Category Archives: Press Clips

Standardized tests: a blessing or a curse?

February 19, 2012

[...]

Donna Chiera, current president of the American Federation of Teachers New Jersey and the Perth Amboy Federation, the union chapter representing school staff in that city, would change how the New Jersey ASK tests are given.

She says it’s wrong to have young children sitting at their desk for an hour or more for a single test period and doing that every day for an entire week.

If she could change something about New Jersey’s standardized tests for elementary and middle school students, foremost it would be to space the tests out and not jam them all into the window of a few days with a few long test sessions once a year.

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Christie plan for university reshuffling means another chapter for Rowan

January 30, 2012

GLASSBORO — Twenty years ago, Rowan University’s reputation was synonymous with its teachers college, which prepared hundreds of elementary and special education instructors for South Jersey classrooms each year.

Rowan

Tony Kurdzuk/The Star-LedgerThe Cooper Medical School of Rowan University is currently under construction in Camden. The building will house the first new medical school on the state in 30 years.

Back then, the school in Glassboro was known as Glassboro State College, and students looking for a bustling college town with a robust nightlife or a research institution with endless courses of study had to look elsewhere.

The run-down Gloucester County college town, once buoyed by a glass-manufacturing industry, was surrounded by peach orchards and featured two pizza joints, one bar and a lot of empty storefronts. The closest movie theater was 15 minutes away in Deptford.

Today, Rowan is a school transformed.

A $100 million gift in the early 1990s by engineer and businessman Henry Rowan kick-started a revival of both college and town, and a plan Gov. Chris Christie unveiled last week to dramatically change the state’s university system means another restructuring is on the way.

Christie’s plan calls for Rowan to take over the nearby Camden campus of Rutgers University, including its law and business schools. The plan also allows Rowan to maintain control of its new medical school, which is set to open in September.
[...]
Not everyone is convinced about the benefits of the restructuring plan. Rutgers-Camden’s faculty union released a statement condemning the plan to strip the campus of its Rutgers title.

The union instead called on legislators to endorse a “consortium model” that would allow Rutgers Camden and Rowan to share some services while maintaining their distinction.

“The loss of the Rutgers brand name for South Jersey, and the unnecessary costs of merger, would do more harm than good,” said Patrick Nowlan, executive director of the Rutgers AAUP-AFT.

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Kean president says resume errors were made by university staff

January 23, 2012

By Nic Corbett/The Star-Ledger

Kean University President Dawood Farahi

Daniel Hedden/For the Star-Ledger. Kean University President Dawood Farahi speaks during a class about how citizens can respond to threats of terrorist activity in this 2004 file photo. Farahi has admitted there were errors on his resumes, but says they were not his fault.

UNION — While the governing board at Kean University has launched an investigation about false claims on his resume, university president Dawood Farahi has acknowledged for the first time that some mistakes were made.

In a recent interview, Farahi said even though there were some errors listed on past resumes, he was not responsible. Farahi said the inaccuracies, including claims that he had been acting academic dean at Avila College in Missouri and that he published “over 50 technical articles in major publications,” were made by staff members at Kean who helped prepare his resume for routine accreditation reviews at the university in 1994, 2001 and 2008.

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Kean Mutiny: Faculty wants outside probe of school president

January 22, 2012

Bob Ingle

Bob Ingle

Kean University’s full time faculty and professional staff union is calling on Gov. Christie to investigate allegations that Kean President Dawood Farahi falsified his credentials dating back to his employment application in 1982. In a news release, the union said, “Under Dr. Farahi’s failed leadership, New Jersey’s third-largest university has closed academic departments, laid-off critical student advisors, reduced the number of full-time faculty and increased tuition and fees to pay for debt that has skyrocketed over 600 per cent.” The staff is calling it “Soprano State University.”

Yeah, but he hired former Gov. Jim McGreevey to teach ethics at the Union County school. That was a get, wasn’t it? Doesn’t that afford Kean bragging rights over Princeton?

Credentials are taken very seriously in academic circles. There should be an investigation that includes people from other colleges who understand academia to clear the air once and for all. This could be settled easily by producing the documents in question or evidence he accomplished what he said he did. There is a lot at stake. Loss of academic accreditation could make Kean degrees worthless.

