Kean U. Broke Law in Purchasing $250,000 Table, State Office Says

Kean University broke the law in the way it purchased a $250,000 table, according to the New Jersey Office of the State Comptroller, The Star-Ledger reports. The state office learned that the table was already on a boat from China to the university before Kean’s Board of Trustees approved the purchase.

According to the office, documents showed that planning for the table began well before the governing board approved it. Those documents included an email from the president, Dawood Y. Farahi, approving the construction of the table and an expenditure of $200,000 for it, according to the office.

Once, when asked why the university had purchased such an expensive table, Mr. Farahi responded, “Why not? Why not? Why not?”

The office also found the university spent $250,000 on the table, not the previously reported $219,000.

A spokeswoman for Kean, Margaret McCorry, told the newspaper that the university had followed state law in buying the table. “The report issued by the Office of the State Comptroller has significant omissions that explain Kean’s actions,” she added. “Kean University acted legally and with transparency throughout the process of developing the Loehning Conference Center.”