- [Narrator] Funding for this edition of State of Affairs with Steve Adubato has been provided by Prudential Financial.

RWJBarnabas Health.

New Jersey Sharing Network.

NJ Best.

The Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey.

The New Jersey Education Association.

Summit Health a provider of primary, specialty, and urgent care.

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.

Here when you need us most, now and always.

And by The Fidelco Group.

Promotional support provided by CIANJ, and Commerce Magazine.

And by NJBIZ, providing business news for New Jersey for more than 30 years, online, in print, and in person.

[INSPRATIONAL MUSIC] - I am Steve Adubato welcome again, to another compelling program where we talk to big thinkers right out of the box we kick off with Dr. Timothy Eatman, who is the inaugural dean and professor of the Honors Living Learning Community at Rutgers University in Newark one of our higher ed partners, Dr. Eatman so good to have you with us.

- Steven it's so good to be here, thank you for your leadership and illuminating this kind of work.

- Well I wanna illuminate your work right now because you know, people hear this term, The Honors Living Learning Community at Rutgers Newark.

First of all, what is the program and why is it so important?

- Yeah, The Honors Living Learning Community, Steve is a new opportunity for higher education institutions to understand what honors is.

Like the idea that standardized tests should be the be all end all, to let folks know what honors is, to let folks know what it means to identify positive change agents for the society is beneath where we think we should be.

So the chancellor, chancellor Cantor, and her executive team.

- Nancy Cantor.

- Yes in their process of developing a strategic plan, initiated the Honors Living Learning Community, as one of the signature initiatives for Rutgers Newark at this time.

- You know, Dr. Eatman let me try this one on here, as a student of leadership who comes from, I'm a Rutgers alum, graduate school doctoral program taught at the Rutgers Newark campus for many years.

Leadership has always been at the core of my teaching and learning focus.

Question, from a leadership perspective what impact do you believe this particular program will have not just on the students who are in it, but them as future leaders?

- Yeah, Steve it's really quite powerful for me.

I know that what we are doing in higher education at Rutgers Newark, is really opening up the way that we understand what's possible.

We're refusing to continually overlook local talent, so the Honors Living Learning Community is comprised of over 50% of Newark students, and Steve, these students want to stay in Newark.

They got into Duke, in Michigan, and Syracuse and other places, but we think it's honorable that they low the value of Newark, they want to stay in Newark, and we think they need support to do that.

- What could it do for a city like Brick City Newark?

What could it do for the city longer-term?

- Well, I think the people who know the most about what kinds of things need to happen in the city come from the city, right?

I've been in a lot of institutions all around the country, and most times students are way away from home and the community engagement projects that they do really are them visiting.

But these students, Steve going home, they go into this, then then go into mosques and churches, and then doing these kinds of ameliorative things that help to demonstrate the brilliance and the aspirations that they have, and they are brilliant, Steve.

That they're bringing to bear within the Newark community.

- You know, lemme try this, it's interesting.

You used the term traditional models where they're talking about standardizing testing, Dr. Eatmon, or whatever the more traditional models are in higher ed.

What do those traditional models and teaching, learning approaches in higher ed, what do they do to in fact, make it harder for a more diverse student body of honors students?

- Yeah, well, Steve, listen, if your mother has been paying for you to take standardized tests from elementary school, you ought to be able to do good on.

- Yeah, you're right a lot of practice.

- A lot of practice and listen, I'm a social scientist, people laugh when I say this, but you know, I'm a quantitative sociologist, I'll make a survey out of anything.

And my socks roll up and down, when I can explain the variants on variables and on the dependent variable.

And these tests tell us, what they explain, the variance is about family wealth.

That's what they explained, and that's okay.

And listen, I'm not against these sorts of tests, listen, I have a daughter who's in an MD PhD program right now, she took the MCAT.

I want my surgeon to have done well on the MCAT.

Don't get me wrong.

- There's a but coming.

Dr. Eatman, there's a but coming, go ahead.

- Yes, but if we are looking for dynamic amazing leaders in a range of fields, I'm thinking of Vivian Paralta, who's off to Texas A&M with five-year full funding.

- Comes out of the program.

- She's a graduate this year.

She's a biologist, who's gonna be a research scientist from Newark, but launching her into that space where she's doing that work in bio-sciences, but also socially conscious work is really critical.

- You know, you talk about being socially conscious.

There's a social justice minor in this program.

A what is it?

And again, it should be self-evident, but why is that so critically important for these students and for the leaders they will be moving forward?

- Yes Steve, yeah, it's really, really important.

I should say that the HLLC at its base is two thing, it is a merit scholarship.

- By the way, that's the acronym for the Honors Living Learning Community.