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Kean U. Board Investigates Allegations About President

January 10, 2012

The board of Kean University is investigating allegations of false statements on the résumé of Dawood Farahi, the president, The Wall Street Journal reported. The faculty union at Kean has questioned whether Farahi falsely claimed to have written more than 50 articles, including some allegedly published in journals that do not exist. Professors at Kean have had numerous conflicts with Farahi, and have charged that he does not respect the faculty role in governance, and that his priorities don’t reflect academic needs at the New Jersey institution. A statement from Farahi denied the allegations and said that they were motivated by “hate, prejudice and greed.”

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Kean U. Board Investigates President Over Alleged Spurious Credentials

January 10, 2012

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.

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Newark’s First Foray into Teacher Evaluation Pilot, with Teachers Front and Center

December 14, 2011

[...] Newark is one of 11 districts in the state piloting a controversial plan led by Gov. Chris Christie that would more closely tie teacher evaluation — and potentially tenure — to student achievement.

And while plenty of controversy remains, several in the group last night said they appreciated at least being included in the process, no small thing in a state-operated district that has not always held such trust between teachers and administration.

One vote of appreciation, if not full confidence, came from the union leaders that up until then had been lukewarm and even hostile to the plans.

“You seem to be more open and willing to different stakeholders,” said Cheryl Skeete, executive vice president of the American Federation of Teachers NJ, the umbrella organization for the Newark Teachers Union.

“It seems more well-rounded than earlier when we were told it was only one way,” she told Anderson’s staff. “That should help in getting more buy-in.”

That should mean something. The NTU has openly opposed the pilot as it stood up till now, surely contributing to the fact that not one of the district’s 80-plus schools voted to join the pilot in its first year. That left just seven schools included, all of them as a condition of large federal grants.

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The lying king of Kean

December 12, 2011

Teacher’s union alleges school president falsified credentials

By Cheryl Hehl, Staff Writer

Kean University President Dawood Farahi allegedly falsified his academic credentials in a series of deliberate misrepresentations prior to being hired in 2003, according to a recent letter sent to the Kean University Board of Trustees.

The Kean Federation of Teachers, which is calling for an independent investigation by the university board of trustees, supplied the information in a letter dated Nov. 29 to the board president, a copy of which LocalSource obtained.

According to James Castiglione, president of the Kean Federation of Teachers, a source close to the board of trustees indicated they preferred conducting an in-house investigation before this information became public. However, there has been no confirmation the board immediately launched an investigation or how they plan to address the latest controversy involving the president of this state university.

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Raritan Valley Community College professors concerned about possible pay freeze

December 11, 2011

By Eugene Paik/The Star-Ledger

RVCC

Matt Rainey/The Star-LedgerA 2007 file photo of the West Building at Raritan Valley Community College. The College is debating a pay freeze for professors next year as part of a two-year deal.

BRANCHBURG — If Raritan Valley Community College has its way in a labor dispute with faculty, at least one professor may have trouble making ends meet.

It won’t just mean skimping on restaurant dinners or cutting back on vacations, said Mark Cozin, 63, a sociology and anthropology professor. He said he may have to pick up a second job just to pay his bills.

“I know I’m going to be worrying about things that will take away from what I can do in my discipline,” he said.

It’s a worry floating around the campus in Branchburg in the sixth month of a stalemate over a faculty contract.

At issue is a pay freeze in the first year of a proposed two-year deal, said Maria Defilippis, president of the faculty union, which represents both full-time and part-time teachers.

A 2 percent raise is reportedly included in the second year, but Defilippis said it’s not enough because teachers must contribute more toward health benefits — including 1.5 percent of their salaries next year.

That could set the salaries of young teachers lower than those given to their peers at other community colleges, Defilippis said, and possibly scare off talented educators.

“I don’t think we’re asking for the moon,” Defilippis said.

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RVCC faculty want only fair cost-of-living increase

December 09, 2011

Written by
Stephen Kaufman

Your Nov. 8 article, “RVCC professors won’t give up annual salary raises,”was misleading, unfair and uninformed in several ways. The American Federation of Teachers is not asking for a raise, but rather for a fair cost of living adjustment. The administration has budgeted zero percent for faculty salaries, which in fact translates to a salary reduction as a result of recent changes in health care and pension packages. As those changes continue, so will the reductions in our salary.

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