The Middle States Commission on Higher Education has recently put Kean University on academic probation. This is the New Jersey school that got into trouble earlier this year when it turned out the president had put some significant lies on his resume.
According to an article by Kelly Heyboer in The Star-Ledger:
Last July, the commission cited Kean for not having adequate systems to assess whether students and the school are meeting goals. The school was given until March to correct the problems, submit a report and undergo another inspection by a team of Middle States investigators.
But the spring inspection did not go well. Instead of finding Kean had corrected its problems, the inspection team cited additional violations.
The report identified 15 problems for the school to address, including failure to create “an institutional climate that fosters respect among students, faculty, staff, and administration.” Heyboer:
[Last] Monday, Middle States placed Kean on probation, saying it violated the group’s standards related to integrity, institutional assessment, general education and assessment of student learning, according to the commission’s report.
Kean is not reacting gracefully to this news.
University president Dawood Farahi (the questionable resume guy) and the university’s board president, Ada Morell, issued a joint statement saying that “Middle States has repeatedly violated its own procedures in order to follow a staff-driven agenda that is detrimental to our students and taxpayers.”
Well yes, but perhaps an institutional climate that fails to foster respect among students, faculty, staff, and administration might be rather more detrimental to students and New Jersey taxpayers.
