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Kean U. Board Investigates President Over Alleged Spurious Credentials

January 9, 2012, 12:12 pm

Kean University’s Board of Trustees is looking into assertions by the institution’s faculty union that Kean’s president falsified his résumé. According to The Wall Street Journal, the university’s board chairwoman wrote a letter to the Kean Federation of Teachers saying that the board’s executive committee was examining “serious issues” raised by the union. The union has contended that the president, Dawood Farahi, falsely claimed to have published more than 50 articles in “major publications” and lied when he claimed to have served as acting dean at Avila University before taking over as president of Kean, in 2003.

In a statement quoted by the Journal, Mr. Farahi said the union was attacking him because of changes he has made. “This is another in a long line of personal attacks that they have leveled,” the statement says, “all because I have asked them to come to work, do their jobs, and earn their paychecks.”

Mr. Farahi has clashed with the faculty union frequently during his presidency. Professors say the president has disregarded the faculty’s role in university governance again and again. The president has required professors to be on the campus four days a week, removed professors as department chairmen, and replaced them with administrators.

This is not the first time that the union has accused the president of wrongdoing. It has also said that Mr. Farahi paid off the head of the search committee that chose him with an administrative position and that he has given jobs to relatives of local politicians.

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  • old nassau’67

    “The president has required professors to be on the campus four days a week” – directly opposing the faculty members’ desire to be on campus five, six, even seven days a week.

  • jonesie

    the New Jersey population should learn more widely that these people are complaining about stepping it up to 4 days of work.  I think Gov. Christie would simply fire them for insubordination

  • katisumas

    You actually think faculty does all its work on campus?  Why dont you organize a spying operation to see how many of them are hauling off home a pile of papers to  correct.  Oh and where are profs and adjuncts preparing their courses?  How many of new  publications in their field must  they read in order to  teach their students what is necessary? Oh and how about the academic “publish or perish” rule?  How many of us do our research and writing in the office?

    And then, if I wake up in the middle of the night with a sudden idea for research or for course material and I write it down before going back to sleep,  shoul I enter this in a time sheet?  How about thinking about my courses  while brushing my teeth?  How about thinking about my students while taking a shower?  etc etc etc

    Being in the office is a very small part of a faculty’s job.  The idea that faculty “work” only while  in their office and don’t work  the rest of the time is ridiculous. 

    Incidentally this goes as well for most grade K-12 teachers who ususally stay  up at home late in the night correcting their students’ work and preparing for classes.

    Given the fact that faculty get paid so much less than individuals with similar credentials (and student debts!) working in the private sector, you can safely trust that teachers are doing the job they are doing out of dedication and love for teaching and for their field.   If they needed to punch in to do their job, well, that really would  be the end of US education at all level.

    Think about it.  In the recent past the  US was an industrial giant.  We are no longer that, but up to now  we maintained a pretty good educational system.  People like you and the politicians you vote for seem to  be tripping on each other in their haste to push our country down to Third World status.

    PS: the US and New Jersey are still democratic. That means that the powers of the governor are limited just as the powers of the predisent of the US are. Perhaps you need to take that class in civics that is the topic of an article above? …or at least read the constitution of both the US and of New Jersey or any state, oh and the Bill of Rights…. yes, we do have one!

  • njprofnj

    There is much more to this story than the false claims of “Acting Dean” and “50 articles”.  Farahi claims specific publications in peer-reviewed journals that do not exist.  I just saw the shocking evidence on this website:

    http://www.kft2187.org/

    Click on the picture of Farahi and read the letters from the journals refuting Farahi’s direct claims of publication.  The word is that new allegations of academic fraud are surfacing by the day.  Farahi’s only defense is that the intrepid faculty investigating this who are risking his fearsome retaliation and their academic careers are motivated by “hatred, prejudice and greed”.  

    Greed indeed.  Farahi himself pocketed a $160,000 bonus in 2009 and has been promised a $200,000 bonus for 2013 despite bringing the university to the edge of ruin by prompting a Middle States accreditation “warning” and an NCAA investigation over major athletics rules infractions including the dreaded “lack of institutional control”.

    It appears that this last point extends to a lack of control over the facts in his own resume.  The question is will the Board of Trustees act to protect the academic integrity and the reputation of the university or will they act to protect Farahi?

  • njstateprofessor

    The President of Kean University, Dr. Dawood Farahi, can easily resolve
    this controversy in his favor.  If he has been telling the truth about
    his claimed publications, then all he has to do is post a verifiable
    bibliography of his scholarly publications on the Kean University
    website.  If he refuses to do that, then the whole world knows that he
    has been lying to his faculty and to the students of the University on
    that score.
     
    What an amazing act of unmitigated arrogance it is for this man to claim
    scholarly publications while refusing to produce them.  Any ordinary
    faculty member who did that would be subject to serious sanctions,
    including termination of employment.  Any student who did that in a
    class might be subject to expulsion from the University.  Why is
    President Farahi considered immune to professional accountability?

  • excalibur

    …and speaking of whom Gov. Christie should fire, how about a university President who put the University’s accreditation in jeopardy, falsified his CV and attracted a serious NCAA investigation into major athletic infractions. These are only some of the reasons that 83% of the faculty voted “no confidence” in Farahi. It’s time that his hypocritical “high standards” apply to him and his administration.

  • njstateprofessor

    The Board of Trustees should demand President Farahi’s resignation
    or dismiss him. Falsifying a job application is grounds for dismissal
    everywhere.  Kean University, a public institution, needs to make a clear
    statement that its Board of Trustees can be trusted with the authority
    it has over NJ Higher Education. If not the Governor needs to step in and
    exercise the authority the people of New Jersey placed in him.

