By Kelly Heyboer/ The Star-Ledger
UNION TOWNSHIP — In an unusual move that is stirring up campus protests, Kean University’s administration is recommending denying tenure to six of nine eligible faculty members this year even though most say they have spotless records.
The professors, who are all in their fifth year of employment at the Union Township-based public university, are set to go before the Kean board of trustees next month for what was expected to be a routine tenure vote.
Tenure, which is designed to protect academic freedom, is essentially a permanent contract and means a faculty member cannot be fired except under extreme circumstances. Under Kean’s system, professors and administrators in tenure-track positions are usually granted tenure after a five-year probation period.
The trustees vote on tenure after each faculty member receives endorsements from their departments, colleges and the university provost’s office.
But this year eight of the nine professors and administrators up for tenure received brief letters from Kean Provost Jeffrey Toney last month saying they would not be recommended for tenure at the Dec. 7 trustees meeting, campus officials said.
Kean President Dawood Farahi overturned two of the recommendations last week after an appeal, university officials said. But he upheld the negative recommendations on the remaining six faculty members even though union officials said most had stellar records and received unanimous endorsements from tenure committees in their departments and colleges.
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