(Slide 1) Welcome back everyone, whether you have been away during the summer months or have enjoyed a vacation before preparing for the 2025-2026 academic year. I thoroughly enjoyed stopping into all the Colloquium sessions and hearing and observing the energy and engagement. Each session may have been organized around one of our values, but multiple values were on display in each session.
Thank you to Katie Arrigo and Eileen Thigpin for bringing their interpretive skills to our time together this afternoon.
This will be a busy year for us all as we continue to adapt to the changing higher education landscape, the evolving student population, and the different directions we continue to receive from the state and federal government and our various accreditors.
We have returned to the gym, as the Grunin Theatre is not quite ready for us. We heard you last spring when you made note about the comfort of the seating in the gym. Today, you get to experience the “cushy toushy.” (Slide 2) As you might imagine, many parents, friends, and supporters of our athletic teams that use this space have found it challenging to arise after 90 minutes or so on these bleacher seats. We now have these seats to offer as a fund raiser for our athletic teams, who do need to fund raise to finance what we hope will be their championship travels. We ask, therefore, that you return these cushions to the bin located near the door, or you may wish to support our students, too, and purchase a cushion for $10. Your comments about the need for cushions have resulted in both increased comfort and a way for our athletes to finance their sports. Perhaps with this additional padding you will enjoy attending one of our athletic events. Whatever your choice, please bring the cushion with you as you exit and either place in the bin or donate to the student athletes’ fundraiser.
Much happened over the last several months. I asked campus leaders to provide some updates that I can share with you. Note that this is the abridged version, so I apologize in advance if you were engaged in something this summer that has not been included.
What we did this summer (abridged) (Slide 3):
- This summer, construction began on the new admin building. As a result, everyone has been engaged in more exercise due to parking lot #2R closure and the summer closure of parking lot #1 for new paving and striping as well as additional car charging stations.
- Significant progress is visible on the completion of the Grunin Center expansion.
- Jon Ross and Kayci Clayton applied for and received a grant for additional trees for the campus, so the college will be able to plant an additional 28 trees this next year.
- There is new signage including for deer crossing and the veteran parking spaces on certain roads and parking lots.
- Our facilities department led successful preventative maintenance of the all the exterior electrical transformers.
- Mary Granahan used her magic to secure a donation of a set for our broadcasting studio, and then when she met representatives from Marquis Health, they volunteered to donate two 85” screens to complete the set.
- The new music practice suite in the Grunin Center was opened.
- Our Security Department received accreditation from IACLEA, the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators; OCC joins 1,000+ higher education institutions in 31 countries and is the only community college in the state to enjoy this accreditation.
- Summer building occupancy scheduling for energy conservation occurred for the second year in a row.
- (Slide 4) We received word from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE), commending Ocean County College for completing the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS) reporting process and earning a STARS Bronze rating, under the leadership of Jim Calamia and Lincoln Simmons and supported by a dedicated team.
- (Slide 5)We took a breath after a commencement week that involved many challenging decisions. We received positive feedback from students and families and paused to rethink how we will proceed with our most important celebration of our student’s achievements going forward. Based on a combination of factors, we will hold the commencement ceremonies in the RWJ Barnabas Health Arena, and we will return to a Thursday ceremony.
- (Slide 6) Over the summer, we learned the fate of our funding from the State and were pleasantly surprised when much of our funding was restored in this year’s budget. Thank you to the many faculty, staff, and students, who spent time lobbying in Trenton.
- The Foundation hosted its Annual Scholarship Ceremony honoring, among others, our very own Controller, Mary Lancaster. Raising over $220,000 for scholarships, this was a wonderful evening of fellowship and community for our many supporters and the College community.
- We have been working with Marquis Health Consulting Services on ways that we can align some of our healthcare programs with their needs as we also learn where there are opportunities to develop new certificates and training.
- We have moved forward on the dental hygiene and radiography programs, including hiring the director for dental hygiene. The new program space construction will begin this fall with the target of fall 2026 enrollment.
- The State Department of Health has lifted its prohibition on our ability to develop a paramedic program, so that is now in the works.
- Faculty led students to both France and Ireland over the summer, and the faculty and students who went to France had the experience of steamy weather without air-conditioning.