  • 11211

    Farahi’s performance does not deserve his continuation as President. Kean is the first senior institution of higher education in New Jersey to be warned by Middle States that its accreditation is at risk (non-compliance with Standadrs 7 &14). This non-compliance was the result of Farahi’s suspending Program Review, Kean’s own internal assessment program established almost three decades ago. This suspension, to cut costs, took place at the same time Middle States and other accrediting agencies began to insist on assessment. This reveals incompetence.

    Also, the NCAA is investigating the university for violations of NCAA rules. The university created fake courses and changed student athletes’ grades so the could play (Kean is a Division 3 school). Kean’s former Athletic Director, fired because he reported these violations, has sued the university.

    Now we have the issue of Farahi’s fradulent credentials, an issue he has allowed to grow by failing last Fall to publish a properly formatted bibliography. By the way, fradulent academic credentials warrant not just removing Farahi from the presidency; he must removed from the faculty too.

    As if all this were not enough, Farahi has lied about nonexistent financial crises to justify layoffs of an ever-diminishing number of student support staff. This reveals malice.

    In addition, several depts at Kean have their accreditations at risk due to insufficient numbers of full-time faculty, while the university spends on construction/renovation projects. AACSB and EPAS have refused to acredit depts. in their disciplines.

    Must the Kean trustees take a course on fiduciary law? When will the State investigate?

  • sunworshipper

    The Kean University president has conveyed a simple message to Kean students since 2003:
    “he is an example of the American dream who has succeeded due to hard work, determination and discipline”. Considering these problematic discoveries about his professional life, how is this president going to address Kean students now? Would he have the moral standing to say that he is an example to be followed? Can he effectively lead and inspire the faculty, the students, and other members of the university community under these troubling circumstances? Let’s hope that the trustees fulfill their basic fiduciary responsibility when it is most urgently needed. 

  • thinkagain

    There’s a cancer growing on the presidency is a famous phrase used to point an end t Richard Nixon. As a former supporter of Farahi’s initial efforts, I can now see that this presidency has exhausted itself. It is beyond time for change. The president has lost all legitimacy with these multiple violations of academic fraud. He could never go into a room with presidents or before the NCAA or before Middle States and seem legitimate. The integrity of his adminstration is irrepariable. It’s time that he left ASAP. There is just too much damage at this point.

    Dawood is famous for going around campus and saying: 1) Is it good for the students? Is it good for the university? Does it make fiscal sense? Does it bring Kean prestige? How can this scandal, on top of everything else, meet any of DF’s own questions? 

    What’s more interesting is the campus these days. In every corner of the campus, in virtually every office, people are whispering, hoping, waiting. They know that Dawood did not publish these articles, but they also know that speaking such things can lead to firing. Fear will be Farahi’s ultimate legacy at Kean.

    The real troubling part is the double standard that’s emerging. If any junior faculty member had pulled the kind of exaggerations and lies that DF pulled, they would be walked off campus escorted by the Kean Police. The practice of humiliation is something that Dawood uses to instill his reign of fear. He has done that to too many quality professionals at Kean. It would be appropriate if he met the same fate.

    I ask Dawood that if he loves Kean as much as he says he does, then he should leave immediately. DF has no one to scapegoat on this one. The show’s over. There’s a cancer growing on the presidency.

    PS. I imagine the folks in the castle are like what Hitler’s generals were in February of 1944. You know the fight is almost over, but no one can say it out loud.  

  • thepoormouth2

    As the sad situation at Penn State shows us, it is high time that
    University boards of trustees stop shirking their responsibilities. 
    However, don’t be surprised if Kean’s board is reluctant to act.  They
    have been in bed with Fraudrahi for years.  We’re talking about New
    Jersey and the equivalent of Sopranos U here. 

    You have to love the chutzpah of Fraudrahi in charging his accusers with
    “greed.”  As the article excerpted below indicates, he is slated to
    receive a $200K bonus from the trustees who failed to investigate his
    qualifications, have enabled him to bankrupt the institution, and, in
    some cases, have personally profited from their unwavering support for
    him.  In contrast, the Kean professors and staff members he accuses of
    being greedy accepted unpaid
    furloughs that administrators were not subjected to in response to non-existent fiscal crises manufactured by Fraudrahi, and NJ students
    and parents have had to deal with consistently rising tuition and the
    hidden–but very real–cost of exponentially increasing student fees as a
    result of Fraudrahi’s unchecked capital expenditures.  (Check out the history of the Kean in China boondoggle–in which former NJ governor and Kean ethics prof Jim McGreevey has figured prominently–that Fraudrahi recently resurrected to divert attention from the warning the institution has received from Middle States.)

    “After years of state funding cuts and rising tuition, many of New
    Jersey’s public colleges have frozen the salaries of their presidents in
    recognition of the economic downturn.  Their presidential contracts are
    another story.  Most of the employment agreements for top college
    executives remain
    packed with lucrative bonuses, generous retirement plans, housing
    allowances, cars and other perks, according to a Star-Ledger
    review of presidential contracts at all 31 of the state’s two- and
    four-year public colleges. Many of the deals include retention payments,
    deferred compensation
    plans and other rewards designed to entice presidents to stay on the
    job. [. . .] Longtime Kean University President Dawood Farahi will be eligible for a $200,000 bonus in 2013 as a reward for remaining president, according to his contract.”

  • njprofnj

    One point that has yet to really be addressed is what example is President Farahi setting for our students?  How are faculty to get students to comply with the university’s Academic Integrity Policy under these circumstances?  Students and alumni have to be very concerned about what this means for the value of their degree.  I have been informed that some are beginning to organize in defense of their university around a Facebook page entitled “Farahi Fraud Investigation”.  Here is the link:

    http://www.facebook.com/pages/Farahi-Fraud-Investigation/165028786933274

Copyright 2012. All rights reserved.