Students protest trustee vote

Roughly 100 students, as well as a handful of faculty and staff, marched in protest, on Feb. 16, to Senator Raymond Lesniak's office, the day after the board of trustees announced their decision to keep President Dawood Farahi.

The peaceful march, organized by Occupy Kean University, started outside the University Center at 3:30 p.m. and followed Morris Avenue west to Stuyvesant Avenue, where Lesniak's office is located, just over two miles. Lesniak was in a voting session in Trenton at the time.

Student Gizeth Cruz left a statement with an employee in Lesniak's office.

"We as students have a right to a scandal-free environment," she read to the protesters outside Lesniak's office. "We call for Senator Lesniak to push for the resignation of Dr. Farahi, as he is the face of Kean."

Student Katie Arzig, Psychology, urged students and faculty members, who were scared of retribution, to speak out.

The protesters, who were accompanied by Union Police escorts, held signs that ranged from "Farahi is a fraud" to "Even Burger King has background checks."

As the march passed Kean Hall, where the president's office is, chants of "shame on you" grew louder.

"The president represents Kean University as a community," said Beth Bird, a junior. "What's his moral responsibility now that he's been caught with these acts of fraud?"

The protesters also joined in with chants of "fire the liar" and "the Board must go."

Some cars honked in support and patrons of local businesses looked on as the demonstrators marched by. Several of the pedestrians stopped to ask demonstrators what the protest was about.

Two high school sophomores said the news hasn't trickled down to their school yet, saying they had no idea of the Farahi fraud scandal that has been unfolding over the past couple months.

A request to the University for comment was not immediately returned at the time this article was published.

In an e-mail on Feb. 27, an aide for Lesniak released his statement saying that "Kean University has been uplifted by the leadership of President Dawood Farahi."

"It's distressing to see the union leadership, for its own selfish reasons, try to bring down Kean University and the progress it has made under President Farahi's leadership."

The university has not released a statement on the protest.

Eric Albuen, Lee Burrell,  Ana Ferrer, Avani Kapur, Brian Konchalski, Darian Maduruh, Nicole Marie Padinha and Jaclyn Tuman contributed to this report.