Problems over Kean’s president still linger

By Cheryl Hehl, Staff Writer

Serious irregularities have been found in the way the Kean Board of Trustees handled the vote to retain President Dawood Farahi several weeks ago.

Although it has been several weeks since the board gave their vote of confidence to Farahi in a 7 to 5 vote, students and the faculty union have not given up efforts to see the university president removed.

In the last few weeks, the KFT discovered board trustee Linda Lewis, who voted for Farahi to stay on as president, has been employed by Kean University as an adjunct professor since 2005. They maintain that this is a serious ethical problem that must be addressed by the board.

Based on this information faculty members notified the New Jersey State Ethics Commission in late February to report this and other issues. Upon hearing the charges, an immediate investigation was launched by the commission into whether Lewis had a conflict of interest in voting to keep Farahi as president of the university, according to a commission spokesperson.

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