(upbeat music) - He's back.

President Joe is back.

Dr.

Joe Bertolino, president at Stockton University, one of our higher ed partners.

Good to see you, President Joe.

- Good to see you, Steve.

Thanks so much for having me on.

Appreciate it.

- Let's share something we were saying off air.

The okay stuff, people think, "College president.

Wow, what a impress."

Yeah.

It's an impressive role.

Glamorous, huh?

- Yeah.

Not at all.

Not at all.

Thank goodness for the students and for community members because shaking 2000 hands last Friday at Boardwalk Call.

That's why we do what we do.

- Graduation.

- Graduation.

- What was that like for you, Joe?

What was that like?

- It's the culmination of not just an entire year, but a student's entire career.

I think when I first arrived, actually, students were walking across the stage, but they really didn't get to shake the hand of the president.

And I thought, "You know what?

That's something that's important."

That few seconds for the president to personally recognize each and every student who walks across that stage.

Especially when half of our students are first generation college students.

We're not just doing this for them, but it's also for their families.

And that makes a difference, it's important.

- And check out our previous interviews, our website, SteveAdubato.org is up.

We've done several interviews with where Dr.

Bertolino, and he's talked about his connection with students, which is very real.

But here's the other part of the job that's not fun.

Atlantic City Press a couple weeks ago, we're taping on the 19th of May.

You got a significant budget gap.

- Yeah.

We do.

We do.

- We're in public television.

I think we understand.

So that being said, there are a couple of collaborations, a couple of initiatives, innovative, groundbreaking, that are significant, that deal with trying to be more efficient and effective and impactful.

Talk about them, Joe.

- Yeah.

Look, we're in the same position that a lot of other higher education institutions are, particularly public, regional, and in the northeast.

It has been a particular challenge given the demographic cliff and given the population that we serve.

So the work that we have engaged in to try to turn the tide, if you will, has first increased the amount of dollars in our financial aid treasure box, if you will, to the tune of nearly $30 million of Stockton specific money.

Because half of our students are Pell eligible.

And as I said, half of them are first generation.

We've also developed two new partnerships that I am really excited about.

One in particular, I think with Atlantic Care.

We signed that agreement just the other week- - To our folks, what Atlantic Care is, Joe?

- Yeah.

Atlantic Care is our local health system, here in Atlantic County, and it is the primary hospital and healthcare system in the region.

It serves this entire region.

And their main hospital, their main campus is actually on the Stockton campus.

So we've had a longstanding partnership with them.

They are looking to work with another institution to bring in a medical school.

Now, Stockton won't be the medical school, but what it will do is, it'll provide Stockton with an opportunity in partnership with Atlantic Care to grow nursing programs, to grow social work programs, occupational therapy programs, physician assistant programs, et cetera.

And that is now going to fall under the brand new Stockton Atlantic Care College of Community Health, which will be big in Atlantic City.

And so I think this is the single most important thing that this university has done since becoming a university a little over a decade ago.

It is a game changer, especially for Eds and meds as an anchor institution.

We're really proud of it.

- Before you move to the second one, president Bertolino, I'm curious about this.

As a student of leadership, one of the themes in the seminars I lead is that the status quo is never, ever a good option.

Do you agree?

- Well, you know, my mentor used to say, "Change is inevitable.

Growth is optional."

And so in order to grow you have to be willing to change.

In order for us to be competitive, and in order for us to meet students where they are at, we need to adjust, to be flexible, to pivot- - And partner.

- And we did during COVID.

And we need to partner, that is critical.

And right now, yesterday in fact, we signed a new agreement with four community colleges to create the South Jersey Higher Education Alliance.

And this is brand new, Stockton, and the four community colleges are leading the way here.

Those community colleges are Atlantic Cape Community College, Ocean County College, Camden County College, and Brookdale.

And so even though Brookdale's a little north, technically we're taking the company.

- What's the alliance all about?

- So the Alliance essentially is, providing clearer pathways for students to transition from an associate's degree to a bachelor's degree in a myriad of ways, regardless of what community college you're going to.

Each institution maintains their own identity and has a series of MOUs with Stockton- - Memorandums of understanding, MOUs.

- Understanding, yes.

But we're also working across institutions and across disciplines so that where students may find it difficult to complete certain courses, they can go to other places to complete those courses, do those courses online, hybrid at other institutions within the alliance.

It also ensures that students can secure their, ultimately, their associate's degree and their Stockton degree at a more affordable rate and in a faster period of time.

- I'm curious about this, devil's advocate question.

Well, Stockton, like many other public universities, particularly in this part of the country, challenged financially, someone might say, "Well, why would you," in the freshman and sophomore year, the associate's degree, they a two year degree, right?

- Sure, sure.

- Yeah.

"Why wouldn't you want them all four years?"

You're saying, "Hey, listen," I think you're saying, "If we don't adapt, if we don't pivot, if we don't evolve, if we're not more flexible on how we do it, you forget about four years.

You don't get them at all."

- You don't get them.

- Is that what the, I'm sorry.

- That's correct.

That's true.

Yes, that's absolutely true.

That students may find their way into the community college and they may not see a path to a four year school or even see that as a possibility.

So our partnerships with the community college allow students to be part of multiple communities simultaneously and therefore get multiple resources and support.

Because let's face it, the students that we serve, a number of them are coming from challenging backgrounds and need additional resources.

And this alliance helps to solidify those resources.

- When I read this Dr.

Bertolino, I thought, "This can't be right."

How are you folks connected to the Haitian National Soccer Team and the FIFA World Cup Tournament?

I'm thinking, "What does Stockton have to?"

Help us understand that?

- So obviously, you know that FIFA is coming.

- Yep.

- And Stockton is one of the only institutions that has an all grass, FIFA regulation soccer field.

And so teams from all over the world need a place to practice before the actual tournament.

So more than a decade ago, we threw our hat in the ring for this, and the last time FIFA was in the United States, Stockton actually hosted a team.

Last year we hosted a team from Brazil for the Club World Championships.

And this year we will be hosting another team, the Haitian team, right on our campus for the month of June.

So we're really excited.

It's a great opportunity for the university and it brings some international flare to Galloway and South Jersey.

- Before I let you go.

President Bertolino, we talked about the challenges, the economic challenges, the enrollment cliff, if you will.

The most rewarding aspect of your job as president of Stockton University is?

30 seconds or less.

- Students walking across the stage, handing them a degree and setting them up for not just a job and not just a career, but the ability to reinvent themselves time and time again so that they can grow in their life and become great citizens.

- Pretty awesome.

Dr.

Joe Bertolino is the president of Stockton University, one of our longtime higher ed partners President Joe, thank you my friend.

Wish you and the team down there all the best.

- Appreciate it, thanks so much, Steve.

- You got it.

Stay with us, we'll be right back.

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