University president cites “changing political and media landscapes” in a statement
By Stephen Appezzato
WEST LONG BRANCH – Monmouth University’s highly respected Polling Institute will be shut down in July, ending a 20-year run of providing insightful and accurate nationwide polls.
Last week, Monmouth University president Patrick F. Leahy released a statement announcing the coming closure of the school’s polling organization. After a yearlong review of all of the university’s centers and institutes, school leadership made the decision to close the institute July 1.
“I realize this is a significant change given the decades of outstanding work led by Patrick Murray, the founding director of the institute since its inception in 2005,” Leahy said. Under Patrick Murray’s leadership, the Polling Institute quickly became a leading pollster nationwide.
Leahy said Murray’s “skilled analysis and media aplomb established the Monmouth University Poll as one of the top polls in the country for both accuracy and transparency,” even garnering a Top 5 ranking from poll analysis website FiveThirtyEight.
“At its height, the institute played a prominent role in helping to elevate the university’s image and to amplify its reputation to households across the country,” Leahy added.
Additionally, Monmouth University’s efforts “to integrate the work of the Polling Institute with both the student experience and the broader academic enterprise atvMonmouth University have been met with mixed results,” Leahy said.
Addressing the reason for the closure, Leahy cited “the changing political and media landscapes,” which have made it more difficult and expensive for polling organizations to operate. Further comment was not provided to The Two River Times.
According to its website, Monmouth University’s Polling Institute was established to be a leading center for the study of public opinion on national and state issues and to foster greater public accountability by ensuring the public’s voice is heard in policy discourse. Aside from probing public opinion, especially surrounding elections, the Polling Institute enhanced research and training opportunities for students and provided data to assist lawmakers with planning and assessment.
Last year, out of more than 500 polling organizations across the country, FiveThirtyEight ranked the Polling Institute No. 5. Alongside scoring high marks for accuracy, the institute also received a 9.9 out of 10 for its transparency. Upon publishing each poll, the Polling Institute includes details about the poll’s methodology, surveying methods, demographics, margins of error, implications and more.
Notably, the center was the only polling organization to correctly predict the results of New Jersey’s 2013 gubernatorial and U.S. Senate races. The Polling Institute also helped track the recovery process following Super Storm Sandy and assessed the content and user accessibility of hundreds of local government websites to improve government transparency and public access, among other initiatives.
In September, leading up to the 2024 presidential election, The Two River Times spoke to Murray about his work and the polling process. At the time, Murray explained polls serve as a “snapshot” of what a particular population thinks or does at a certain time.
Addressing the future, Leahy said the “considerable resources required to operate the Polling Institute annually will be redeployed to other strategic initiatives at Monmouth,” particularly targeting activities that offer “direct transformational impact” on the university’s students.
The article originally appeared in the March 20 – March 26, 2025 print edition of The Two River Times.
