By Cheryl Hehl, Staff Writer
Although there is a firestorm surrounding Kean University President Dawood Farahi and whether he lied on his resumes or not, the smoking gun might be found in how the school compares to other New Jersey state universities.
After remaining mum on the entire issue revolving around allegations by the Kean University Federation of Teachers that the university president falsified his academic credentials, Farahi admitted last week in a Star-Ledger interview that some errors were made on his resumes.
However, the university president, who was appointed in 2003 at a salary of $293,000 plus benefits along with longevity bonuses that individually tally $200,000, placed the blame on Kean staff members who helped prepare his resume for routine accreditation reviews.
But, it appears some of the errors Farahi blamed on staff members actually can be traced back to 1983 when the former Union County consultant was applying for his first position at Kean. This means he was responsible for the contents of his original resume.
For example, both the letter and the Kean application completed and signed by Farahi in 1982 have the same inconsistencies brought out last week in a LocalSource article examining all six known resumes used by the university president in the past.
In the 1982 letter and resume Farahi used to apply to Kean, he noted he had tenured status at Avila College, but not that he was an academic dean. However, in a 2008 Curriculum Vitae the university president submitted, under the heading of “Other University Experience,” Farahi said he served as Acting Academic Dean,” at Avila College.
Also confusing is that Farahi lists a Fullbright-Hays Scholarship on all his resumes from 1972 to 1974, the same time he maintains he was at the University of Kansas studying for a political science degree.
At question is whether Farahi, a naturalized citizen who immigrated to the United States in 1972 as a college student was actually eligible for the Fullbright-Hays Scholarship.
According to the U.S. Department of Education, the Fullbright Scholarship specifically sends U.S. citizens abroad “but does not provide reciprocal opportunities for international scholars to visit the United States.”
While Farahi appears to have a long history of poor academic record keeping or not examining his own resumes prepared by Kean staff members, coincidently Kean University has developed a similar record of setting poor academic standards.
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