December 9, 2013 3:30 PM 30 Clinton Street Newark, NJ 07102  Download |
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Reclaiming the Promise Monday, Dec. 9
New Era Of Cooperation In Newark Schools Gives Way To Animosity
By John Mooney
One year after celebrated signing of teacher contract, national union president charges officials have reneged on promises
Randi Weingarten
A year after final approval of Newark’s teacher contract – a “Kumbaya” moment hailed nationally as a landmark example of labor-management cooperation – the good will appears to be all but gone.
Randi Weingarten, the president of the national American Federation of Teachers who personally helped negotiate the Newark pact, yesterday returned to the city to lambast the district for failing to live up to its promise in that deal – or in much of anything else, for that matter.
Weingarten’s visit was part of a 90-city campaign that the AFT helped lead this week to push back against what it calls the draconian cuts in urban public schools nationwide. Newark has been especially in the spotlight, with continued budget reductions and school closures coinciding with the expansion of charter schools in the city.
An estimated 200 people – including students, union leaders and teachers — joined Weingarten for the rally in downtown Newark, walking up to the front doors of the Newark school administrative offices on Broad Street before being turned away.
“This gives you a good sense that they don’t want to hear from parents, teachers and students of this great community,” Weingarten said through a megaphone to the gathered crowd.
“If you don’t want to listen to the parents, the teachers and the students, then don’t run the schools,” she said.
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Hundreds blast Christie and Superintendent Anderson during rally for Newark schools
By Peggy McGlone/The Star-Ledger
NEWARK — Carrying signs declaring “Cami Must Go” and chanting “Stand up, fight back,” Newark students, teachers, union officials and community members took to the streets yesterday to make their case for local control and increased funding for the state’s largest school district.
Some 200 advocates marched to the Newark Public Schools offices and to City Hall in a rally organized by Newark Student Union, New Jersey Communities United, and local unions to spotlight the failing policies of Superintendent Cami Anderson and state officials who have control over the district.
The rally was part of “National Day of Action to Reclaim Promise of Public Education,” a network of events organized by the American Federation of Teachers and held in more than 60 cities. Nationally, the union message — supported by a $1.5 million media blitz — focused on restoring community involvement in public education and criticizing “corporate-influenced school reform.”
“We stand in solidarity with communities all over the country,” Newark Student Union president Kristin Towkaniuk, 16, said. “The only way we can change things is to unite, stand together and say we deserve a quality public education.”
Regaining local control and curtailing the growth of charter schools were the main themes. Organizers and union leaders took turns blasting Anderson’s policies, which they claim have hurt students.
“Every child deserves a great neighborhood school,” AFT president Randi Weingarten said. “Schools should be fixed, not closed.”
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Kean trustees unanimously deny tenure to six professors
By Stephen Stirling/The Star-Ledger
TOMS RIVER — After a day of emotional protests, the Kean University Board of Trustees voted unanimously to uphold the denial of tenure — and effective layoff — of six university professors at a meeting in Toms River.
Starting just after 11 a.m., dozens of speakers — some in tears, some angry — pleaded with trustees to reject the recommendation of university administration, led by Kean President Dawood Farahi, that the six professors not be granted tenure and be dismissed from their positions at the end of the year.
A Kean University student speaks in support of one of the professors recommended to be denied tenure. Stephen Stirling/The Star-Ledger
The board heard almost uniform protests for three hours before entering into closed session at 2 p.m. They emerged again at 4:30 p.m. and without any statement, read off their vote to uphold Farahi’s decision, along with a list of other agenda items.
While many said they were already resigned to the decision, students and faculty gathered at the university’s satellite campus applauded sarcastically, deriding the board’s decision and their lack of explanation.
“What’s disheartening is that they can’t even share a single sentence,” said theater professor Anna DeMers, one of the six denied tenure. “It’s cruel to treat people as a ten-point agenda item.”
James Castiglione, President of the Kean Federation of Teachers, said the decision would compromise the university’s academic standards.
“I think it’s shameful that the board would not provide any reason for their decision after all of the public outcry,” he said. “It jeopardizes the viability of our academic programs to layoff so many qualified professionals.”
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The Auditor: Christie, education leader go from friendly to foes again
Just 13 months ago, Gov. Chris Christie and Randi Weingarten, national president of the American Federation of Teachers, were all smiles, appearing together on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
The one-time foes praised each other for the bipartisan compromise that led to a landmark Newark teachers’ contract — the first in the state and one of the first in the nation to base teacher pay on classroom performance, including student progress.
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, speaks in Union in 2009. (Jerry McCrea/The Star-Ledger)
“Every time we had a problem at the table, it was about what is going to work for the kids of Newark,” Weingarten said of the merit pay deal. The governor even invoked his “boulevard of compromise” line.
But those good vibes are gone.
