By Cheryl Hehl, Staff Writer
UNION — The Kean University Board of Trustees may have thought the volatile issue surrounding President Dawood Farahi was resolved after they voted last month to keep him aboard as president, but the repercussions appear far from over.
Among issues surfacing in the last two weeks included a board of trustee member who voted against the board president resigning, a dean allegedly fired for not joining his peers in supporting Farahi, and the Middle States Commission on Higher Education adding “integrity” to the growing list of things the university must address in order to receive accreditation.
According to credible sources, trustee Lester Aron, an attorney and general counsel for the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, who has been on the Kean board since 2000, resigned in the last week.
Aron, who voted against Farahi being kept as president, has been the general counsel for UMDNJ since 2007. Although efforts were made to contact the former board member to find out whether he resigned as a result of the controversy over Farahi, Aron did not return calls by press time.
Also occurring after the board of trustees voted was the firing of Kean’s College of Humanities and Social Studies Dean Kenneth Dollarhide.
According to a faculty member working directly with those involved, Dollarhide was “fired” as dean and remanded back to a regular faculty teaching position after he refused to join fellow deans in signing a letter of support for Farahi.
Tuesday LocalSource was able to confirm that Dollarhide refused to sign the letter and was “warned” there would be repercussions as a result of not signing the letter.
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