- Dean Jonathan Molinaro has been working with several faculty on the alignment of the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) competencies for workforce with course learning outcomes. This alignment will allow students to demonstrate the traits and skills employers value. The eight core competencies are career and self-development, communication, critical thinking, equity and inclusion, leadership, professionalism, teamwork, and technology.
- Throughout the summer, Arts and Humanities faculty met biweekly as a community of practice to discuss how Artificial Intelligence is impacting traditional assessment and workshop new ideas to engage students in learning. The group discussed their concerns as well as opportunities to teach students about A.I. through experiential learning and innovative class assignments. They will be continuing to meet over the upcoming academic year.
- Dr. Gay Huggins-Dickey has been meeting with faculty on the value and importance of experiential learning as she also engages the campus on how to promote career services to our students.
- We welcomed Chancellor Youngblood to Kean Ocean, who has led the renewal and reinvigoration of our collaboration. He has spent a lot of time over the summer talking to faculty, staff, and students to strategize ways to better serve our students.
- (Slide 7) This summer, we also transitioned summer camps to a partnership with Blackstone. We had a good first year and anticipate continuing growth in the future.
- (Slide 8) The College was informed that we would receive Title II funding to continue to support programming for students wishing to learn English or earn their High School Equivalency. Then we were told we would lose the funding. And now it is restored. As a result of this initial loss of funding, we took the opportunity to consider multiple pathways to meet the need of our ELL students and create clear pathways and better communication across departments. The people listed, spent most of the summer working on a pay model for credit and non-credit and designing processes for serving students with individual goals for learning English. I am delighted with these much-needed conversations across several departments. I would like to share a brief excerpt from a letter Gina gave to me today from the students who just completed the entire ESL sequence:
First of all, I would like to express my sincere thanks for all the support you have given us in this ESL program. Perhaps it does not measure how this program has helped us move forward. Many of us have left our roots behind and have ventured on this great journey, hoping to turn our lives around, not only by experience, but by opportunities. Sometimes, for ourselves, as is the case with the youngest of the program, but those of us who are here and are adults seek to improve the lives of our children, giving them a better life and opportunities in this beautiful country.
We arrive here full of hope, but lacking knowledge, especially in the management of language, a factor that is often essential to open paths or take opportunities. Knowing the language and handling it not only opens doors at work, but also helps us to contain our children, socialize and create new bonds in our new environment.
For us, who came from far away, having access to this program allows us to integrate in the right way, understand the rules of the country, understand the problems that happen around us, go to the doctor and express our ailments effectively, understand what happens in schools with our children and know if they are doing well and how we can help them improve.
This program allows us to have access to basic information to survive and interact with our environment in an effective and safe way. It allows us to raise our children without getting lost in the language barrier. Hoping that others can have the same opportunity that we have had so far, I would like to express my most sincere respects and gratitude.
I share this because it is a reminder that what we do matters, and also to illustrate how our students move from non-credit to credit as they pursue their goals. - (Slide 9) Under James Marshall’s leadership, with support from Caroline Brittain, Alexa Bashara-Blauth, and Catherine Mancuso, we held a retreat to provide an opportunity for feedback and interest in potential new programs. Based on interest and feedback, we will bring potential new programs or certificates to a new Emerging Trends committee, staffed primarily with faculty members, to review the data and evidence for consideration. The Emerging Trends Committee will then provide recommendations to the Program Development Board who will review the financial requirements, competition, marketing needs, and so forth. We will also have industry professionals as part of these discussions to ensure that these potential programs are training for in-demand jobs that lead to sustainable wage careers
- (Slide 10) A dedicated group of individuals spent several months redesigning the President’s Excellence Award that has resulted in new categories and an easier process for nominations. The nomination period will open in early fall and will inaugurate the new process.
- (Slide 11) We welcomed new students to the campus and provided orientation programs to begin creating a sense of belonging by introducing them to the many supports available throughout their academic journey.
- The College participated in multiple Pride celebrations and events in the County, thanks to students and staff from Ocean Pride and the VMRC.