- Absolutely, my apologies, the Honors Living.

- That's okay, we'll learn that acronym over time.

- I hope we do, yeah, I hope Newark really rallies and then the whole world rallies around this model.

- Absolutely.

- Our vision is that it should be a national model.

But the Honors Living Learning Community is a merit scholarship for room and board.

Steve, it's not for tuition, it's for room and board.

There are other ways that we work with students to assist them in getting tuition assistance.

But it's also, as you mentioned, a curriculum, it's an 18 credit curriculum.

So I mentioned Vivian before, she's a biology major, but her minor is in social justice.

And so we have three core courses that we do in the Honors Living Learning Community, then the students have a set of electives and then they have a capstone.

And that comprises the experience.

- Real quick before I let you go.

Is there a Prudential Scholars Program?

- Yes Sir, you are talking about something really powerful.

The Prudential foundation that made a $10 million gift to endow a scholarship that we have mapped Steve to one of our pathways.

It's called the Prudential Scholars Scholarship and Newark students are able to enjoy special resources in that context, I don't have more time to deal with it, to unpack it, but I have to tell you that Shané Harris is the president of the foundation.

You know, Rob Belzone was there and helped present the award and organize the bringing together of this real support.

I mean our new $80 million building is across the street from the Prudential building.

And so to be in fellowship with Prudential in this way, alumni like you, Steve from Prudential mentoring students, working closely with them under the guidance of Tiffany Williams and at Prudential and others is really, really powerful.

- Thank you, Dr. Eatman by the way, let me just make it clear that the Prudential Foundation is a supporter of what we do as well in public broadcasting with the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Dr. Eatman, I cannot thank you enough, it's the first time you've joined us, it will not be the last, we'll continue.

- I hope not.

- No, it will not, we'll stay on this, and we wish you and the team at Rutgers Newark and Nancy Cantor the Dr. Cantor all the best, thank you.

- Steve, I really hope that we can come back and get some students and maybe other members of my team to work with you and to share in this work.

- That'd be great, love to hear their stories.

Thank you, Dr. Eatman.

- God bless you.

- Same to you, I'm Steve Adubato, that's Dr. Timothy Eatman, we'll be right back.

(grand music) - [Announcer] To watch more State of Affairs with Steve Adubato, find us online and follow us on social media.

- We're now joined by our good friend, John Sarno, president of the Employers Association of New Jersey.

Good to see you, John.

- Good to see you.

Good morning.

- You got it.

Hey John, listen.

We're we're taping on the 22nd of June.

We'll be seen later.

Again, moving target here.

The most significant workplace related issues for employers would be?

- Right now, it's making the transition back to post pandemic environment.

Very tricky, very complex.

I think that's probably the preeminent issue at the present moment, and quite frankly, going forward for the foreseeable future.

- So let's dig a little deeper here.

(sighing) There are some employers we've spoken to, for-profits, not-for-profits, academic institutions, et cetera, all employers.

We're an employer, the Caucus Educational Corporation, PBS, they're employers.

Why am I confused, and I'm not the only one, about whether employers can mandate that their employees get vaccinated?

- Well, I think it's natural to be confused because New Jersey has been operating under several executive orders.

So the state has its own authority to respond to a public health crisis.

On the other hand, we have the CDC and the OSHA guidance.

- OSHA's a federal agency around safety and protection of employees.

- Correct.

- In the workplace.

- Safety and health.

So, oftentimes they can be overlapping but-- - How about contradictory?

- In conflict, clearly.

So I think that is, probably accounts for why there might be uncertainty.

And then you have the natural consequence of the vaccination being voluntary.

We don't have a mandate, so that we're going to have probably close to 70% of adults at the end of the day fully vaccinated in New Jersey.

Many of them are in the workforce, but that means that there is probably going to be 20 to 30% unvaccinated.

So we are gonna have a mixed bag with regard to who's vaxxed and who's not.

- But for employers, John, devil's advocate question.

Do they not have a responsibility?

Don't they have a responsibility to protect all employees potentially from COVID by making sure that all employees are vaccinated?

And if you're not vaccinated, letting that person into the workplace is risky.

- Oh, without a doubt, without a doubt.

Under existing law and labor standards, an employer can require an employee to get vaccinated.

Now, if the employee has a disability or medical condition, then that might be an exception, but an employer could require the vaccine.

There's no question about it.

- How about a religious exemption?

- Yes, you'd have to accommodate a genuine, sincere religious objection, similar to a medical condition or disability.

- How about a political objection?

- No, no, no.

Those first amendment type free speech issues would not be in play in a private workplace.

Now, if you're employed by municipality, a public employer, there might be a limited, a very limited first amendment right.

