On February 27th, 2024, Stockton University hosted a Town Hall Meeting in the Board of Trustees room at 4:30 p.m.

To faculty and students’ dismay, this event was anything but what it was advertised as. A town hall meeting should be time spent answering questions by faculty and students. However, most of the town hall meeting was taken up by Bertolino’s speech and presentation. Bertolino spent the majority of the meeting reiterating and expanding upon information from the Board of Trustees meeting that discussed plans for Atlantic City campus, enrollment, retention, and the Stockton budget.

However, a trend that was apparent in most of the messaging about how to improve enrollment, retention, and increase Stockton budgeting was related to protecting Stockton’s image and its reputation. Before diving into much of the statistics, Bertolino opened this section by talking about the usage of rumors to mislead people. His statement about rumors was specifically directed towards how Stockton students and faculty communicate about Stockton. He commented, “How we talk about Stockton beyond these walls matters.” His emphasis on this very point was at best concerning and at worst sinister. If the President is misusing time to discuss Stockton’s image, does this not contradict serving faculty and current student’s best interests? Is there even room for healthy criticism if the university is more concerned with creating an image that is attractive to donors?

While Bertolino makes a performance out of attempting to make himself seem available to faculty and students, Stockton having most of the Town Hall meeting spent on Bertolino, and issues addressed in the Board of Trustees meeting, instead of on the community needs, feels indicative of exactly the issues that Stockton faculty and students did express in the half hour that they were allotted.

When the floor was opened up to faculty, staff, and students, issues of communication became the center of many of these complaints. One facility worker, Kevin Gowns, confronted Bertolino about the lack of communication between administration, the union, and the facility workers. He states, “The problem is it does not get down to the lower level. It will go – because I’m in facilities – it will go to the directors, if the directors are listening, but nothing happens after that.” Specifically, he refers to how administration is possibly removing third shift for custodial.

Bertolino did not know what Gowns was referring to. He then referred to his colleague to respond. The colleague responded that this was still in discussion with the union. Gowns challenged this answer by responding, “Well it sounds like third shift is already getting this information that they have to bid on first or second, and this is one of the main issues Dr. Joe, that you don’t know what’s going on. So, I find that the leadership is lacking to go up and down, and we need to work on that if we’re going to be a top tier university.”

Even when the failure of leadership was in question, Bertolino still managed to take this instance as a way to discuss rumors. “Here is a great example of, if you don’t have information, then how is it that folks are not going to make up a narrative about these things. The shift for example.”

He did reflect, “Its interesting one of the things that we have found, and we had a similar conversation with other university leaders in faculty senate, in some of the collective bargaining units, we were engaging in conversations, but those conversations weren’t always finding their way down the chain. So, we have work to do on that.”

After the meeting, an anonymous source revealed that the colleague in question that responded to Gowns criticisms was found yelling at Gowns post town hall. This interaction obviously emphasizes the gap between administration and its employees and the lack of respect that administration has for them.

Faculty also iterated issues of not feeling seen. Dr. Jess Bonnan-White, professor of Criminal Justice, noted, “There is a lot of emphasis on students. But how many of us have had a conversation with a staff or faculty member where they are not okay either?” Multiple hands were raised at this time. “I don’t think there is the same recognition that Covid impacted us on a number of different levels. We have been left out of this process; there has not been the same recognition. For many of us, our teaching got changed, our research got changed – our research, by the way, which isn’t even in the current strategic plan and I’d love to see it put back in – but I think there needs to be a holistic understanding that some of us are not okay.”

The issue of not budgeting to support research work is concerning. Research work is how professors gain tenure, a permanent position at Stockton. Regardless of whether Stockton is a research university or not, by not having any funding allocated to research, Stockton makes it increasingly difficult for faculty who are not tenured to gain a stable position within the university and to have job security. What does it say about the university that they allowed this issue to fester?

Bertolino recognized that faculty and staff were struggling post-Covid. He emphasized that there is ongoing conversation about the challenges that human resources needs to address for faculty and staff. “We actually have some significant changes in personnel in that shop. Our hope there is, over the course of the next couple of months, we’ll have Segel coming into actually do an assessment of where we are, where we need to change, what we need to do in terms of services and support for our faculty and staff. I wish we could be all things to all people quickly. It won’t happen as quickly as we would like, but I will acknowledge the fact, we know, we heard, we’re making movement, we will continue to do the best we can.”

