Kean board takes no action despite protest and rally

Written by Erin McGuinness based on reports from  Rafaela Teixeira, Craig Epstein, Valencia Stevenson and Joshua Rosario || Published May 7, 2019

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The Board of Trustees at it’s May 6 meeting took no action on Kean’s controversial decision to let go of four professional staff and 13 lecturers, including half of the lecturers in General Education, despite a raucous campus walk-out and protest that included support from Assemblywoman Mila Jasey (D-Essex) and state Sen. Joseph Cryan (D-Union).

The GE lecturers, who received positive reviews from supervisors but were not reappointed , said they believe they were fired because they publicly questioned University President Dawood Farahi’s decision to use open office space for advising that they thought could violate student privacy rights. The lecturers, some whom have been at Kean several years, are on one-year contracts.

“We are obviously here for our teachers who were wrongfully laid off, but we are also here to stand up for our rights as students,” Kean student Marcus Blanc said. “We pay so much money to be here at a ‘World Class Education’ but it seems as if our money isn’t going towards our education.”

But that’s not all the students walked out of class to protest. Tuition has increased and acceptance rates have increased, according to the Kean Institutional Research annual fact sheet. Despite more money coming into the university, protesters contend that services and educational support have gone down.

“We wholeheartedly support the rights of our students and others who are here today to express their views,” said Kean Spokesperson Margaret McCorry. “However, the collective bargaining unit’s tactics and blatant lies are distasteful and hurt our students and the entire Kean community.”

A list of demands crafted by the Kean Federation of Teachers, the faculty’s union, circulated on campus in the weeks preceding the protest, including appeals to fix a lack of parking, low-quality wifi, compromised program accreditations, lack of advisors, lack of librarians and more.

“I think it’s important to stand by in solidarity with these lecturers,” said Tricia, a music major.

Students who participated in the walk-out, clad in “red for ed” — education — protested outside of Kean Hall prior to the board meeting carrying handmade signs with statements like “Fund Our Future,” describing the campaign coordinated by the Kean Federation of Teachers. Other statements included “World Ass Education” and “Where’s The Funds?”

When the meeting reached full capacity, protestors flooded the hallways.  Chants of “Farahi must go” and “Let us in” took over the Dave Gibbons Conference Center at Kean Hall as students raised their voices outside the room.

The board approved returning lecturers but those not reappointed were not on the agenda. After the Board of Trustees covered the agenda, pre-approved speakers were allotted three minutes each to discuss their concerns. 

Many asked the board to consider the reappointment of the fired lecturers while some of the speakers included the fired lecturers themselves. Another speaker included Political Science Professor Dr. Nazih Richani who questioned Farahi’s repeated denial of his own sabbatical request despite his accreditations. Knowing that funds are set aside for sabbaticals each year, Richani brought up the question of what is happening with the money.

Kean University Federation of Teachers President James Castiglione received applause from protesters peeking in through the door as his name was called to speak, addressing the board with nearly 1,800 student signatures on a petition supporting the fired faculty.

He pointed out the $2.6 million for advertising and recruitment listed on the board meeting’s agenda, adding that “trustees have set millions in spending on needless construction and unnecessary advertising,” instead of putting money toward student education and proper resources.

He said as Kean has opened acceptance almost to the point of being an open enrollment institution, the university should be hiring and offering more support, not less, to those students who are less prepared for college.

“New Jersey’s public colleges and universities were created to serve the common good. Specifically, to serve our students,” Castiglione said.  “But in recent years at Kean, this relationship has been inverted such that students now exist to serve this administration, serving merely as revenue sources for vanity projects and other non-academic spending that does nothing to further their education.”

Tim Haresign, president of the NJ State College Council Locals, AFT, said Kean stands out for its bad behavior.

“I represent 10,000 faculty and staff around the state on nine different campuses and I can say without equivocation Kean is the worst,” Haresign said. “We have more problems with Kean through the union than any other campus, the students are treated worse at Kean than any other campus.”

During his remarks, Haresign presented the Advisor of the Year award to the Board of Trustees which was given to Straubel Cetoute by Kean’s Haitian Student Association, one of the lecturers who was not reappointed. Haresign described Kean’s decision not to reappoint Cetoute as “one of the many examples of the outstanding people being let go today.”

“It’s a tremendous loss for the Kean community if you let these people go,” Haresign said. “From my perspective, if it looks like retaliation, if it smells like retaliation, if it walks like retaliation, it’s retaliation. Please reconsider.”

Dr. Daniel Gover began his address to the board with “I just don’t understand,” going on to express his concern over the firings of mainly General Education lecturers, who are the first teachers with whom new Kean students will come in contact.

Sophomore Chloe Senatore addressed the board, claiming that, despite difficulties with substandard technology and parking, she loved her professors. Since her favorite professors have now been fired, and a concern she commented on a Kean University Instagram post was deleted, she will not be returning to Kean University next year, she said.

“I never cared about how pretty the school was, how often the grass was mowed, or how many new buildings were built. I never cared about the aesthetics. I cared about the people who cared about me. Now that those people are gone, and I have come to realize what the Kean administration truly is,” Senator said, adding that she “will be transferring to a school that cares more about the students and their right to great professors and advisors.”

A total of 20 students and faculty spoke out to at the meeting, but no one on the board addressed their issues.

“The board has once again failed to exert proper oversight over this administration,” Castiglione said.  “They had the opportunity to table these illegitimate nonreappointments and reconsider them based on the hard evidence presented to them by students and faculty but chose not to.”

A Media Fact Sheet distributed by university relations at the meeting said that Kean University “will not keep a lecturer who does not meet our standards. It’s not fair to the students, and it’s not fair to those who meet our standards.” Kean renewed 90 percent of its lecturers this year, according to the sheet.

“The Farahi administration has repeatedly stated that they value our students and have their best interest in mind, but today was a clear demonstration that is not true. They ignored our students’ voices and made decisions against their students’ educational well-being,” said Heather Connors, a lecturer who was not reappointed. “Despite today’s outcome, I am inspired by our students’ willingness to speak out against this administration’s lies and retaliation.”

Correction: An earlier version of this story took the board’s action on returning lectures as an affirmation of the administration’s decision to not reappoint. Those not reappointed were not on the agenda. The Tower regrets the error.

 

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