But clearly the welfare and the safety and the health of the workforce would outweigh a kind of a free speech type of argument that you can make, even in a public workplace.

- Hey, John do you?

The whole concept of normal, back to normal, and then the term new normal.

- Yeah.

- How do you describe what you believe will be the so called workplace of the future?

Normal, new normal, back to normal, no normal?

- Well, that's a great question because we have a tendency to be nostalgic and sort of wanting to go back to this ideal environment.

But the normal pre-pandemic really wasn't that great for a lot of workplaces, and certainly for a lot of workers.

Stress levels were high.

The World Health Organization had identified work burnout as an occupational illness.

All of this before the pandemic.

So I think there's probably a once in a generation opportunity to create better workplaces.

So, I see the new normal, not as going back, not trying to repeat what didn't work, but an opportunity to create better work for more people.

Better workplaces with health, safety, and engagement as the core human resource function.

- John, it's been 16 months since, when the Caucus Educational Corporation, our production company, not alone in this, 16 months since I believe this first, second week of March, 2020, that we have not been in an office together.

But we're all functioning.

We have a great team behind the scenes, great producers, director, audio, camera.

I'm in this studio with Scarlyn, who's operating our camera, but everyone else is remote.

But we're not everyone else.

Meaning we can function in our workplace this way.

I don't know for how long.

And it may be for the foreseeable future.

A long-winded way of getting to this.

For those who don't fall into that category, can't do what we're doing like this, do they not all have to go back to the office together?

- I mean, precisely.

You hit it right on the head that the pandemic laid bare on multiple levels, the inequities, both in the economy, in the workplace, and in our communities.

So yes, you and I have had the privilege to work from home, by virtue of our occupation, by virtue of our education, by virtue of the businesses that we run.

But for 80% in the service economy, which has to work face to face, they risked their lives.

The essential workers put their lives at risk.

And these are not great paying jobs in any event.

Healthcare, public service type jobs.

So, I think we're gonna have to address those inequities because the normal, again, wasn't that great for these essential workers-- - John, I'm sorry for interrupting.

I'm up against the break right here.

Real quick.

Give me 30 seconds on, I have a leadership question I'll ask you separately.

But real quick, on the workplace shortage.

There's a legitimate workplace shortage.

Is there not?

- Totally.

- Real?

- Totally, totally real.

- A lot of factors.

- More jobs are vacant than people looking right now.

And, for those of us who are skilled, what we've learned during the pandemic is that maybe we don't want to go back to that employer.

So not only are the job vacancies up, we have a 20 year high, a 20 year high of people quitting their jobs, right now.

- Now you got me thinking about all of our team, and I'm hoping, praying that nobody does that with us.

- Well, we have a job to do.

I mean, that's our job, is to nurture and to mentor and to retain.

- And creating that healthy, safe, productive environment.

Hey, John Sarno, the president of the Employers Association New Jersey.

Thank you, John.

- You bet, take care.

- See you soon.

I'm Steve Adubato, that's Mr. Sarno.

We'll be right back.

(grand music) - [Announcer] To watch more State of Affairs with Steve Adubato, find us online and follow us on social media.

- We're now joined by the superintendent of the Newark Public Schools, Roger León.

Roger, good to see ya.

- Great seeing you, Steve.

- So we're taping on the 22nd of June.

What does it feel like to be ending this school year?

And then I'll ask you about September in a second.

What's it feel like to finish this one?

This marathon?

- Oh my goodness.

We are just so happy that the end is in fact near.

It's been a long 16 months for everyone in the school system, obviously.

So we're really, really grateful to be at an incredible point in time right now, with our seniors graduating in record numbers.

So a lot of great celebrations occurring on this very important week.

- And Roger people who've seen us before with you know that we have a stand and deliver leadership and communication development program with the Newark Public Schools.

We do seminars, workshops in every public high school, remote and/or in person.

So there's a leadership question here.

What is the most significant leadership lesson you have learned in our past as we do this program, 15, 16 months?

- Well, I think that amongst the many things, the whole need to be constantly changing is something that in education we really actually don't adjust well to.

It usually takes time for an initiative to take hold.

And so what we've learned as a result of the Coronavirus is that we are not in control as much as in fact we would all like to be.

And it's constantly changing, the being able to adjust as quickly as possible, and then communicate the importance of those adjustments to the community at large, has been amongst the greatest learning that I know I've experienced during this time.

- Sorry for interrupting.

Roger, just speaking of learning and adjusting, September.

This will be seen throughout the summer into September.

And again, the date will be up on the screen.

We always disclose when we're taping.

What do you believe September, 2021 will look like?

In the Newark public schools?

