OCC, Kean Officials to Meet on Accreditation Issues
Kean University, which has partnered with OCC, has been threatened with a loss of accreditation if issues are not corrected
Officials from Ocean County College are scheduled to sit down today with officials from Kean University to discuss the warning Kean has received about a potential loss of accreditation.
"We're meeting with Kean tomorrow," Carl V. Thulin, chairman of the OCC Board of Trustees, said after the trustees' meeting Monday at the college.
"There is no reason why these issues cannot be addressed," OCC President Jon Larson said. "Our goal is to move it along."
Kean, which has partnered with Ocean County College in the Kean@Ocean program to provide a direct path for OCC students to complete a four-year course of study at the community college's campus, has been placed on probation by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.
That partnership has OCC in the midst of various construction projects, including a $30 million Gateway building to create space at the Toms River campus to accommodate what officials expect will be an influx of students who will look to take advantage of the ability to obtain a bachelor's or even a master's degree without leaving the OCC campus.
During Kean's 10-year accreditation renewal review a year ago, the Middle States commission issued a warning that Kean lacked adequate means to assess whether students and the school itself are meeting goals.
Kean was given until March to correct the issues. Middle States required the university to create "an organized and sustainable assessment process" to evaluate and improve institutional effectiveness, as well as show that feedback is being used to improve programs and services, and assess student achievement for progress and to improve teaching methods, among other issues.
A followup inspection in April by Middle States investigators found some steps were taken, but that much of what was done lacked specifics and evidence, according to the report, which can be found on the Kean website. The followup report laid out specific items to be accomplished and said they must be done by this coming fall.
The April report also identified additional problems to be addressed, including issues relating to integrity and ethics. Kean has had other issues in the last year, including charges that its president, Dawood Farahi, falsified elements of his resume and an NCAA investigation that led to all 13 of its sports programs being placed on probation and the women's basketball team being banned from postseason play for the upcoming year.
Kean was placed on in late June and warned it must take corrective action or lose its accreditation, which would mean students could not transfer credits or degrees elsewhere, making it difficult to pursue graduate degrees. A loss of accreditation would result in Kean students being ineligible for federal financial aid as well.
On its website, Ada Morell, chair of the Kean board of trustees, insists the university is working hard to address the issues raised by the Middle States commission.
"I assure you that each and every faculty, staff and administrator at Kean is working tirelessly to produce results for Middle States that are reflective of our world-class institution," she writes. "When this process is complete, Kean will emerge a stronger university due to the collective efforts of our campus community."
Larson said OCC officials are concerned, but firmly believe the issues will be addressed.
Most of the issues are common problems that arise, Larson said, and easily fixable. "Some of the issues are unusual, but they are fixable," he said.
A lack of response to the issues by Kean is unlikely, he said.
"Losing accreditation is a death sentence," Larson said. "No institution wants to have that happen."
"I have every confidence they (Kean officials) understand that fully," Larson said, and will take the necessary corrective action.
Fedup
9:39 am on Tuesday, July 24, 2012
They should consult Ward 2 Councilman Brian Kubiel, after all he is an expert on obtaining degrees from non-accredited universities.
Victor
4:41 pm on Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Some how being in NJ always makes you think there is a politician behind this with nothing better to do then bother Kean. Kean has been around a long time and has always been a good school. Kids are having a tough enough time with colleges and expenses, don't make it tougher.
Seriously?
7:12 pm on Tuesday, July 24, 2012
But when those kids go out to look for jobs with a Kean degree in hand, the last thing they need is for a potential employer to laugh them out of the room....and that's what will happen if Kean doesn't get its act together. Of course, they have had ten years to fix things, and haven't done so. The college (I can't even call it a "university") has been going downhill for more years than I can count, long before the current president and his problems.
KC
1:30 am on Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Personally, we used to call it "ding-dong" school back in the day. I took a few certificated courses there and was happy that they were there for me at the time when I was working and going to school, but they were NOTHING like where I studied to obtain my bachelors. Just saying.
Truthteln
8:11 am on Wednesday, July 25, 2012
You guessed it. The politician is Senator Lesinak. Without his direct involvement Kean would have fired President Farahi over his resume fraud.OCC is deluding itself if it has confidence in Farahi.Why do people think that those who lie about their resume will only confine their lies there.
So Much to Say
7:54 pm on Tuesday, July 24, 2012
I told my child to find an attorney because if Kean loses their accreditation then the time and money he spent at Kean to date will be a waste. The "degree" will have as much worth as used toilet paper.
CROOKS!!!!!!!!!!.
KC
1:34 am on Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Reply to "Seriously" Thank in part social promotion and the four educational buzz words of the last four decades "Accountability" "Self- Esteem" "Bullying" and the latest one - "Rubrics". Somewhere along the line the myth that every person is college material was perpetrated on the public. This coupled with social promotion of the high schoolers led to a situation where we now have college students who cannot read and write let alone complete real college course work.
ed crowley
8:34 pm on Tuesday, July 24, 2012
The students can just lie it works for the president of Kean. I have not heard any comments from OCC about the bogus resume of the President at Kean.
