'Operating at a loss' for words

Despite repeated requests, Farahi is silent, but sources say he’s active

By Cheryl Hehl, Staff Writer

Controversy surrounding Kean President Dawood Farahi continues to mount. Last week there was confirmation of additional inaccuracies, extravagant spending of taxpayer dollars and evidence this politically connected president is attempting to gain control of the situation.

Despite efforts to contact Farahi about the allegations that have surfaced, neither he nor the university relations personnel have responded to repeated requests for interviews.

University faculty, students and alumni have continued to provide a steady stream of information to LocalSource concerning Farahi, his resumes, political connections and  aggressive spending of millions in taxpayer dollars. However, most, if not all, are hesitant about going on the record with their names because of possible retaliation from the university president once described by Democrat Senator Ray Lesniak as “a benevolent dictator.”

According to a source within Farahi’s offices, the university president canceled an annual meeting with the University Promotion Committee scheduled for Jan. 26.

This meeting is where Farahi compares his rankings of those faculty members up for promotion with the rankings of the committee. 

After this meeting was abruptly canceled, other sources reported that the Kean University Board of Trustees Executive Committee called an emergency meeting for the following day at 3:15 p.m.

Although Kean Board of Trustee head Ada Morell was seen entering the administration building at 3 p.m. on Friday, there has been no definitive confirmation as to what transpired at this meeting. Nor has their been any media release from the executive committee confirming when their investigation into the Kean Federation of Teachers’ allegations that Farahi falsified his academic credentials.

In December when the KFT levied allegations about the credibility of Farahi’s academic credentials, it was substantiated with documentation and supporting letters from publications. Last week, additional evidence surfaced which suggests that Farahi and not Kean staff were responsible for the “errors” or falsifications on his resumes.

KFT obtained a copy of an original bound edition of the Self-Study Report that was submitted to the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration which provided accreditation in 1987 for the masters of the public administration program at Kean.

On documents submitted to NASPAA, the university president said that he published a particular paper on his own. However, there is now evidence this report was actually authored by a colleague, with Farahi assisting.

This evidence provided further proof, KFT said, that Farahi’s academic credentials are more than skewed on his resumes.

Farahi said on most of his resumes that he alone published “Patterns in Administrative Efficiency,” in 1981, but on a 2002 resume the  president had to submit for Kean accreditation, he put that he “assisted” in the preparation of this self-study document, not authored.

In the very first bullet point of this resume, under the heading of “Chair of the Department of Public Administration,” Farahi writes that he “assisted Dr. Eleanor Laudicina with the first self-study of the MPA program, which received national accreditation in 1987, the first public university in New Jersey to be so recognized.”

As previously noted in the Jan. 12 edition of LocalSource, Farahi claimed this particular paper was published by him alone on several resumes, never mentioning Laudicina’s involvement, or that he “assisted.”

The fact that Farahi never had this particular paper, or any other, published in Management Science under his own name was previously substantiated by the Editor in Chief Gerard P. Cachon in early January.

He responded to a KFT inquiry asking if Farahi had ever published “Patterns of Administrative Efficiency” with  them. However,   Cachon noted that this university press publishes everything accepted and would never publish anything appearing in another journal.

This was among 50 such claims of publications that could not be substantiated by KFT through database searches in and out of state.

Meanwhile, according to Kean sources, who preferred their names not be used, Farahi is focusing on obtaining the resume he used to  apply for NASPAA accreditation. 

Sources said Kean University Media Relations Spokesperson Mathew Caruso was sent by Farahi to NASPAA Jan. 6 to retrieve Kean’s accreditation documents. 

These documents, sources said, contain a Farahi resume where the university president claims he was acting dean at Avila College and had published papers in over 50 periodicals. This information was released by KFT in December with a request that the Kean Board of Trustees initiate an investigation.

Later that month the Kean Board of Trustees announced they had retained  independent counsel, McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter of Morristown, to investigate the allegations “in a thorough and comprehensive way,” according to a statement released by board chairwoman Ada Morell two weeks ago.

But while Morell indicated that the Morristown legal team was an independent firm hired specifically to handle the Farahi investigation, it appears this is not the case.

According to a resolution passed by the Board of Trustees on June 29, 2009, the board actually retained the firm of McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter at that time for $215 per hour to represent them in contract negotiations with the Kean Federation of Teachers union.

In addition, the resolution authorizing the president to hire special legal counsel to assist the university labor-related matter states, “That the Board of Trustees approves the President’s recommendation to hire McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter, LLP.” Simply put, the firm hired to investigate Farahi was previously recommended to the board by Farahi.

And, on Sept. 12, 2011 the Kean board signed a resolution approving the waiver of public advertising and bidding for specific legal services, including McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter among two other legal firms that were to be paid not more than $116,000.

Another faculty member also called the group that handles the Morris Abrams award, which Farahi claimed he received on multiple resumes, and at multiple times. This award is given to the best dissertation in political science.

On one resume he submitted for the position of president of Kean University in 2003, he said he received the Morris Abrams award in 1975, while on others, 1977.

The faculty member making these inquiries was told that there is no record of Farahi ever receiving this award in 1975 or 1977.

This faculty member was told that they were the second person in a matter of days that had inquired whether Farahi received the award. The first, according to sources, was Matthew Caruso, the Kean University Relations spokesperson.

It was also reported by Kean administrative staff that a “group of people” went to the public administration building recently and took all the documents involving Farahi,” including his resume. All the documents obtained, sources said, were  brought to Farahi at his request.