- That September, 2021 is what we're preparing for.

And we've learned over the last 16 months that what we prepare may not be what actually resolves.

So we want to stay the course.

One, make sure that people are adhering to all of the CDC guidelines and taking very, very seriously any and all of the executive orders, whether they're issued by the governor or the mayor in this great city of Newark.

Because we know that that will in fact determine or at least guide or at least influence a lot of public policy and decision making upon our residents.

We know that the normalcy of what we expect in September might not be exactly the way we have planned.

So there will be ingress procedures that we've implemented since April, that we will make sure are in fact in place.

That there are egress procedures that we're also going to be following to make sure that the health and safety of all of the students and staff is the first and most important priority.

And that we are clear on that.

So we expect all of the students to be returning back.

We expect that, in fact, the procedures that we have in place have been mastered to a great degree by the students who have been in person, will be learned by the students who have been working remotely.

And that ultimately in the end, we'll create a bridge between those who haven't been in school and those who want to be back.

And we're looking forward to that.

It's gonna be an exciting start to what will inevitably be one of the most incredible years in this school district's history.

- Roger, the vaccine initiative in Newark.

Vaccine resistance in Newark.

And by the way, Newark is a metaphor for any urban community across this country.

What impact does the whole question of who's getting the vaccine?

Who's not, who will, who won't?

What impact does that have on public education in the city of Newark?

- Well, our position from the start has been clear.

COVID testing and the vaccination, which obviously follow thereafter, are both extremely important towards building the type of confidence that we need to inevitably get into the resilience that will get us through this.

Do I believe that people need to be COVID tested and vaccinated?

I know that it reassures and provides a level of support that everyone yearns for, especially during a time where there is so much uncertainty.

So we know that in Newark in particular, the positivity rate was really, really high.

And so getting everyone tested and advocating for that was paramount.

We know that right now we have close to 70% of our teaching staff members who have already been vaccinated.

So we know that we had a very, very aggressive campaign and that we know that it has decreased over the last couple of weeks.

At least the idea of people being vaccinated.

We want to make sure that those who are gonna do it, that they've obviously consulted with their doctor if they're under a doctor's care.

And that they go ahead and get vaccinated in any of the locations in the city of Newark or throughout Essex County in particular.

I also wanted to mention to you that we have a great big vaccine for teens initiative that started last week and will continue every Wednesday at West Side High School in the evenings on our Lights On program, and at Clara Maass Hospital, as we get through the summer.

This is just for teenagers ages 12 to 18 here, sponsored in the city of Newark by the health department, obviously the school system and our health partners.

- By the way, pull it in post production, put up the website for Newark Public Schools.

So those in Newark who want to learn more about it, can.

Roger, can you give me a one minute or less on learning loss?

How do we identify what learning loss looks like, and what do we do about it for these young people?

- So as it relates to learning loss, we want to look at it in two frames.

So learning loss, that actually students have not, for whatever the reasons are, kept with the academic programming and then unfinished learning, so that there are students that just need more time.

We want to actually address both of those.

So we're doing that with some intent.

There are tutoring opportunities that we're providing students before the school day, after school, on Saturdays, that we will continue into the start of the next school year to afford students that additional time.

We're doing assessments at the start of the year, in the middle of the year, towards the end of the year, to really get a sense of the impact that this has caused and how we are teaching our students to address those needs.

Not only academic, but social, emotional learning needs that we know our students have experienced from the separation.

Everything about Coronavirus has impacted everyone.

So we're targeting all of the students in a, with a broad brush and then providing specific needs as it arises student by student, across every classroom, in every grade, in every school, across the city of Newark.

- Mr.

Superintendent, I want to thank you so much for joining us.

As always, we learned from you and we appreciate it.

And all the best to you and the great team in the Newark Public Schools.

Thank you, Roger.

- Thank you, Steve.

Really appreciate you.

You got it.

I'm Steve Adubato, that's Roger León.

We'll see you next time.

- [Narrator] State of Affairs with Steve Adubato Is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by Prudential Financial.

RWJBarnabas Health.

New Jersey Sharing Network.

NJ Best.

The Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey.

The New Jersey Education Association.

Summit Health Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.

And by The Fidelco Group.

Promotional support provided by CIANJ, and Commerce Magazine.

And by NJBIZ.

- Hi, I'’m Joe Roth.

In New Jersey there are nearly 4,000 residents in need of a life saving organ transplant, and one person dies every three days waiting for this gift of life.

One organ and tissue donor can save eight lives and enhance the lives of over seventy-five people.

You have the power to make a difference and give hope.

For information or to become an organ and tissue donor visit www.njsharingnetwork.org, and be sure to talk with your family and friends about this life saving decision.