The Middle States Petition

Hello again, everyone.

Here at TBK we are all incredibly impressed with your response to our petition so far. Not only are you becoming more aware of the perils we face at the loss of our accreditation each day, but hundreds of you have rallied to our cause by adding your signatures to our list.

Our ultimate goal was to get 1,000 names on our petition; given the near-unanimous response from everyone we've talked to, we have decided to up the ante and shoot for 1,400 signatures, 10% of Kean's student body. With numbers like that, the Administration and Board of Trustees will have no choice but to listen to the voice of Kean's students.


Over the last few days we've taken note of the questions you all have asked us about the petition, and I think it's pertinent that we take the time to address some of them here on the blog. So, without further suspense, here is the Middle-States FAQ!

Frequently Asked Questions about the Middle States Petition:


1) How is this petition going to save Kean's Accreditation?

The truth is simple:  It can't.  Only the Administration can save Kean's accreditation; the purpose of this petition is to show middles states that, first, Kean's students are neither stupid enough to deserve their accreditation being snatched away and, second, that Kean's students are in fact aware of this situation despite the Administration's attempt to keep it quiet.


The idea is that, since the Administration won't listen to their Student Body, it is more likely that Middle States will, and that the Administration will in turn listen to Middle States.


2) Some of us like Adjunct Professors... Why do we need to decrease their numbers on campus?


Our petition does not actually suggest that we decrease the number of Adjuncts on campus.  We all recognize that, because of the size of our University, Adjuncts are a necessity in our modern economic climate; what we also recognize is that Middle States suggests a maximum of 40% Adjuncts on a campus and Kean's full-time faculty number less than 40%.  The best solution, we think, is to hire those Adjuncts who truly deserve tenure as full-time professors.  TBK would never suggest reducing the number of professors on our campus--to the contrary, we want more, and we want them to be tenured.


3) Where do we get our information?


All of our information comes from documents released by Kean University (many of which are on the Kean.edu website, some of which have been acquired through Open Public Records Act requests), interviews with Kean faculty, interviews with Student Org officers and representatives, and articles that have been published in newspapers or online through reputable sources.  We link to EVERYTHING that we can here on our site, and frequently give you the opportunity to view documents right from our Blog without having to travel elsewhere.  If you want more info, read up:  you've got months worth of TBK reporting right at your fingertips!


4) What did Kean offer Student Org in exchange for their transition into a Department?


As far as we can tell, The administration offered SO the use of their copying and printing services at no cost, as well as the use of their Media and Publications department.  The thought was that the cost reduction created by utilizing free office-services would allow SO to allocate more funding to students...  That much is certain.


The rest of the deal still remains somewhat shrouded.  Student Org signed away a lot of its power when it became a department, and has certainly lost any latitude it once had in putting items to vote.  Why the officers agreed to this is uncertain, but our guess is that they were newly-placed in their offices and therefore unaware of what, exactly, they were doing.  The Administration could not get SO to vote, initially, on becoming a department, and so they pushed for the next best thing:  They compromised, allowing the Org to remain independent for one more year, and then forcing them to vote on the topic of Departmentalization after the next round of elections.  Was it really a compromise?  Or a quick bait-and-snatch trick?  We can't tell you--but we'll sure as hell give you our opinion.


This ends the FAQ on our Middle-States Petition... if you have any additional questions, feel free to come to our meetings at 3PM in the Grand Study Hall (3rd Floor Library) on Wednesday afternoons, or email us at takebackkean@gmail.com.

Until next time,
Keep on Signing, Kean University!