Michael Bernstein has a lot of experience in higher education. He\u2019s an author and an award-winning professor. He\u2019s a seasoned administrator who, as provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, helped lead Tulane University\u2019s recovery from the unimaginable impacts of Hurricane Katrina, which hit New Orleans in 2005.<\/p>\n
Bernstein has even served as an interim president before, leading Long Island\u2019s Stony Brook University during an academic year that included the initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic. \u201cExperience does count for something,\u201d he says. \u201cThere\u2019s some wisdom that comes from that, but most of all, there\u2019s a composure that comes from that. You don\u2019t see anything you haven\u2019t seen before.\u201d<\/p>\n
But he also knows his place as the \u201cnew guy\u201d at TCNJ, understanding that he\u2019s hopping onto a moving train, so to speak. \u201cAll of these folks around here know what they\u2019re doing, and they\u2019ve been doing this for a long time,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
As interim president, he is charged with maintaining and creating quality academic programs and enhancing the student experience. He\u2019ll need to balance those goals with fiscal responsibility, sustainability, and revenue growth. And while he\u2019s contracted for a two-year stint at the college, he hopes to leave TCNJ in better shape than he found it.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s where the composure comes in. Bernstein doesn\u2019t flinch when asked about the challenges of finding his footing at TCNJ. In fact, he smiles and welcomes what lies ahead, making it clear that student success is what drives him and keeps him coming back for more.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur students are happy going out the door,\u201d he says. \u201cWe want it to stay that way. We\u2019re going to get it right.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Picture Anthony DePrimo<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Interim President Michael Bernstein sets the direction and vision of the college for the next two years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":12244,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-on-campus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12243"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12342,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12243\/revisions\/12342"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}