- Over the past six months, as a sub-committee of the IT Governance Council, representatives from various departments around campus have been meeting to address the Title 2 mandate called WCAG 2.1. The mandate requires ADA compliance for all digital formats by April 24, 2026, and it affects all units on campus. Please check out the posters and handouts for training opportunities and more updates throughout the year.
- Over the summer, Jim Campbell and Kate Mohr conducted a train the trainer experience of the Missouri Poverty Simulation. Yesterday at the Teaching and Learning Institute, 22 people participated and gained crucial insight into the life challenges many of our students experience to one degree or another. You will understand students and people differently.
- Two long-standing Board of Trustee members, Linda Novak and Joanne Pehlivanian, retired, and we have welcomed two new Board members, Lynn Canfield and Teri Kubiel. Mr. Canfield was sworn in earlier this summer, and Dr. Teri Kubiel, an alum of our nursing program, will be sworn in next week.
- (Slide 12) Our student athletes had a great year both athletically and academically with an impressive 42 OCC student-athletes who earned placement on the 2024-25 NJCAA All-Academic Teams this year in recognition of their outstanding academic performance, including 14 students who finished the year with 4.0 grade point average. Additionally, 6 Ocean teams were honored as part of the NJCAA academic teams of the year selections: Women’s Volleyball, Women’s Cross Country, Women’s Tennis, Women’s Soccer, Men’s Soccer, and Baseball.
- (Slide 13) We enjoyed a positive summer enrollment—the positive numbers were certainly assisted by the visiting students home for the summer.
- (Slide 14) The summer also provided the opportunity for Alexa Bashara Blauth, Eileen Garcia, Jerry Raccioppi, Mark Westmoreland, Ana Wilson, and me to attend the Kickoff Training for the 2025 Cohort of Achieving the Dream (AtD)Colleges. We spent time with our coaches, including a data coach. We read a lot and learned a lot about the framework and how the college can serve students even better than we are now. We all had some moments of awakening to what we can do better. Most of all, we enjoyed getting to spend time with colleagues.
- (Slide 15) Based on our AtD experience, we focused on the work ahead. We put together the core team and the data team. It was important to me that each team be co-chaired by a faculty member and someone deeply engaged with students and/or data. We have some preliminary work to do and eagerly anticipate the upcoming visit from our AtD coaches, who will be here October 8th and 9th, providing everyone an opportunity to understand the work and see one’s own role in this effort.
- (Slide 16) For just over a year, a team of people, under Dr. Alexa Beshara-Blauth’s leadership, have been working on the strategic plan. As you know, we produced drafts, we shared these drafts with focus groups, whole classes of students provided insights and feedback, our internal and external communities were included in the process, and by spring semester we had mission, vision, and values and our Goals and Objectives established.
- Since that time, each of the four goal leaders worked with a team to develop the KPIs for each goal. Earlier today you had the opportunity to see each of the four goals.
(Slide 17) When you look at our four goals, Empower, Future-Focused, Connect, and Sustain—you see more than a strategic plan. You see a roadmap for how we will build opportunity and strengthen community in all we do.
These are not abstract ideas. They are concrete actions that will shape the daily experience of our students, our employees, and our community.
(Slide 18) We can execute these actions because of the passion, collaboration, and dedication of the people in this room.
The goals are interconnected and are supported by the work we will do through Achieving the Dream. Both are data driven processes and will provide the structure for us to better serve students, adjust to the changing high ed landscape, and respond to opportunities nimbly.
(Slide 19) I cannot stress to you how important it is for us to focus on these goals and the strategic initiatives. We must focus our time, our efforts, and our resources in ensuring future success for students, our employees, our college, and our communities. We can do this by dedicating ourselves to achieving our initiatives establishing a strong foundation, strategically expanding opportunity, and ultimately creating a lasting, transformative impact that strengthens the OCC community.
(Slide 20) You will see from the plan the initiatives, the foundational efforts, our strategic wins, and our transformational outcomes. All of the initiatives have Key Performance Indicators to chart our successes and provide key data about when we need to refocus our attention.
(Slide 21) All of this work will be monitored with updates provided by our newly formed Institutional Effectiveness Committee which replaces the previous “Guiding Coalition.”
