HeWhoMustNotBeNamed asked if the Dismissals mentioned in a recent TBK post could be the result of Race or Gender Discrimination.
The breakdown of Race and Gender among the employees I mentioned in the recent article, Students Continue to Suffer the Consequences of Kean's Confusing Debt, does show an unusual disparity. Dr. Barbara Wheeler, a Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at Kean, believes this is the case. She wrote the following in her article for the KFT Voice:
“I came today to register my disbelief, disgust and disappointment regarding the blatant racial, gender, and age discrimination inherent in the list of 12 professional staff members of the Kean Federation of Teachers who were laid off.”
I think it is somewhat unfounded to accuse Farahi of Racism. There is no tangible evidence that proves he is racist, and I find it difficult to believe that he would be so proud of Kean’s diversity were he indeed a racist.
What I do believe is that something strange went on during these layoffs and I want to thank Dr. Wheeler and her Article for bringing my attention to the manner of their notification:
“Even more reprehensible was the fact that the number of 26 layoffs was made public before the individuals were told that [they would be] laid off. Equally cruel was the way in which they were told. The KFT personnel were summoned by phone and herded into Human Resources in groups of four, which appears to violate their rights to privacy. None were told how or why they were chosen for dismissal.”
Why was the Administration unwilling to explain these terminations, even personally to those KFT members? Without a doubt, the choice to dismiss them in groups represents an ethical transgression on the part of the Administration as well, and the premature announcement of the number of positions to be dropped seems predatory in nature. Granted, you can’t judge a book by its cover, but if someone sees a Lion running towards him across a field then he should probably be afraid.
My guess, and I stress that this is a guess, is that whether there is a race issue or not, the Administration wants the Faculty to fear it like that Lion, and that by itself would be a reason to question these actions.
After talking to quite a few in the spanish speaking program, I can say it may not be racism but they feel like it is, and for some that hurts the most.
ReplyDeleteI can imagine that students in the Spanish Speaking program are upset at the loss of their Advisor, and I think a lot of people at Kean are asking themselves the same questions about Discrimination in the Administration.
ReplyDeleteThe reason why I cannot personally endorse Dr. Wheeler's allegations of Discrimination is this: Kean's Employee base is considerably diverse. The breakdown of Race and Gender that Dr. Wheeler provided in her KFT Voice article is definitely worthy of mention, and thusly it has been posted on our Blog—however, I do not know if cutting that group of employees from their programs has left those programs with a less diverse a workforce. This is something that TBK will try to look into, but I expect that the breakdown of Ethnicity and Gender of employees in those programs reflects, at least to an extent, the Ethnicity and Gender of the employees to whom the Administration has given notice.
This doesn't mean our Students shouldn't ask that question, it just means that TBK cannot ethically support that conclusion without further evidence.
Something that our students, especially those in Passport and the Spanish Speaking Program, should definitely be concerned about is the rumored integration of Passport and the Spanish Speaking Program with one other division of the University (I cannot recall which group, so I'll get back to you on that). By cutting staff and consolidating these departments together under one heading means a significant amount of restructuring will have to occur internally in each program as well as between those programs. Because of Kean's issues with Internal Communication (as referenced by the Middle States Self-Study), I would not be surprised if this decision lead these departments to be less effective to the Students they serve because, to put it simply, the employees staffing the department were unsure of exactly who is supposed to do what job and what procedures are necessary to follow.
Once again, I wouldn't blame the employees for that confusion, but rather the workings of Kean and specifically the lack of communication from the Administration that should make such information explicitly clear.
It's an embarrasment that in the 21st. century a university behaves like this. This behavior is typical of Jim Crow's South, not New Jersey today. But also Farahi is devouring Kean's programs is dorder to pay for the huge debt we students pay with our fees. Where is that money going?
ReplyDeletewhen i see people being fired, i think it is bad. when i see 60 percent of them being women i raise an eyebrow. When it is 70% i think maby it is biggest, when it is 80% i am pretty sure, when it is over 80% like this we can only draw one conclusion.
ReplyDeletewhere is the main artical do am i a reader trying to be informed supost to know if your just making up this bullshit?
ReplyDeleteYou can find this article (By Dr. Wheeler) in the current issue of the Kean Federation of Teachers Voice. It is a newspaper run by the Teachers' Union at Kean University.
ReplyDeleteThe Paper is displayed on the KFT Homepage: http://kft2187.org/
There is a link to that page in the article we put up on Wednesday the 17th. Part of our purpose at TBK is to provide you with the same resources we use to write our Blog; that way, you can be certain that this is not a fiction.
One exception to this rule is the Middle States Report, because, as far as we know, we're not supposed to have it, and therefore cannot put it up.