Political playground: Higher education in New Jersey

By Cheryl Hehl, Staff Writer

Late in 2007 a broad probe of  New Jersey colleges and universities showed the entire system was vulnerable to abuse. Serious shortcomings in accountability, transparency and outright violations of public trust were found, not to mention political influence.

When the State of New Jersey Commission of Investigation launched this probe, the storm centered on the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Rutgers University and two others. 

But while those who worked on this investigation fully expected their findings would elicit the changes needed, that has not happened. It does, though, explain why universities, like Kean, are able to do whatever they choose, with little chance of state reprisal.

The State of New Jersey Commission of Investigation said after UMDNJ was cleaned up, it would be “a dangerously premature conclusion” to think the worst is over for our state universities and colleges.

Kean University has been in the middle of a firestorm raised by the Kean Federation of Teachers union. They have produced documentation that they believe proves that Kean University President Dawood Farahi falsified his academic credentials. There is also strong evidence of the president’s connection to powerful State Sen. Ray Lesniak who represents portions of Union County. But while this placed Farahi’s credibility and ability to lead in question, the state has little or no say over the issue.

The commission, in its 189-page report, stressed that piecemeal changes to higher education in the state would be a “grossly inadequate strategy” in the face of the complex problems they found during their investigation of the state’s colleges and universities.

These investigators also stressed it would be naive to believe the problems discovered were not “well beyond the narrow confines of a single institution.”

The report pointed out that unless the state is willing to tolerate the risk of history repeating itself at one of the other state universities or colleges, “reform is the only sensible and responsible course of action.” But with no legislation in effect that legally allows the state to provide oversight, universities and colleges can do what they want educationally, financially and politically. And without interference.

This was evidenced recently when the Kean Federation of Teachers called on the governor to conduct an independent investigation regarding Farahi falsifying his credentials. Although in December the Kean Board of Trustees agreed to investigate this matter on their own, there has been no indication what the result was from this inquiry.

So how did it come about that the state universities and colleges have free reign to do what they want?

During the 30-year period from the late 1960s to the 1990s, New Jersey’s system of public higher education underwent a profound transformation from one of the most centralized and heavily regulated in the United States to one of the least.

It all began in the mid 1960s.

After considerable debate over the need for a unified structure for publically funded higher education, the legislature enacted the Higher Education Act of 1966. That statute established a cabinet level Department of Higher Education, administered by a chancellor and directed by a statewide board of higher education.

This board exercised direct and complete control over the governing and operation of the state’s nine senior colleges and universities. They also played a pivotal role in approving budgets, making appointments of key officers and the setting of tuition levels. But that soon changed.

A decade later the tide began to shift as educators and policymakers determined that this type of state control was too restrictive. At that point measures were taken so colleges and universities had more independence.

In 1986 Gov. Thomas Kean signed legislation allowing colleges and universities greater authority in a number of areas, including the ability to appoint chief executives on their own without approval by the chancellor.

It also allowed individual boards of trustees to negotiate contracts without the Department of Higher Education signing off on them. They also were able to accept grants, borrow money and deal with managerial and professional personnel outside state Civil Service regulations. That was the beginning of colleges and universities having complete autonomy.

Eight years later the state went even further. In March 1994, shortly after taking office, Gov. Christine Todd Whitman proposed as part of her first annual budget message to the legislature that the department of higher education, the officer of chancellor and the Board of Higher Education be eliminated.

Whitman felt taxpayers would save millions of dollars by cutting this “excessive bureaucracy.” She also called it a “first step” in making government smaller but smarter. That would later backfire when university administrators realized they could do what they wanted with no one from the state watching.

Under Whitman’s plan, which within months won legislative approval, the state’s role was basically reduced to research and policy under the new title of the Commission of Higher Education.

The implications of these changes was significant from practical and political standpoints. For one thing, the state no longer had any control and oversight over any essential aspect of the administrative and financial operations of its public colleges and universities.

The real clincher was that although the Commission on Higher Education was empowered by statute to conduct inquiries into the affairs of state colleges and universities, that power could only be invoked at the direct request of the governor. And that has only occurred once in the history of this newer system and not at all during the upheaval surrounding UMDNJ several years ago.