Natalja Manger, a Stockton graduate and a staff member of Stockton Admissions working with international students, took to the mic and addressed Bertolino on the work environment at Stockton and how he plans to change it. She states, “I appreciate the ethic of care which you have brought to the university. Its something new to me and many other staff members. I actually had to do a bit of research about it trying to figure out what exactly it rests upon. So, while I resonate a lot with what you talk about, in terms of how we speak about Stockton, we also need to remember that the way we speak about Stockton is through the lens of our own experience. And the lens of our experience is built on relationships that we forge here at the university. For the majority of staff those are not very positive, they are formed through a kind of trauma bond as we would call it. Its not something that is isolated, but is across the institution. A lot of it really percolates from the top. And what I really appreciate about the ethic of care is the four pillars it rests upon – attentiveness, responsiveness, competence, and responsibility. I feel like for me and my role as a staff member, I feel like I am held to that standard, but I do not see that standard being held to the top leadership in the divisions I have worked in.”

She concludes by asking Bertolino, “Are you asking us to trust existing leadership of this organization? Are we going to change all of the sudden or are we going to address the issue that these things are coming from the top down?”

Bertolino’s response was to emphasize how he really has no experience or knowledge of Stockton. For him, many of the surveys that the university sends to faculty and staff allows for him to understand where the gaps are in terms of how administration is performing and what faculty and staff’s experiences are in relation to administration. He says, “I’m not asking you to trust me, because you don’t know me. But I am asking for some grace because its going to take time.”

At one point during his opening presentation, Bertolino placed an emphasis on “the importance of being seen and the importance of belonging” where he references a speech given by Senate President Andrea Sandoval and Student Senator Juan Diego Chaparro Villareal at the Los Latino Unidos Flag Raising ceremony in September 2023.

While the messaging is important, its one thing to say it, it’s another thing entirely to act upon it. Student Senator Juan Diego Chaparro Villareal challenged Bertolino’s use of Villareal and Sandoval’s language by pointing out how those words are missing context. As Latino students, the marginalization they face within higher education renders them at points invisible. To provide context for his point, Villareal shared his personal experiences as a student at Stockton. He states, “I want to take advantage of the fact that you quoted Andrea and I’s speech and to be very critical about those words and what those words actually mean. When we speak about belonging on campus, when we speak about being seen, it is extremely important for a minority student for that to happen. It is a part of the critical process of learning how to grow in our society and in our small community, not just in the university, but in our own personal development and how we deal with our own growth. The retention problem that the university has, and the retention problem that I have experienced comes from not being seen and not feeling like I belong. I do now because the cabinet knows me by name. It’s a completely different experience that did not come without a year of sacrifices, a year of work, and so much that I had to do. As a student, I should not have to endure two years of reaching out to faculty and staff asking for help, asking for aid, for any glimpse of support, and hearing “I will email you back” or “I will give you a call when I have an answer” and never receiving it. It makes it even worse when your family has a lot of financial difficulties.”

Villareal emphasized how this experience is not unique to him, and that the way the university makes minority students feel like a statistic is a deterrent to students. By not recognizing how the university fails in communicating and aiding minority students, this will continue to impact the retention rate negatively.

Bertolino’s responded, “You’re not going to like my answer. First of all, thank you for sharing your truth. It is interesting no student should have to be a student leader and be recognized by the cabinet and be the Student trustee to be seen or heard. No student should have to do that. When I hear that from you, I know what you’re saying and I know it to be true. It is true at other places as well. We have a lot of work to do. I can’t promise you that there aren’t going to be students at times who do not feel seen. Or not feel heard. Darn, if I’m not going to work my butt off to make sure that students are seen and are heard.”

“Particularly, students and student leaders could be helpful here. You are hearing students at the front line. You are hearing from your fellow students and so, we need to hear from you. You have access. There is an opportunity for others to be given access. As you have probably seen, we are pretty approachable and we are pretty visible.” Bertolino emphasized the importance of a robust infrastructure for diversity and inclusion, but didn’t really discuss what that could look like.

While Bertolino’s responses seem to have been made in good faith, he mostly talked around the issues without providing possible solutions or outlining what next steps could be taken. Of the solutions offered, the most emphasis was placed on individuals to respond and take the surveys that they have sent out so they can collect data to understand the issues that are persisting on campus.

The Town Hall meeting ended by highlighting the Presidential Inauguration coming up on April 12th.

For more news on Presidential events, be on the lookout for Student Digest.