UNION TOWNSHIP — Applicants for two top staff positions at Kean University’s new campus in China should be members of the Communist Party, according to job postings on the university’s website that are drawing criticism from union officials.
Wenzhou-Kean University, a satellite campus the public university launched in 2012 in a partnership with the Chinese government, recently posted advertisements for 30 positions on its website.
“Membership in the Chinese Communist Party is preferred,” according to the job postings for two of the positions — Specialist for Residence Life and Specialist for Student Conduct. Both of the posts are non-academic jobs that include close contact with students on the Wenzhou campus, who are mostly Chinese students taking classes in English to earn Kean degrees.
Union officials on Kean’s New Jersey campus said the job listings raise questions about the academic freedom on the satellite campus. The applications for other non-academic positions on the China campus also ask applicants to list their political affiliation, a question that would be illegal on an American job application.
“I believe this is an extremely serious issue and that the Senate and Assembly Higher Education and Labor Committees should hold hearings on all expenses and labor practices as related to Wenzhou-Kean,” said Tim Haresign, president of the Council of New Jersey State College Locals.
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The hiring on the China campus comes as Kean is preparing to lay off workers on its New Jersey campus, union officials said. University officials notified the local American Federation of Teachers union that they are preparing to eliminate 30 professional staff positions.
“The impending professional staff layoffs will undermine important services for our neediest students even while the university continues to raise the tuition and fees that they are required to pay,” said James Castiglione, a professor and president of the Kean Federation of Teachers, the faculty union.
Kean also recently eliminated more than 50 maintenance worker positions when it outsourced its cleaning work to a private firm that had the option to rehire the workers in non-union jobs.
Kean’s unions have a long history of clashing with Kean President Dawood Farahi and his administration. In recent years, the union has raised questions about error in Farahi’s resume and the university’s purchase of a $219,000 conference table and equipment from a Chinese manufacturer.
Union officials have also questioned the unusual agreement to open the Wenzhou campus, which is largely financed by the Chinese government but has American accreditation because of its ties to Kean in New Jersey.
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