Monday, Randi Weingarten, the American Federation of Teachers President rallied the 1.5 million strong countrywide teacher’s union behind the Kean Federation of Teachers, urging Gov. Chris Christie to launch an independent investigation of Farahi.

Whether Christie steps in remains to be seen because according to law, each university board of trustees has all the power, not the  governor, or the state.

Specifically, under the new structure established in 1994, the boards of trustees of each college or university could recommend prospective trustees without any screening or input by an oversight authority.

For all practical purposes, the state’s role was reduced to one of promotional advocacy and policy discussion while each college or university took on the task of self-governing themselves. Each board of trustees, through the administrators they hire, has direct authority over all matters concerning their institution.

This includes financial affairs, planning, construction, contracts, employment, bonding, borrowing, compensation, tuition and fees, controversies, disputes, and program and degree offerings.

Among those questioning the wisdom of reducing the state’s role so drastically was former Gov. Kean, who was then president of Drew University. He warned that any structure for higher education needed to provide for a “statewide system of accountability and responsibility.”

Then president of Princeton Harold Shapiro warned prophetically that complete deregulation could expose the state college and university operations to “the unbridled intrusion of politics.”

Like other special interests, public institutions of higher education hire lobbyists to gain direct access to those in positions of political power to open doors otherwise closed to them.

In recent years, politics and mega-political players, like Sen.  Lesniak, have become increasingly involved in the appointment of public college and university board of trustees. In 2010, the KFT alleged that Farahi put Lesniak’s relatives in high paying jobs.

In November an investigation by LocalSource revealed Lesniak got his sister Margaret Devanney what sources have called a “no-show job” at Kean for $86,800 a year. In addition, Audrey Kelly was hired by the school, earning $129,000 a year since 2004 as the executive assistant to the Kean Board of Trustees. She is the ex-wife of Lesniak’s nephew George Devanney, the former Union county manager who resigned abruptly Aug. 1, 2011.

Prior to 1994, the state Department of Higher Education took an active role in screening and selecting qualified candidates to fill vacancies on state college and university boards. Previously, candidates were interviewed by a special committee established by the board of higher education and a list of the candidates who were judged most qualified was submitted to the governor, who would then make the final selection.

After 2001 when Gov. Jim McGreevey took office, the trustee selection underwent dramatic change, beginning with several first-term trustees not being reappointed, and without explanation of any kind, the report says.

Also, although the Board continued its practices of interviewing and vetting trustee candidates, their nominee submissions began consistently to fall on deaf ears in Trenton. By 2004, the Governor has made four appointments to the Ramapo Board.”

The report also notes that at one point, a sitting member tendered his resignation, “complaining publicly that the Board was being politicized and losing its independence.”

Former Gov. McGreevey currently teaches an ethics course at Kean University.

New Jersey’s system of public higher education has grown dramatically over the last several years, but that growth has come at a price: a price taxpayers ultimately pay for.

The commission investigating New Jersey state colleges and universities found they accumulated some of the heaviest long-term debt loads of any public higher education system in the nation. In fact, current bonded debt obligations carried by the state’s public colleges and universities has nearly quadrupled to $2 billion since 1985. That is only a portion of the anticipated cost after paying back the principal and interest.

Kean, under Farahi’s leadership, falls under this umbrella of university presidents and boards of trustees who approve the expenditure of increasingly heavy debt. In 2003, when he became president, Kean’s debt was around $48 million. Today it is $357 million, and counting.

But public institutions are not required to conduct public hearings prior to issuing bonds for construction. They also are allowed to alter the approved project list, which means universities like Kean can raise their debt level without consulting anyone.

The commission said that history has shown the state’s wholesale disengagement from higher education in 1994 was a mistake. But, by the same token, the report also stressed that it would be unwise “to compound that error by turning back the clock.”

“A balance must be struck for the proper governance and oversight of public higher education without returning to the highly regulated, top-heavy and overly burdensome structure of past state involvement,” the commission noted in their report, adding that autonomy is important and must be retained, but it also must be coupled with effective oversight, accountability and transparency.