Did Monmouth U co-opt concordance?

My family has lived in Long Branch for over 60 years and more recently in West Long Branch as well. During this time, Monmouth University has been expanding into the surrounding community. Many of us in the area believe it has overstepped its bounds and needs to consider opening satellite campuses.

As I’ve watched the situation with the Long Branch Concordance, (LBC), I wonder if it’s one more move on the part of the university.

Terri Blair, recently removed as executive director of the Long Branch Concordance, is a good friend of mine. In fact, she joins several other friends at my home each Sunday for dinner. She always talks about the accomplishments of the LBC as it has grown; the grants it has received, the collaborative meetings it has and the people it has helped.

I think the LBC is important and that Terri has been a great executive director. If it wasn’t for her vision and commitment there would be no LBC, and it’s an organization that we have needed for a very long time.

Unless I’m wrong, all the grants and growth have happened since the LBC started around three years ago, and all the time she has been executive director and has proven her effectiveness. Why has she been removed now? My friends and I think some questions need to be answered:

(1) If the state grants the LBC has received require that at least 51 percent of the board members be grassroots consumers, (must reside in greater Long Branch), how can the board get away with administering the new state grant we’ve read about with only one board member who lives in greater Long Branch?

(2) We know Terri’s been concerned about the 51 percent situation, and that a single mom and a Latino minister, both Long Branch residents, had to step off the board and haven’t been replaced with grassroots residents. It’s even worse that another Long Branch resident, Steve Ross (also someone we know), has left the board since Terri was removed. Don’t these things suggest something is wrong?

(3) We know that the president of the board, Dr. Golam Mathbor, is associate dean of Humanities and Human Sciences at Monmouth, and that two other board members are professors at Monmouth. Also, that another board member recently received an MSW from a program Dr. Mathbor administered. This seems to be a very heavy concentration of Monmouth University people on a small board. Why do they have such a hand in a collaborative that was supposed to be “of and by the people”? If they are so concerned, why didn’t they start a collaborative? One might ask if, now that the LBC has proven itself effective and successful, they want it for themselves?

(4) If there’s a good reason Terri has been removed, let’s hear it from the board president. On the other hand, if the board isn’t even meeting requirements for the state grant we keep reading about, why shouldn’t the board be removed?

Irene Choras Tsakiris

Long Branch & West Long Branch resident