Farahi who? Never heard of him

Letters from schools show no record of Kean president’s publication claims

By Cheryl Hehl, Staff Writer

Kean University President Darwood Farahi is being investigated by the university’s board of trustees amid allegations that he falsified his academic credentials.

A copy of a letter dated Dec. 16 obtained by LocalSource from Kean Board of Trustees Chair Ada Morell to Kean Federation of Teachers President James Castiglione backed up that the board was reviewing information the union provided at the end of November.

“The letters raise serious issues and have been referred to the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees for handling,” Morell said in her letter to Castiglione, stressing that “at the conclusion of the executive committee’s review, the board will determine what action, if any, is appropriate.”

Morell’s response to Castiglione occurred after the union president had to send a follow-up letter Dec. 13 urging the board to respond to the “serious allegations of potential academic fraud” leveled Nov. 29 by the union about Farahi.

In that letter Castiglione called on the board to order a “complete investigation” of their own into Farahi’s academic credentials.

“Given the seriousness of the allegations and the potential damage to the university, it is incumbent on the board to have an independent academic investigation and address these claims without delay,” the union president said.

LocalSource broke this story online Dec. 9 and in print Dec. 15, noting that the teachers union supplied the Kean Board of Trustees with considerable information supporting their claim that Farahi had falsified his academic credentials.

Among the allegedly bogus claims investigated by the Kean Federation of Teachers included Farahi’s claims on his resume that he published over 50 technical articles in major publications. However, after extensive searches of scholarly databases in and out of state, the faculty union found no evidence to support the university president’s claims.

Also, many of the claims have been refuted by editors of these journals.

Monday LocalSource obtained copies of three letters the faculty teachers union received from editors who were asked to substantiate Farahi’s publication claims.

Among those responding was the managing editor of the Administrative Science Quarterly, at Cornell University, a publication Farahi said previously published two of his papers, “Patterns of Administrative Efficiency” and “Fiscal Control and Budget Policy.” The editor, though, had no record of his publication with them.

“ASQ has never published an article by Dawood Farahi, nor have we ever accepted an article by Dawood Farahi that has not yet been published. Your search of the bibliographic records for this journal were correct,” Linda Johnson, managing editor of the Science Quarterly said in a letter dated Dec. 12, 2011.

Likewise, Management Science, a publication by the University of Pennsylvania, also had no record that they ever published anything by Farahi. More importantly, Editor in Chief Gerard P. Cachon noted that the title of the paper, “Patterns of Administrative Efficiency” would not have appeared in their publication because “we never accept a paper that we know appears in another journal.”

Farahi listed this particular paper “Patterns of Administrative Efficiency” as being published  in multiple publications, including Management Science.

James L. Perry, Editor in Chief of  Public Administration Review, a publication produced by Yonsei University, Bloomington, Indiana, also responded that they “did not find anything” published in their review by Farahi, despite claims by the Kean president that this review published a paper entitled “Determining your MIS needs.”

The faculty union also alleges that Farahi claimed on his resume in 2003 that he served as acting academic dean from 1976 to 1983 at Avila College, Kansas City, Missouri, but that also could not be substantiated.

Farahi, who earns $293,000 annually, has been embroiled in a series of issues since he was hired in 2003 that have plagued his presidency. One of the issues is that the state university debt soared from $48 million to $357 million under his leadership.

Last week in a Wall Street Journal article, Farahi denied the allegations saying they were fueled by “hate, prejudice and greed.”

“This is another in a long line of personal attacks that they have leveled,” the statement in the Wall Street Journal from Farahi read, “all because I have asked them to come to work, do their jobs and earn their paychecks.”

In 2010, Moody’s, the credit rating agency, gave the university a stable outlook, but stressed that they were concerned about Kean’s rapidly rising debt service requirements.

The Kean University Federation of Teachers, which number 480 professors, professional staff and librarians, also have charged the Afghanistan native, whom sources have alleged has strong connections to Democrat Senator Ray Lesniak, of risking the university’s accreditation.

In June 2011 Kean was warned that they could lose their accreditation for failing to measure student progress or their own institution’s effectiveness.

The Middle States Commission on higher Education, the group that accredits colleges and universities in New Jersey and other mid-atlantic states, cited Kean for not having adequate systems to assess whether students are meeting goals.

At the time Castiglione said that the faculty union had been warning for years that the administration was not being transparent and accreditation may be in jeopardy.

In Castiglione’s letter to Kean board trustees Nov. 29, the faculty union president touched on this particular issue once again.

“Given President Farahi’s dismal record on accreditation issues —the warning from Middle States — and other cresting scandals such as the NCAA investigation, the University cannot afford another scandal undermining institutional integrity,” Castiglione said.

The 156-year-old school has 16,000 students. Between 2006 and 2010 the student body grew 46 percent, according to records obtained by LocalSource. However, when compared with other state universities, including The College of New Jersey, Montclair State University, Rowan University, Ramapo College, and New Jersey City University, the student to full-time faculty ratio is considerably greater.

While the above state universities average anywhere from 20 to 35 to 1, Kean’s average is 49 to 1.