1435 Morris Avenue - Suite 3A, Union, NJ 07083
Tim Haresign, President
KEAN UNIVERSITY IS NUMBER ONE! (in a manner of speaking…)
When is Enough Enough?
Since Dr. Dawood Farahi became president of Kean University eleven years ago, he has adopted an authoritarian posture that has bred fear among the workforce. He has concentrated vast power in his hands and run roughshod over any opposition. In particular he has targeted the Kean Federation of Teachers and the employees it represents – as well as the other labor unions on campus. More grievances, more arbitrations and more unfair practice charges arise from Kean University than all of the other campuses combined—by a huge margin.
President Farahi has also made a series of bad managerial decisions. He has driven Kean University into heavy debt. He builds new buildings with empty classrooms, a fancy restaurant with empty tables and spent millions to buy and maintain Liberty Hall, a historic building tied to the Kean family. Rather than focus on what should be Kean University’s core mission of educating lower and moderate income students in northern New Jersey and surrounding areas, President Farahi created a campus in China for Chinese students.
Just last year, President Farahi barely survived a scandal that revealed how he misrepresented his own academic credentials.
His latest outrage is the purchase of a conference table made in China, costing $219,000, which could have been better used for educational purposes. When asked why he did it, President Farahi answered “Why not? Why not?”
Is Kean University the “world class” institution it claims to be? You be the judge.
Compared to the other seven colleges/universities the Council represents, Kean University, under the leadership of President Farahi, is the:
• State university most likely to deny reappointment to tenure track faculty.
Kean MSU NJCU Ramapo Rowan * RSC TCNJ WPUNJ Totals * Rowan began hiring more Full-time tenure track instructors in Fall 2013. Instructors are not included in the above. • Only State university to lay off professional staff (12 in 2011).
• Only State university to lay off tenured faculty (2 in 2013).
• Stingiest State university when it comes to granting sabbaticals, averaging three in recent years.
• Only State university to require faculty to keep eight office hours per week even though their students rarely come by during most weeks.
• Only State university to require most faculty to teach their load of four classes over four days per week as opposed to three, with no supporting study showing why this schedule is educationally sound.
• Only State university barring faculty from scheduling back-to-back classes, with no supporting study showing why this break is educationally sound.
• Only State university to require its faculty to report to work for five days of “training” during winter break.
• Stingiest State university when it comes to faculty promotions, averaging six in recent years.
• State university that has promoted the fewest professional staff and librarians. Only one of each in the last 11 years.
• State university that uses the highest percentage of adjunct faculty in proportion to full time faculty (992 vs. 348 or 74% to 26%).(1) For comparison purposes, Montclair State University has 1104 adjuncts compared to 585 full time faculty or 65.4% vs. 34.6%. (2)
• State university that has had a 17.74% decrease (372 to 289) in the number of full time tenured and tenure track faculty and a 33.87% (741 to 992) increase in the number of adjunct faculty in over the previous decade. (3)
• State university with highest percentage of courses taught by adjunct faculty (50.6%), compared to MSU’s 43.4%). (1), (2)
• State university with the lowest (1:47) ratio of full time tenured and tenure track faculty to the student population.
2013 Council data- Student:Tenured/Tenure Track
Faculty RatiosFall 2013 Total Student Enrollment (1) Total FT Tenured & Ten. Track Faculty (3) Student to FT Tenured & Ten. Track Ratio TCNJ 7,340 340 22:1 Ramapo 5,852 217 27:1 Stockton 8,458 284 30:1 WPU 11,414 372 31:1 Montclair 19,464 568 34:1 NJCU 8,442 241 35:1 Rowan 13,349 375 36:1 Kean 14,404 306 47:1 • State university with the highest number of non-tenure track full time faculty. In 2014 “Lecturers” now number over 95 compared to 289 tenured or tenure-track faculty.
• Only State university to create a costly new school (Architecture) in direct competition with an established program at nearby State research university (New Jersey Institute of Technology). It has done this without the required approval from the Presidents’ Council. (If the Council decides the program duplicates efforts or is too costly or exceeded Kean’s academic mission, it would then be submitted to the NJ Secretary of Higher Education for a final decision.)
• Only university to buy a table from China for $219,000.
• Only State university to be placed on warning and probation from Middle States accrediting agency.
• Only State university whose athletics program has been placed on probation by the NCAA.
• Only State university whose board of trustees voted unanimously to outsource janitorial, mechanical and groundskeeping services, a move that will affect about 60 Kean employees who are members of IFPTE Local 195. They did this with no supporting study showing the cost savings after public bidding.
Benjamin Franklin’s quote at the signing of the Declaration of Independence, “We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately” is perhaps apropos to the situation at Kean. Tenured faculty should act as one to protest this destructive conduct. Because assuredly their professional status, as well as that of professional staff and librarians, has continually been assaulted.
Ultimately, there really is only one solution. The Kean Board of Trustees must remove Farahi and replace him with someone who has the confidence of the employees and the best interests of the students at heart. If the Board won’t act, the Governor and the State Legislature should step in.
What others are saying:
http://www.nj.com/union/index.ssf/2014/11/kean_university_conference_table.html
So we pose the question again. When is enough enough? You be the judge.
(1) Kean University Institutional Profile 2014
(2) Montclair State University Institutional Profile 2014
(3) Kean University information exchange as required by the State-Union contract.
