Kean president’s contract extension gives school a chance to put problems behind it

By Mark Di Ionno/Star-Ledger Columnist

Kean University president Dawood Farahi got a five-year extension from the school’s board of trustees, surviving several controversies including a near-miss with the group that does college accrediting.

He’s been at war with some faculty, demanding professors put in more hours on campus, and even teach weekend classes to give working adults who want to return to school more options.

Farahi is brusque and may rub some people the wrong way. But his passion and ambition for the university can not be questioned. The physical improvements to the campus over his tenure, including to athletic facilities, are remarkable. He started a successful student-run tutoring center, providing jobs for some very bright kids, and giving others a better chance to succeed.

His acquisition of the Kean family’s Liberty Hall, and willingness to make the university caretaker of its vast archives, puts Kean in an extraordinary position to be a research center for American history, from the Revolution on. This is the Dawood Farahi I know.

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