KFT goes public with demands for change

By Joshua Rosario | Published by Feb. 21, 2019

 

Kean Federation of Teachers wants the university to move resources from “administrative bloat” and “never-ending construction” in a unanimously-approved resolution, according to flyers posted at KFT members’ office doors around campus.

In the resolution, the KFT is seeking for the university to move towards channeling funds that will directly support and improve the student experience at Kean. The resolution was passed on Jan 24.

“The issues raised by the collective bargaining unit are best discussed at the bargaining table, not on the doorways of faculty offices that are spaces for student learning and collaboration,” said University spokesperson Margaret McCorry.

The KFT wants the university to:

• Increase the size of the the tenured and tenure-track faculty to 400
• Hire three full-time advisors in each college
• Build a parking deck on the main campus sufficient to meet all parking needs
• Re-staff the library with enough full-time librarians for 16,000 students
• Fix and upgrade the campus Wi-Fi and other technologies
• Implement a program providing laptops to all faculty, staff and students
• Reverse last year’s class size increase
• Hire five career counselors
• Provide resources necessary to restore all lost and compromised program accreditations

“The idea is to get the university to re-center it’s focus on the student’s priorities,” said KFT President James Castiglione.

The KFT flyer claims management at Kean has engaged in “ unprecedented” and “ unethical” actions. Tactics are being used to force faculty and staff into accepting duties that affect their academic freedom, the delivery of an educational experience and the need to attract quality faculty and staff.

“The university has been on a bit of a rampage in attacking the terms of conditions of employment of faculty, professional staff and librarians,” said Castiglione.

The latest of “attacks” started with the Professional Development Days. PDDs are five days of uncompensated mandatory training for faculty and staff.

In 2017, McCorry stated faculty are required to attend 32 sessions of professional development each academic year.

The university has imposed an increase in faculty office hours from eight hours a week to 12 hours a week.

“This flies in the face of the data we presented to the university which is that students don’t come to offices they prefer to email,” said  Castiglione. “ So you’re forcing faculty to be in their offices when they could be working more effectively working elsewhere.”

The University is also asking faculty to call recently accepted high school senior to congratulate and welcome them to Kean. This job was often tasked to student assistants.

In response to the university, The KFT’s resolution also seeks for the university to cease and desist mandating uncompensated PDDs, return to the five faculty office hours per week as directed, and cease and desist from imposing the faculty “sales calls” to new students.

“We know that our faculty are the University’s best academic resources, so we’ve asked many of them to share their enthusiasm for Kean with prospective students,” said McCorry. “We can’t think of anyone better to address questions about our programs than the people who teach and support our students every day.”

According to the university’s institutional research,  the amount of tenured and tenured-track professors for fall 2018, is currently 257.

Clarification: This article previously stated the amount of tenured and tenured-track professors was 224. This number only accounted for the tenured and tenured-track professors at the university’s U.S. campuses. There are 33 tenured and tenured-track professors at the Wenzhou, China campus. 

Kean University in total has 16,125 students as of fall 2018. This number includes the 2069 students at the Wenzhou, China campus. 

 

 

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