KC
1:35 am on Wednesday, July 25, 2012
please explain bogus resume
RCL67
9:06 pm on Tuesday, July 24, 2012
I just graduated from Kean. Does this mean my degree is no good, or all degrees going forth ?
S-MAN
7:09 am on Wednesday, July 25, 2012
If you graduated already, your degree is valid. It's only after they lose accreditation that there would be an issue.
William J Moss
9:32 pm on Tuesday, July 24, 2012
As stated above Larson said these things are easy fixable Well why in the He__Haven't they been fixed by now ? The only losers here are the hard working students . It seems the staff don't give a _____ what happens as long as they get paid. Bet you will not lose your accreditation if you lose you pension with it????????
RCL67
2:49 pm on Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Thank you S-Man. Yes, I heard the same thing. As a graduate of Kean, I must say that I had some wonderful , caring professors. Anything I needed, they were there for me. I am proud to of learned from them. As you put it William, if the problems are easy to fix, FIX THEM !!! The board members is so busy looking at the tall skyscraper, they don't see that the foundation is cracking, and it's been cracking for years. Also, another big problem is the administrative staff in Union. If you call them for anything, you get a run around. If you leave a message, no one calls you back. It's horrible. I am surprised that there is not a student rally over this.
SystemIsBroken
11:00 pm on Tuesday, July 24, 2012
At the OCC graduation in 2011, The President of Kean College was the guest speaker. At the time I thought it was a simple shameless plug by the foreign born (rags to riches) Kean President for OCC Graduates to Transfer into Kean.
Farahi took over as Kean president in 2003 and is paid $293000 a year .. and got his undergraduate degree from Afghanistan's Kabul U.... Go Kabul U!!!!!
Kean University’s trustees are holding a public meeting regarding President Dawood Farahi next week. He said there were mistakes on his resume but they were made by other people. James Castiglione, head of Kean’s Federation of Teachers, said the errors have to be taken seriously. ”He has shown a consistent pattern of having a clear intent to deceive,” Castiglione said. The Star-Ledger reports Farahi earns a base salary of $293,550 and will be eligible for a $200,000 bonus next year.
As we left the graduation, I thought it was odd... This Educator had a chauffer driving him around in a State (or School) sedan. And I thought.. wow , this guy must think hes the President of Harvard or something.
Guess it "ain't" no Harvard now, huh?
KC
1:40 am on Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Wow I guess they were being politically correct when not investigating him. I know at OCC a few students used to complain about the English professor who couldn't speak English in a way that they could comprehend. The kids didn't know what the hell he was saying and he was a very strict grader. (I did tutoring there for a few years). I used to help them try and decipher what it was the teacher was asking the students. Only then could we half put together what it was we thought he maybe wanted. It was that bad. Oh yes. All you We are the World types try dealing with this guy.
Dale
9:13 pm on Friday, August 3, 2012
"The Star-Ledger reports Farahi earns a base salary of $293,550 and will be eligible for a $200,000 bonus next year."
And we wonder why costs for higher education are so high and continuing to rise rapidly!
Maybe we need to implement salary caps for college/university administrators for institutions of higher learning that accept federal money.
KC
1:26 am on Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Soooooo, maybe now OCC will have to hang on to some of its about- to- be- tenured professors. What goes around comes around and I hope the administration is sweating this one out.
yonkersny
8:08 am on Wednesday, July 25, 2012
It seems the President of Kean must go NOW. Think of it this way, with the whole Penn State issue, is it any less a crime to 'cheat' THOUSANDS out of a meaningful degree and the money it costs?
Noting the President of Brookdale is heading to prison, if this guy fabricated his resume, he needs to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. It appears he stole public funds. I also agree that he was probably hired to be p/c.
TPGOP
9:04 am on Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Does anyone believe Kean will lose its accreditation? Seems union driven to me. One more reason to get the unions out of New Jersey's schools.
Brian Hurrel
11:13 pm on Monday, August 13, 2012
Union driven? How? Are you at all familiar with what has been going on at Kean with Farahi for the past two years?
ed crowley
9:25 pm on Wednesday, July 25, 2012
When I told my professor that someone else did my paper he still held me responsible for the mistakes. I guess he did not get the message. Living outside the area no good lying on resume acceptable.
Downtown John
12:25 am on Thursday, July 26, 2012
I currently work with accreditation boards and colleges. I can honestly say that the accreditation board will be in the same amount of trouble as the university will be, simply because the accreditation board received their annual report every year and was fully aware of their outcomes and finances (student debt). With that knowledge, the board allowed it to continue for years and didn’t act in a timely manner. I can assume that the outcome of this situation is that the university will be placed in a “probation status” or a “show cause status”. This will allow the university to repair their current problems and plan for the future with a campus effectiveness plan. The next situation that they must correct is providing more assistance for graduates finding employment. Graduates are unable to pay back their student loan(s) more now than ever before. I believe the student debt crisis will be the next mortgage crisis of this country. Word of advice, hire more compliance officers to oversee operations.
barbara
8:40 am on Thursday, September 6, 2012
why did OCC "team up" with Kean in the first place? These problems aren't new. Why not give OCean County area students a chance with Rutgers or Stockton? From the experience I've had with Kean, I don't feel confident with them at all.