cases, even thousands
of people who might never have been able to
attend on campus. As we move forward, we
will continue to offer in-person and remote
courses, activities and events to continue to
serve our community.
46 COMMERCE www. commercemagnj.com
Thomas Edison
State University
By Dr. Merodie Hancock,
President
As the entire TESU community
continues to come to terms
with COVID‐19’s evolving
impact, we will carry on doing what we have
always done so well—deliver high-quality
courses and support in modalities that fit our
students’ lives, unique needs, location and
learning styles. While the health and livelihood
of our adult learners and staff continues
to be a priority, we are adhering to state
and federal distancing protocols and have
put measures into place to mitigate potential
health concerns while providing continuity
for our applicants and students. As of
July 1, TESU announced a 10 percent tuition
discount for in-state students, bringing our
already cost-effective tuition structure within
reach for more New Jersey residents. We
also expect to serve many in- and out-of-state
students on hiatus from brick-and-mortar
colleges by offering access to accredited, fully
transferrable courses, 12 terms a year with
24/7 support.
William Paterson
University
By Dr. Richard J. Helldobler,
President
Clear, consistent communication
is fundamental to
effective leadership, but like
everything else during this pandemic, best
practices for communicating with diverse
constituencies have had to evolve rapidly to
ensure that our students, faculty and staff
are well informed of—and committed to—
our course of action. Communication plans
that typically account for crises with impacts
over days or weeks must now accommodate a
pandemic affecting every area of operations,
which will likely be measured in years. Since
the pandemic’s start, we have kept students,
faculty and staff updated on its rapidly changing
impacts on our budget and operating
plans by applying the protocols of consistent,
comprehensive communications at scheduled,
predictable intervals. It can be challenging
to address various complex topics when
so much often remains unknown, but we are
more effective when all our people know the
latest facts about the impacts to their education,
livelihoods, health and safety.
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