On the morning of Thursday, August 27, Kean University faculty, staff, students, and community members filed into the campus in anticipation of the annual President’s Opening Day Address. They filled every row of Wilkins Theater, hundreds settling in as they listened to jazz music ahead of the speech.
It was Lamont Repollet’s seventh year addressing the Kean community as the university president. Ada Morell, a member of the university’s Board of Trustees, introduced Repollet as the event began. “I am very happy to say, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome, my good friend, our dynamic president, Dr. Lamont Repollet.”
The president received resounding applause and a standing ovation that lasted over thirty seconds as he climbed the stage. “This never gets old,” he commented on his reception. “It’s very humbling, to say the least, and as I look around the room, my heart is just overjoyed.... God is good.”
He first greeted the diverse “Kean University family” attending the event, acknowledging members of the Board of Trustees, local elected officials, the leadership team at Wenzhou, new faculty members, and students coming from all five campuses of Kean.
For the next hour, Repollet discussed what he dubbed the “transformative journey” of the university, the intentions behind that journey, and the path forward for the institution.
“This year has been an extraordinary year,” he said. Starting out his speech in a similarly extraordinary way, the president made an unexpected parallel between the state of higher education and Game of Thrones. To illustrate his point, he played an epic trailer-like video depicting educational institutions across the state as kingdoms in the popular TV show. “While everyone looked inward, Kean also looked outward—across oceans, across cultures, across possibilities,” the narrator boomed amidst dramatic music. “What if a public university could think and act like a global institution?”
The video discussed Kean’s initiative for partnership, opportunity-building, and “expanding access for those who need it most.” Near the end, banners unfurled in a display of the five Kean campuses—Union, Jersey City, Wenzhou, Ocean and Global—indicating the progress and commitment of the university.
Standing underneath an illuminated image of Kean’s logo placed high on the walls of Wilkins Theater, Repollet discussed the university’s humble origins as a teacher’s preparatory school to an institution with expansive state, national, and global presence. “If you study our history closely, a pattern emerges. Kean rarely waits for permission to lead,” he said.
He cited examples like the establishment of Supera in 1972, the country’s first bilingual degree-granting program, the formation of a fully-fledged campus in Wenzhou, China, the Carnegie classification of the university as an R2 institution, the launching of New Jersey’s first bachelor’s degree in Artificial Intelligence, and most recently, the completion of the merger with New Jersey City University.
“These developments occurred in different eras and under very different circumstances, but the instinct that was behind them remained remarkably consistent,” Repollet said. “Prepare before the need becomes urgent. Understand what is changing and move while others are still deciding whether action is necessary.”
Repollet then went on to comment on his own journey in questioning what the university needed. “Six years ago when I became president, the most important question for me was, how does Kean serve future generations?” he asked. “The answer required us to think differently about ambition, access, research, student success, global engagement, and public responsibility.”
He credited Kean’s milestones to faculty and students for persisting and expanding initiatives across the university. As a result, “we now have a greater capacity to serve students,” he stated. “At the center is the belief that higher education can change the trajectory of a life. The structure above the ground may look vastly different from the institution that existed in 1855, but the foundation rooted beneath it continues to give the university strength.”
Throughout his speech, Repollet played several more videos to showcase Kean’s growth and potential. One depicted the university as a great cathedral being built by dozens of members of the faculty and administration. “Every leader in this room has been entrusted with different stones, but your stone was never intended to stand alone. Its purpose is to strengthen the entire organization.”
Another video showed workers documenting the Kean-ification of Jersey City, improving the facilities and reinforcing a sense of identity and pride for the campus. In another, different version of Keanus, the university mascot, were shown FaceTiming one another from different parts of the world, an acknowledgement of Kean’s expansive global presence.
In his speech, Repollet also acknowledged the work ahead for the university. “The work in front of us now is increasingly about integration, and integration is often much harder to see,” he said. “It is measured by whether information moves effectively across the institution, whether expertise is shared, whether people trust one another, whether decisions align with the mission, and whether a student encounters the same commitment of excellence regardless of where that student begins.”
He emphasized how Kean can build on its success by allowing the strengths of the five campuses to reinforce one another, by changing the mindset of what Kean can contribute, and by connecting it all to a purpose: for students, and for the communities they come from.
Dr. Repollet closed his speech with a cheery “Happy New Year, Kean University!” He received thunderous applause and another standing ovation from the audience, an acknowledgement of the president’s leadership in the university’s journey, and an indication of excitement for what is to come.
