UNION — A group of more than 50 people marched in the bitter cold on Martin Luther King Jr. Day outside state Sen. Raymond Lesniak’s office in the second of a series of protests demanding changes at Kean University.
The group was led by Rev. Ron Slaughter of St. James AME Church in Newark, who has been outspoken since November about what he calls “structural racism” at Kean and has been calling for the resignation of University President Dawood Farahi.
Slaughter has since pivoted the group’s attention to Sen. Lesniak, a close ally of Farahi, who he feels is protecting the controversial president.
“By you standing today you are refusing to be silent over the situation at Kean University, and this senator who is not only benefiting from it, but also protecting the incompetent administration of Dawood Farahi. He is protecting structural racism, he is protecting gender discrimination, he is protecting the hiring of adjunct professors more than the tenured professors,” Slaughter said as he looked up to the signage bearing Lesniak’s name. “No other senator is more involved in a state funded institution than state Senator Raymond Lesniak.”
[…]Slaughter and his coalition of black ministers have several grievances with Kean and Farahi, especially claiming the school admits at-risk students but has cut support services and faculty who help them succeed. They also say that money that could be spent to support students is instead funneled into “vanity projects” and expensive new buildings.
Rev. Ron Slaughter says the Twitter threats were only the tipping point for the coalition’s concerns with Kean President Dawood Farahi.
Kean Federation of Teachers President James Castiglione, who has echoed those same concerns for years, also addressed the group Monday.
“The university has become structurally aligned against the interests of our majority minority students,” Castiglione said at his turn on the megaphone while his young daughter held a sign. “When you look at Kean University what you see is a lack of full-time faculty in the classroom. You see a lack of advisors for the students. You see a lack of student support services and student support personnel. Our students are being denied the quality of education that their peers are getting at sister institutions around the state.”
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