On Monday, Weingarten will travel to Newark to lead a march and rally in protest of what a coalition of advocacy groups called “Christie’s failed leadership on education in Newark.”
“I think it’s fair to say there are areas of agreement and disagreement,” AFT spokesman Marcus Mrowka told The Auditor, pointing to the fair funding formula, local control and school closings. “Those three things the governor does have some control over.”
The day after Christie cruised to re-election, Weingarten chastised him for choosing to “publicly demean and vilify” a teacher with whom he had an argument on the campaign trail in Somers Point.
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Kean University professors plan last stand in tenure fight
By Kelly Heyboer/ The Star-Ledger
UNION TOWNSHIP — Some of the Kean University professors slated to be denied tenure say they are staging a last-ditch effort this weekend to save their jobs.
Kean President Dawood Farahi
Kean President Dawood Farahi and his administrators sparked a controversy on the Union Township campus last month when they failed to give recommendations to six of the nine professors up for tenure this year.
Farahi argued tenure, which is essentially a lifetime job guarantee, is “not an entitlement” and should not be given out lightly at the public university. But members of Kean’s faculty union said most of the fifth-year professors up for tenure this year have spotless records and the unanimous endorsements of their college and department tenure committees.
Donald Moores, one of the professors up for tenure, said he has already lined up nearly two dozen students and colleagues to speak on his behalf at the Kean Board of Trustees meeting on Saturday.
“This is my last-ditch appeal,” said Moores, an assistant professor of English.
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New Jersey college graduates rank 8th in the U.S. for student loan debt
By Alex Napoliello/NJ.com
New Jersey now ranks eighth in the country in terms of the highest amount of loan debt owed by its graduates, according to a new report released Wednesday.
The average debt owed by New Jersey college graduates in 2012 was $29,287, according to the Project on Student Debt 2012. That’s up from an average of $27,610 in 2011 and $23,792 in 2010.
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How much are Rutgers, NJIT spending on sports? Commission launches database
By Kelly Heyboer/ The Star-Ledger
NEW BRUNSWICK — The Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics unveiled a searchable database today that gives the public a glimpse into how much state colleges are spending on sports.
The database — called the Athletic and Academic Spending Database for NCAA Division I – details academic, athletic and football spending data at more than 220 public Division 1 colleges. The information comes from several publicly-available reports.
[…]
At Rutgers University, annual academic sending increased 12 percent per student (from $19,509 to $21,930) between 2005 and 2011, according to the database. Meanwhile, Rutgers increased spending on athletics by 106 percent per athlete (from $48,037 to $98,997) during the same time period.
The database also includes information on Rutgers’ spending on football scholarships, coaching salaries, instructional spending and debt on facilities.
Similar information is also available for New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark, which is a Division 1 school without a football team. In 2011, NJIT spent $16,029 per student on academic spending while spending $41,902 per athlete on athletics, according to the database.
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Press release: Faculty & Librarians Vote ‘No Confidence’ in Kean University Academic Leadership
Allegations of plagiarism, academically unsound tenure denials cited in 96% rejection
UNION, NJ…Kean Federation of Teachers President Dr. James Castiglione announced the overwhelming results of a 96 percent no confidence vote in Kean University Vice President of Academic Affairs Dr. Jeffrey Toney’s leadership and the entire Office of Academic Affairs after a voting period ended Wednesday night. Despite his short service, Dr. Castiglione said Dr. Toney has amassed an unfortunate record of academic integrity scandals, has instituted policies that have jeopardized academics at Kean and used unsound academic judgment in rejecting 90% of candidates applying for tenure this year.
In October Dr. Toney recommended denial of tenure to nine of ten candidates, despite unanimous recommendations affirming they earned tenure from their colleagues on departmental and college tenure committees. Both the KFT union and the Faculty Senate have called upon the Kean Board of Trustees to respect the faculty recommendations at their meeting this Saturday in Ocean County and affirm tenure for the candidates. “Tenure is the result of a rigorous peer review process,” said Castiglione. “Those who have been continually reappointed until their tenure year and recommended by their departments should be granted tenure.” Dr. Castiglione further opined that Dr. Toney’s decision to override the majority of tenure decisions without stated reasons “is yet another indication that Kean University management operates without academic integrity and has little respect for the basic tenets of shared academic governance.”
More recently, the University was embroiled in scandal when it was alleged by the union that Associate Vice President of Academic Affairs Katerina Andriotis had plagiarized nine out of 15 pages of an enrollment report verbatim from sources on the Internet. The day after the union brought a complaint Andriotis was no longer employed at Kean. In Dr. Castiglione’s opinion the blatant plagiarism of Dr. Toney’s second-in-command “is testament to the culture of academic fraud that pervades university administration under his leadership,” said Castiglione. “We teach our students to be ethical and scrupulous, and we expect our university officials to uphold higher, not lower, standards.”
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