President

Kean University
Union, New Jersey

Since being elected president in a unanimous vote by the Kean University Board of Trustees in February 2003, Dr. Dawood Farahi has initiated and overseen some of the most significant improvements in the University's history, all to strengthen its mission of access and educational excellence. During his tenure, he has increased academic offerings, scholarship programs and student services; overhauled the look and feel of the campus; and hired 138 new faculty members to meet the needs of Kean's burgeoning student population. He has achieved all this while keeping the institution's tuition at the lowest of all the universities in New Jersey.

To support his many new plans, Farahi has drawn on the experience of 20 years of service to the institution in academic as well as administrative roles prior to assuming his post as president. He was full professor in the Department of Public Administration, where he still teaches, and also served as chair for four consecutive three-year terms. In addition, Farahi was elected to chair the Faculty Senate five times and was honored as the Kean University Teacher of the Year in 1996 and as the Graduate Teacher of the Year in 1993.

Farahi's success as a faculty member was paralleled by his able leadership as an administrator. From 1999 to 2002, he was special assistant for enrollment services, where he was instrumental in developing and implementing new, centralized and streamlined academic-advisement operations and enrollment-management plans. From 1998 to 2002, Farahi worked as special assistant to the president for technology, implementing a five-year technology plan in less than three years and making Kean one of the most wired universities in the state. In 2002, when he assumed the role of special assistant to the president for operations, he successfully balanced the University's $122 million budget during one of the most challenging fiscal crises for public education in the state of New Jersey.

Once Farahi took office as president of Kean University, he sought nothing less than to establish Kean as the finest public institution for New Jersey's students. One area he improved dramatically is student services. Farahi oversaw the creation of the Center for Academic Success (CAS), which is committed to helping all undergraduate students achieve, regardless of their level of academic preparation. CAS is the centerpiece of a new, 124,000-square foot center that features a 125-seat lecture hall, 44 classrooms, 20 seminar rooms, 13 labs as well as faculty and staff offices. This new building is representative of the many campus improvements that have taken place during Farahi's service, and has also received nationwide attention as the first higher-education building in the state to receive LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification by the U.S. Green Building Council.

Farahi's vision for academics is similarly innovative. Seeing that the nation is experiencing a critical shortage of teachers and researchers in the areas of science, mathematics and technology, Farahi created the New Jersey Center for Science, Technology and Mathematics Education (NJCSTME), which provides full scholarships to students interested in these exciting and rewarding careers.   The program will move to its state of the art home when the new Science and Technology Education facility is completed in 2009.  

Another landmark in Kean's history was made when the University's first ever doctoral program was approved by the New Jersey Commission on Higher Education.   The Doctorate of Psychology in Professional Psychology: School Psychology will enroll 12 doctoral students in the fall of 2008 with an expected increase to 60 by the 2011-2012 academic year.   The program will go a long way towards meeting the demands of the marketplace, as the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics reports an increase of 63,000 job openings for school psychologists in New Jersey by the year 2012. In addition to the Doctorate of Psychology, a second doctoral program in educational leadership will be implemented at the University in 2009.

Farahi has also employed new initiatives for the creative arts at Kean, centralizing all related programs under the new School of Visual and Performing Arts, which offers 12 full-time tuition scholarships to talented students. In addition, Farahi has made the University's Wilkins Theatre the cultural hub of the region, by bringing shows to campus that people normally see on Broadway. All the while, he has kept an eye on serving the community by offering programs such as Senior Night Out, which provides free tickets to performing-arts events to local senior citizens.

In an effort to build upon the unprecedented level of fundraising during the Farahi administration, Kean University announced a $30 million capital campaign.   Transforming Lives: The Campaign for Kean University will play a vital role in funding the next generation of educational programs, scholarship and fellowship initiatives, endowment components and other capital endeavors.

Farahi has ushered in a new era in Kean athletics with the centerpiece being the 3,500 seat Harwood Arena and the renovated D'Angola gymnasium which features the University's health and wellness center.   Farahi has also expanded the seating at the Alumni Stadium, making it a sought after venue to host high school state championships, as well as the Pride Bowl.   In 2007, the Kean Baseball team garnered the University's second ever national championship by sweeping the Division III national finals.

While always looking toward the future, Farahi has also shepherded an historic effort to preserve the past. In May 2007, John Kean H'05 entrusted Kean University with the preservation of Liberty Hall, the former Kean family estate located across Morris Avenue from the University's main campus. The 26-acre estate is home to several historic structures, including the 230-year old mansion built by William Livingston, the first elected governor of New Jersey, as well as a trove of national treasures housed there. A letter from George Washington dated 1787, as well as long forgotten letters from Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, are just a few of the many precious artifacts that have been discovered.

Under Farahi's guidance, Kean now plans to construct the John Kean Museum of American History to exhibit Liberty Hall documents and artifacts to the public and make them available for scholarly study. It will also digitize the collection so that schools across the nation may have access.

A naturalized citizen who immigrated to the United States as a college student, Farahi often shares with Kean students that he is a living example of how education can help people realize the American dream. He earned a Ph.D. from the University of Kansas, where he was a Fulbright scholar.