Former Ocean County College president defends Egypt travel; calls school’s future ‘gloomy’

TOMS RIVER - Former Ocean County College President Jon H. Larson has criticized his successor’s administration for ending the academic partnerships he established in Egypt and the Asbury Park Press for news coverage about $300,000 in expenses his administration spent on related travel to the Middle East.

“Unfortunately, the sudden decision to end all programs in Egypt, prematurely in my view, cripples any hope to grow significant new enrollment in OCC’s future,” Larson wrote from his still-active college email account. “What is left is the rumored plan to ‘reduce headcount’ by 20 percent, or some 200 employees, to allow the budget to remain in balance as enrollments decline, precipitously within 3 to 5 years, known as the ‘demographic (or enrollment) cliff.’”

That prompted an immediate rebuke from OCC President Pamela J. Monaco, who said her predecessor’s remarks were without merit.

“As president of Ocean County College, I do not share the point of view that our options are ‘crippled,’ nor do I believe our initiatives are ‘small’ and that new markets ‘are in scarce supply,’” Monaco said.

She also disputed Larson’s talk of layoffs. “Most alarming, of course, is the baseless assertion that we are eliminating 20% or 200 people of our workforce,” Monaco said. “To be clear, Dr. Larson’s letter was not approved by the Board of Trustees or me. He speaks as a private citizen, not as a representative of Ocean County College.”

The back and forth was sparked by an Asbury Park Press story that detailed how the Larson administration spent more than $300,000 on lavish travel to the Middle East between 2016 and 2023, related to its now-failed bid to break into the online education market in Egypt, according to internal billing records obtained by the Press.

As a result of that story, at least one member of the Ocean County Board of Commissioners — the panel partially funds OCC — has sought a review of the community college’s travel policy to ensure similar issues do not occur in the future.

Starting in 2016, while OCC president, Larson traveled to Egypt 17 times, costing the college more than $80,000 in travel expenses. Another $234,000 was spent on travel for college staff and other officials over the same time period.

After Monaco became president, the college ended its partnerships with Egyptian universities last fall after they were unable to guarantee the necessary enrollment numbers to sustain an economically viable program.

Related: Ocean County College spent $300,000 on administrative junkets to Egypt

In a lengthy statement, Larson criticized the decision to cancel the program, as well as the article that examined the expenditures.

“Because no institution of higher education can grow revenue by solely cutting expenses, the future looks gloomy,” Larson wrote. “Several small new initiatives have helped to date, but the focus on enrollment growth must shift to new markets that are in scarce supply in Ocean County alone, a fact of demographic reality we understood 10 years ago when we began looking to international opportunities.”

But Monaco countered that the college’s own projections, embodied in its “Enrollment Management Plan,” showed moderate but steady growth over the next few years — not by cultivating international students, but by focusing closer to home, such as on adult learners, outreach to the county’s Hispanic population, and developing new programs to attract students.

“We have no intention of downsizing by anywhere near 200 people; that would be closer to half of our workforce and would leave us unable to serve the current student body,” Monaco said.

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The college currently has 465 employees, which does not include adjuncts, coaches and temporary/on-call workers.

Monaco has the support of the Faculty Association of Ocean County College, or FAOCC. The union had a long, tumultuous relationship with Larson over his top-down leadership style.

“The FAOCC faculty were glad to see Dr. Larson retire,” said David Bordelon, its president. “He had been a source of division on campus and his retirement brought a sense of relief. We have been pleased by the open approach of Dr. Monaco and have established a working relationship with her. We believe that, under her capable leadership, more stable and feasible funding initiatives have already been and will be developed that will sustain the college’s mission of education for Ocean County residents. We look forward to working with her and the Board of Trustees to help the college recover from the Larson years.”

The Egyptian trips, taken by Larson, his staff, faculty and other representatives of the community college, came as OCC was experiencing a 16% decline in enrollment that had led the prior administration to seek novel, outside-the-box ways to boost revenue. Larson argued that the Egyptian programs resulted in a net gain of $1.4 million.

“The accommodations were not ‘lavish’ as described,” Larson said. “We stayed at Marriott Hotels because I and the other staff traveling had Marriott Rewards numbers that allowed us to eat most meals in the lounge at no cost.”

Nevertheless, as part of his expenses, Larson billed the college for other, five-star hotels, dinner cruises on the Nile River, and meals with guests that included a luxurious restaurant near the Mediterranean Sea. On his final trip to Egypt one year ago, Larson — who received an annual salary of more than $277,000 per year — even submitted a bill to the college for a cup of coffee at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.

Larson said the trips he took included a signing ceremony, a conference, a speech at an Egyptian university graduation ceremony; and were for the purpose of building relationships with government ministers who could assist in establishing programs that grew enrollment and generated revenue for OCC.

No trips were taken merely for pleasure or for vacations, and he said the Press had exaggerated the “lavishness” of the restaurants he had dined in while in the Middle East.

“Every staff member and I worked hard every day on the trips we took to Egypt to replace a 16% decline in enrollment at the OCC campus the college had experienced in the last six years,” Larson explained. “The goal of these efforts was to prevent an even greater loss of enrollment caused by a growing decline in the nation’s birth rate and the predicted inevitable decline in K-12 enrollments that are the principal feeders of students attending community colleges.”

Ocean County Commissioner Frank Sadeghi called the matter “embarrassing” and said he had spoken to county Comptroller Julie N. Tarrant to confirm that the county government had a travel policy in place to prevent anything similar from happening under its jurisdiction.

“There is this thing with us humans and it’s called greed,” Sadeghi said. “And, if we can just put some — I don’t know if we can get rid of it and eliminate it — but if we can put some good policies in place.”

Commissioner Virginia E. Haines, who is liaison to OCC, said it is the college Board of Trustees who are responsible for such policies as it concerns the school’s own community.

Haines said she planned to meet with Monaco to discuss the matter. In 2023, the county government subsidized the college’s operation with more than $17 million in taxpayer aid.

After 23 years as president of OCC, Larson retired on June 30. However, his final days in office were tarnished by news that the college’s accreditation was in potential jeopardy over concerns about there being a lack of proper governance at the community college.

Nevertheless, on the same day the Middle States Commission on Higher Education issued its notice of non-compliance over the accreditation issue, the board signed a contract with the outgoing Larson to stay on as a consultant to Monaco at an annual salary of $150,000 so he could — among other things — continue to travel to Egypt to facilitate and finalize partnerships between OCC and Egyptian universities, on an as-needed basis.

Monaco was never consulted about the appointment and did not express enthusiasm for the arrangement in an interview with the Press shortly after she took office.

A month later, Larson resigned from the position and in November the college announced it was ending its international partnerships with Egyptian schools. However, the Board of Trustees said it would continue to honor its obligations to all participating students.

Monaco explained that since she took office on July 1, she has spoken publicly about the need to review the college’s administrative structure and determine how it can operate more effectively and efficiently. The college has already realigned some units and some positions have not been filled when there were retirements or resignations. The college continues to invest in developing new programs to attract new populations of students, she said.

“These (enrollment growth) projections are based on the ongoing work of the college in new program development, investment in our workforce programs, the continuing growth of our embedded programs (which are now offered in every high school in Ocean County), retention efforts at both the program level and through student services, our continued efforts in grant development, our outreach to the Latino/a population, expansion in the adult learner market, and our continuing efforts to remove barriers to a college education,” Monaco said.

Contact Asbury Park Press reporter Erik Larsen at elarsen@gannettnj.com.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Ex-OCC president defends Egypt travel; calls school’s future ‘gloomy’