(Slide 22) Thank you to everyone who has been part of this journey, and most especially our Strategic Planning Taskforce who laid the foundation of our plans; the Goal Committees who defined the actions, and every member of the OCC community who will bring these goals to life.
(Slide 23) I urge you to review the publication of our strategic plan – live on our website – as we launch this September.
Now to the present state of the college.
Ocean County College has to prepare for changes that have already arrived. I would like to take a few moments to look at some enrollment history and current enrollment data to provide context for additional remarks.
(Slide 24) Over the summer, Sara Winchester requested from IR specific data that looked at enrollment without online and embedded enrollment included over the past five years.
What you see is a steady decline. This has partially been hidden because of steady increases in both online and our embedded programs but the steady decline is clear when f2f data are isolated. As a result, what we have not seen are changes in our class schedule, in our room utilization, and in our services for students—all of which should reflect current campus usage. Let’s explore this data for the fall (Slide 25).
Enrollment for the fall semester reflects national trends. Fewer students are pursuing bachelor’s degrees than in years past; this downward trend is reflected in our results, as our academic program offerings are primarily designed for students who intend to transfer to four-year institutions.
As of yesterday, the student headcount for the fall semester is 5.24% behind where it was at this time last year, and credits are 5.89% lower than they were at the same time the previous year. The actual numbers of the decrease are 307 students and 3,590 credits. I would like to point out that this is despite our enrollment team working very, very hard and trying new approaches. Some of you in one of the morning sessions, for example, heard about Enrollment on Wheels, whereby our recruitment experts went to where people are—the farmers’ market, the beach, the mall—to get the word our and encourage people to come to college.
Eighty-one percent of the decrease is among traditional-aged students, those under the age of 24. Despite this, we are ahead of our enrollment of students from the Ocean County high school class of 2026. As of yesterday, we have enrolled a total of 962 students from this year’s high school graduating class. This is 48 students more than the same time last year.
Clearly, we are experiencing a decline in tuition income, despite a modest tuition increase.
(Slide 26) That is not the only challenge we face. Thanks to the efforts of many of our students and members of faculty and staff, the $20 M was restored to the community college budget as proposed by Governor Murphy. However, the Assembly has been crystal clear that we will not enjoy the same fiscal support next year. We already know state support will be less, requiring us to build a budget with less state support and weakened enrollment; we all know that spring enrollment does not eclipse fall enrollment.
In addition, federal government grants remain uncertain for the future. Our Title II grant was restored at the last moment, and for now Title III is funded. The priorities of the government continue to shift and uncertainty is a certainty. It is impossible to build budgets on uncertainty.
(Slide 27) We also received a sizeable increase to our health care costs. One of the benefits many people take for granted is employer subsidized health premiums. OCC provides very good health insurance, but it comes at a cost to individuals and employers. Premiums in the NJ State Health Benefits plan for Educators are increasing an average of 35% effective 1/1/26. While there are other choices, the majority of OCC employees are in the following plans:
| NJ Direct 10 | Current Premium | 1/1/2026 |
| S – SINGLE | 19,011 | 26,091 |
| M – MEMBER & SPOUSE | 38,022 | 52,183 |
| F – FAMILY | 54,371 | 74,621 |
| NJ Educators Health Plan | Current Premium | 1/1/2026 |
| S – SINGLE | 13,756 | 17,974 |
| M – MEMBER & SPOUSE | 27,513 | 35,948 |
| F – FAMILY | 39,343 | 51,405 |
The increased premiums were announced after the FY26 budget had already been finalized, resulting in an anticipated shortfall of approximately $900,000 for the second half of the fiscal year. In addition, we are facing higher than budgeted utility costs and lower-than-expected enrollment, which further impact our financial outlook. As a result, we must revise the FY26 budget to account for these increased expenses.
To help rebalance the budget, we will be implementing several cost-saving measures (Slide 28):
- Freezing vacant positions across departments.
- Replacing select full-time roles with part-time positions, where operationally feasible.
- Reducing expenses in other areas of operations, which may result in reduced services to the campus and to students.
Even with these reductions, we will need to utilize fund balance to fully offset the budget gap. We understand that these adjustments may raise concerns, and we are committed to transparency and thoughtful planning as we move forward.
