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

TOMS RIVER - Ocean County College officials 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 Asbury Park Press.

The trips, taken by former President Jon H. Larson, his staff, faculty and other representatives of the community college, came as OCC was experiencing a decline in enrollment and the prior administration had sought novel, outside-the-box ways to boost revenue.

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Starting in 2016, the former president had 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.

As part of his expenses, Larson billed the college for 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 sought reimbursement from the college for a cup of coffee at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, which was approved.

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In five of the eight years Larson traveled to Egypt, he visited the country more than once: in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2022. In 2018, he visited four times; in 2019 and 2021, he visited three times each.

In August 2016, Larson’s first official trip to Africa was to Morocco. He stayed at the Villa Mandarine hotel in Rabat for a total cost of $1,589.19. It’s not known what happened in that capital city in Africa, but he never returned to Morocco at the expense of the college.

On a November 2018 trip to Cairo, Larson reported that his overnight accommodations were paid for by a corporate shareholding real-estate firm called Tatweer Misr, which advertises itself as “a leading real-estate developer in Egypt.”

However, while there, he repeatedly dined for lunch and dinner at the Sofitel Winter Palace Luxor and at the Four Seasons Hotel, and billed the college for it, according to the records.

Larson’s dining expenses reflected an interest in taking in the local culture during his visits. For example, on a 2017 trip, he submitted expenses to the college for $81.02 in purchases at the Cairo Fish Market.

In March 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic spread around the globe, Larson got out of Cairo just a few days before the Egyptian government shut down all of its airports — spending more than $3,000 on an Egyptair flight to and from New York, more than $1,650 for a stay at the Cairo Marriott Hotel and $700 on a rental car — a Mitsubishi Pajero (an SUV), according to the records.

When international travel resumed a year later, Larson returned to Egypt in July 2021, traveling on Egyptair for $3,273 and staying at both the Windsor and Marriott hotels for $481.74 and $2,239.18, respectively, while also taking a dinner cruise on the Nile River, for which he billed the college $38.50. OCC paid for the expenses related to that cruise again during a March 2022 trip, all according to the records.

Larson would return to Egypt two more times in the fall of 2021, in separate trips made in October and November that year.

During the trip that October, Larson had dinner with a guest at the Hilton Alexandria King’s Ranch near the Mediterranean Sea for $139.21 and at the Marriott Hotel with another guest three nights later in Cairo for $234.04.

In November, on his third trip to Cairo that year, there were invoices for the five-star St. Regis Cairo for $162.72 and the Cairo Marriot for $2,549.

The round-trip airfare for July was $3,273, $2,655 for October and $3,306.47, all according to the records.

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Larson would make similarly-priced trips to Egypt in March and August 2022, billing the college $102 for a COVID-19 test for the flight home on Aug. 17, 2022. On his last trip in the final months of his presidency in February 2023, that’s when he billed the college $6.53 for a cup of coffee at JFK.

But he wasn’t alone on such trips. The college’s financial records show that various past and present college officials associated with the Larson administration had accompanied the president on such trips, including: Jeffrey S. Harmon, then-associate vice president of e-Learning & Learning Enterprises at OCC; Maysa Hayward, associate vice president of international programs; Hatem Akl, associate vice president of international programs; Tara Tuff, an e-learning instructor; Jack Kelnhofer, a professor and member of the e-learning staff; Salim Hussein, director of international partnerships; Thomas Gialanella, executive director of school relations; Lilian Mina, another college professor and member of the e-learning staff, among others — all which cost the college $234,004.29 in additional expenses.

Board of Trustees Chairman Jerry J. Dasti joined Larson on his last trip to Egypt and later reimbursed the college $3,494.83 for “airfare for Mrs. Dasti.”

Breaking into the online higher education market abroad had been of strategic importance to Larson for more than a decade, as a means of stopping the school’s economic decline. Years earlier, he had pursued a similar project in China but encountered a number of obstacles with the communist country’s bureaucratic labyrinth.

Since 2017, more than 500 students in Egypt enrolled in online programs offered by OCC and the college over that period generated more than $1.4 million in revenue from such programs — primarily as a result of its relationship with Ain Shams University in Cairo, according to figures provided by the college.

The travel was necessary, the Board of Trustees said in a statement to the Press, because OCC had to provide training to faculty and staff at the university, as well as support to its participating students. OCC also provided English language courses to students at the request of the Egyptian government, the statement said.

The program to bring “American higher education” to the Middle East was terminated last fall under Larson’s successor, Pamela J. Monaco, who became president on July 1.

After 23 years as president of OCC, Larson’s final days in office were marred by news that the college’s accreditation was in potential jeopardy over concerns about there being a lack of oversight between the college Board of Trustees and the president.

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 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 assumed 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.

“Unfortunately, the universities in Egypt were unable to recruit enough students to make it feasible for OCC to expand the program,” the board said in a statement in response to the Press in response to a request for comment for this story. “At the same time, enrollment in the existing program in ASU (Ain Shams University) has stagnated since the pandemic, leading OCC to make the decision to teach-out existing students and end the program.”

The college had intended to partner with more universities, thereby offsetting its expenses, including travel, by increasing the tuition revenue, the board said.

“Efforts to develop these additional partnerships were consistent with the college’s efforts to implement new revenue streams to offset the decline in enrollment at OCC that began nationally in (fiscal year 2019) and was compounded by the pandemic,” the statement said. “While efforts in Egypt have ceased, OCC continues to strive to develop new revenue streams to support the operating budget and better serve the Ocean County College community.”

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

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Ocean County College in NJ spent $300,000 on official junkets to Egypt