July 12, 2012 — Union County LocalSource A different set of standards Kean University Board of Trustees Chair Ada Morell, along with University President Dawood Farahi, recently issued a statement blasting the Middle States Commission on Higher Education for their latest findings. The statement, sim ply put, attacks M iddle States, saying it “repeatedly violated its own procedures in order to follow a staff-driven agenda that is detrimental to our students and taxpayers.” While there m ay be some measure of merit to their statement, we find parts of it incredibly laughable. “While we explore all of our options, we must continue as a university to operate in an honest and forthright manner,” the statement said. “Honest and forthright” are hilarious words for these two to choose. Consider this: Earlier this year, dishonest errors and forthright lies on Farahi’s multiple resumes were brought to light by the Kean Federation of Teachers. But the board felt that the fallacies were not bad enough to warrant any action being taken against Farahi, despite finding the inaccuracies to exist. In fact, in a statem ent after the 7-4 vote in February in favor of keeping the president, the board went as far as to express “its confidence in President Farahi’s leadership and his ability to continue the progress we are making at Kean University.” They also went on to say that “none of the investigator’s findings was material to Dr. Farahi’s successful em ploym ent as president at Kean ... Under Dr. Farahi’s tenure, the university has made significant and measurable progress, and our students now reap the ben efits.” It’s interesting to note here that M iddle States takes direct issue with how the school measures the succuss of those “benefits,” putting the university on probation for deficiencies in compliance with four standards: Integrity; Institutional Assessment; General Education; and Stu dent Assessment. It would seem the board and the president use a differ ent measuring stick to gauge just how successful the uni versity and its students have been. The statem ent firing back at M iddle States mentions a few o f Farahi’s and M orell’s goals and achievements. And sure, the school has done some great things recently to foster a quality learning environment, some of which are touted in the recent statem ent as “bellwethers of accom plishm ent.” But we feel this might be a good time to mention some of the accomplishments under Farahi that the board has failed to mention, most of which took place before the board decided resume fabrication was an acceptable way of setting an example for their 16,000-plus student body. • Between 2006 and 2010 the student body grew 46 percent But when compared with other four-year New Jersey state colleges, Kean also has the highest student to faculty ratio at 44 to 1, compared with the state average of 30 to 1. • In 2003, when Farahi became president, Kean’s debt was around $48 million. As of February, it is over $357 million, according to the New Jersey Educational Facili ties Authority. In fact, Kean has the second highest debt load for a New Jersey public university. • The university’s budget increased from $140 million to $210 million under Farahi. • Student fees continue to escalate, rising by 62 percent EDITORIAL since Farahi came aboard. • According to the N ew Jersey Com mission on Higher Education, M ont clair State University has 135 more full-tim e faculty, 509 to Kean’s 374, but 52 fewer administrators to manage a student body that is 25 percent larger than Kean’s. • Allegations have been made by faculty that Farahi helped not only former New Jersey Gov. Jim M cGreevey by allowing him to teach ethics courses at Kean after he resigned as governor, but also helped the relatives of Sen. Raymond Lesniak either get jobs or keep jobs on campus. In addition, the newly appointed Kean Board of Trustees member Dave Gibbons is the son of President Dawood Farahi’s girlfriend, Anne Evans Estabrook. • The Kean University faculty and librarians gave the board of trustees a 94 percent vote of no confidence in May, and gave Farahi a 83 percent vote of no confidence in the fall. • The N CA A crushed the university wom an’s basketball team by denouncing its former coach and placing the school’s 13 athletic teams on probation until 2016. M o r e l l ’s a n d F a r a h i ’s r e s i g n a t i o n s a r e l o n g p a s t d u e . W e s e e n o w a y t h e s c h o o l c a n p a s s i n t e g r i t y s t a nd a r d s b y S e p t . 1 2012 a s l o n g a s t h e s e t w o a r e s t i l l c a l l i n g t h e s h o t s . These are just some of the “bellwethers of accomplish m ent” under Farahi’s tenure we feel should be highlight ed by the board as well. By anyone’s measuring stick, these seem like a fairly good cause for concern. Farahi and M orell should be more concerned with the student body, and focus on a plan to tackle their accredi- dation woes, rather than engage in this combative and childlike public campaign to keep their personal images intact. The way we see it, Kean needs some real leaders. Morell’s and Farahi’s resignations are long past due. As Thom as Paine once said, “we have it in our power to begin the world over again.” For Kean University, this can only begin with their departure. W e see no way the school can pass integrity standards by Sept. 1 as long as these two are still calling the shots. A nd that would only be the beginning. Also removing the political influence over the university from state power players such as Lesniak is another of many steps that m ust be taken to fix higher education in New Jersey. But there’s not enough room in this newspaper to explain why it’s only one of m any neccesaiy steps that begins with Gov. Chris Christie reversing legislation approved in the mid ‘90s which gave boards of trustees full authority over increasing debt and hiring presidents with zero state oversight. Farahi and Morell can stay as long as they want, and do just about whatever they want, and there is nothing any one can do about it, except to continue letting them know they are no longer welcome at Kean University.
Posted on: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 12:23:46 +0000
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