New leader at Monmouth plans to start by making good programs better
Building up from a solid foundation
New leader at Monmouth plans to start by making good programs better
By sherry conohan
Staff Writer
farrah maffai photo Paul G. Gaffney II In keeping with the advice of that old show tune, Paul G. Gaffney II plans to "accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative," in his approach to presiding over Monmouth University.
Gaffney, who spent his first day in his new job as Monmouth University president last week, said he doesn’t see his foremost role as a problem solver.
Asked what he would tackle first, he said there were two ways to look at that question.
"One way is that you can say these are the top five problems I have to solve in my first year, first month, first day," he explained.
"Another way to look at it," he continued, "is not to look at the job as a problem-solving job, but to look at what is already good here and see how you can build on that, propagate that, make the university better than what is.
"I hope to focus on that and I hope to find out what are the best traits of Monmouth," he said. "I’m sure someone will tell me what the problems are. Maybe millions of people will tell me what the problems are. But I want to find out what’s really good here, what makes us unique, what makes us better than a competitor, and figure out how one builds on that.
"So, it’s a positive outlook on life," he stressed. "It’s making and talking positively about the university to the people who live here, who study here, who are our neighbors."
Gaffney, who comes to Monmouth from the National Defense University in Washington, D.C., where he’s been president since 2000, said the first thing he wants to do is to get to know the students and the faculty.
"I want to get the pulse of the university," he said.
Comfortably ensconced in his second-floor office in Wilson Hall, overlooking the gardens below, Gaffney said he also wants to meet the neighbors from West Long Branch and Long Branch and the elected officials of those towns.
"I was hoping that I could find a coffee shop where the ‘village elders’ — and I use that as an endearing term — hang out and have breakfast with them once in a while," he said somewhat wistfully. "But I expect I will call on the elected officials in some deliberate manner during the summer."
Gaffney said he also wants to meet some of the church leaders as well because of the great diversity of religious beliefs in the area.
"And, of course, our trustees," he added, "who are largely from this area, from Monmouth County."
Gaffney also said the university is a great part of the culture of Monmouth County and he didn’t think he could be isolated from it.
"I think I have to figure out the best way to get involved — maybe serving on various committees and boards to the extent my time allows," he suggested. "It will probably take me a year to figure out what the demands are."
Gaffney said he’s very interested in Monmouth University participating in the debate on world events. He said he knows there is such a program on campus already, that may be as great or even greater than the one he came from at the National Defense University, so he may not have to initiate anything further.
"I believe that … educators certainly have a responsibility to the students in the classroom, but they also can influence things outside the classroom by the things they say, the things they write, by their participation in public diplomacy," he said. "And I hope we will be able to do that here, whether it’s a small issue, perhaps in a county or a township, or whether a national issue."
"I think something I might be able to contribute is to take the great talent here — the talent that resides in the students and that resides in the professors and the leadership here — and extend it beyond the campus," he added.
Turning to programs, Gaffney, a former vice admiral in the Navy who’s an oceanographer by education, said he would look at the proposals that were under consideration in the biology department for a marine biology program and in the nursing department for a forensic nursing program when his predecessor Rebecca Stafford retired as Monmouth University president on June 30.
In fact, he hastened to add, "I think I can say with 100 percent certainty that whatever Becky Stafford was looking at I will look at with an open mind. I think she did a great job here. It’s a privilege to follow her."
As for marine biology, Gaffney said he is very interested in it, given his background as an oceanographer. But he said he has to find out what the university’s capability is and what the interest is, not only of the professors but of the people who live in the area. And he would have to discover what the program could offer the students.
"New Jersey has some very good people in oceanography — some national experts — at Rutgers University and Stevens Tech in Hoboken," he noted, "and maybe some other places as I learn more about New Jersey."
Gaffney said he’s also very interested in a watershed project he understands is going on at Monmouth that is monitoring the health of the watershed, which he noted is not the coast but the rivers and streams that feed into the ocean.
As for forensic nursing, that’s another topic that plays into his science background.
Stafford had said she left two pieces of unfinished business with the university’s physical plant — providing more housing for students who want to live on campus and construction of a recreation center/gymnasium.
Gaffney said he would like to give the students the on-campus culture experience that they want, but the problem will be finding the space. He thought there might be room for two more residence halls on campus.
Gaffney said in his first few hours on campus he hadn’t learned about the finances for the proposed new gym, but if the money can be found and sufficient parking can be provided to accommodate the crowd that would fill a 4,000-5,000 seat auditorium, he would be supportive of building it.
Stafford figured she had raised about half the money needed for it.
Told that Stafford had said she would like to see Monmouth return to the National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball tournament, but get beyond the first round, Gaffney said he was interested in seeing a successful athletic program too — in more than basketball. He said he’s very interested in athletics and probably got into the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis for no other reason than that he was a pretty good runner in high school 40 years ago and the athletic department wanted him and helped get him in.
"If your athletic team does reasonably well, sometimes spectacularly well, the students are proud, the alumni are proud, and people want to get involved with the university," he said. "That helps us grow in quality. So, yeah, I’m interested in having a program. I think it does a lot for kids’ health, for their esprit de corps, and focuses their energies on the right kinds of things.
"So, yeah, I hope to go to the ‘Big Dance,’ not just in basketball," he said. "There are a lot of pretty good sports here. Track is very good here. Women’s lacrosse. Baseball did well this year. I could probably go on and on, but I know those."
Gaffney, who retired from the Navy July 2 after 35 years of commissioned service, said his first impression of Monmouth University was how incredibly hospitable and kind everyone has been.
"I was selected [to be president of Monmouth University] back in February, and all these months I’ve been doing my other job, which got busier at the end than the beginning because of world events, so there was no time to stop my previous job and sit and think about what I would do at Monmouth," he pointed out. "But the people here have spent the time to send me information and have called me on the phone to make sure that Linda [his wife] and I would be taken care of. They made a great first impression.
"Now I’m eager to get going," he said. "I want to learn. I want to listen. I want to talk less and listen more and do what I can to help this great place become every better."