You may also remember that last year we spoke about the changes in who is coming to college and what they want to achieve. (Slide 29) Fewer students are seeking community college education for transfer to a four-year school. Data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center shows the number of students enrolled in vocational-focused community colleges increased 16% from 2022 to 2023 alone. As you know, OCC does not have a lot to offer—yet—in these fields. Our other NJ county colleges that offer more vocational focused programs have not experienced the enrollment declines we are facing.
There are many reasons today’s students seek a different college experience and outcome than most of us when we were undergraduates. The high cost of college isn’t the only factor driving many young people toward skilled trades. With the use of artificial intelligence on the rise, many Gen Zers see manual labor as less vulnerable to this emerging technology than white-collar careers. Professions such as paralegals, for example, will soon be performed through AI. For years students were encouraged to study computer science due to the financial incentive and the chance to work on interesting projects. This led to large enrollments at both two- and four-year colleges. Now, the spread of AI programming tools is derailing the employment dreams of many of these students. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of NY, “Among college graduates ages 22 to 27, computer science graduates face some of the highest unemployment rates, of over 6%.” The Federal Reserve Bank of NY also notes that “the labor market for recent college grades in 2025, so far, is among the most challenging in the last decade, apart from the pandemic period.” Many of today’s students consider vocational schools or vocational programs a straight path to well-paying jobs. Some have even dubbed this generation the Toolbelt Generation.
Thus, the shift we see among students and family is toward clear and concrete paths to careers with sustainable incomes. According to the recently published book, More Essential Than Ever: Community College Pathways to Educational and Career Success, “Community colleges today will need to make concerted efforts to strengthen pathways to post-completion success in employment and further education and thus ensure that students’ investment of effort, time, and money pays off.”
I share this with you to help explain why OCC has to change our mix of programs we offer, the kinds of supports we offer, and how we function as a business.
We will develop more programs, especially short-term certificates, in addition to the new workforce programs already mentioned. We will continue to reduce the barriers to transfer for those students seeking a four-year degree. And we will use data to drive our decisions.
The majority of our students transfer to two universities, Kean University followed by Stockton University; Rutgers and Rowan are distant third and fourth choices. We can also track the degrees students select when transferring, allowing us to work intentionally with our four-year partners for a smooth transfer process. And remember—an increasing number of students are choosing degrees that lead to work, not to transfer. At the same time, universities are cutting programs and repackaging others. The University of NC system, St. Cloud State, Delta State, and even the bastion of liberal arts, the University of Chicago, are cutting and consolidating programs. The University of Chicago, citing new federal policies and shifts in the “underlying financial models” for higher education, shared that the Arts and Humanities division is consolidating its 15 departments into eight, reducing language instruction, and establishing minimum class and program sizes.
“The status quo is not an option,” said Deborah Nelson, dean of the Division of the Arts and Humanities. We, too, need to reject doing things the same way, with the same courses, aligned in the same degrees, as a solution for the future.
(Slide 30) Consequently, we need to streamline what we offer, when we offer, and how we offer programs and courses. This can be painful at times, as it means recognizing how things have changed and will continue to change. It is also an opportunity to design a curriculum that prepares students well for their futures, and I hope you see this as a project that will lead to better outcomes for students.
We work in an industry—a business—that continues to evolve. Our students are different people with very different interests than pre-pandemic students, much less than when we were college students. We are going through a disruption in higher education that mirrors that which occurred in the 1970s, when the kind of classes offered on campuses, the kinds of majors offered, and the tools and outcomes were challenged and changed. If we continue to offer the kinds of programs, delivered the ways our professors delivered to us, and without an explicit focus on job, we will neither attract nor serve students. As Carl Benedikt Frey, an economist with the University of Oxford and author of the book How Progress Ends: Technology, Innovation, and the Fate of Nations, shares, “A college diploma used to be an ironclad job guarantee. Today, it seems more like a lottery ticket with shrinking odds.”
What employers demand evolves as technology, social needs, and global concerns change. We owe to our students and our community the capacity to lead change and to demonstrate once again that we are of and for the community.
This work will require us to think differently than we may have in the past, but the outcomes will strengthen us institutionally and will better prepare our students for the future.
(Slide 31) I welcome questions or comments.