MICHAEL KARAS/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Attendees recently sat around Kean University's custom-made oak conference table.
Posted on 11/28/2014 7:16:00 PM PST by Coleus
Breaking News: Legislator calls for investigation into Kean University's $219K conference table
It costs more than $44,000 in tuition to attend Kean University for four years, and many of the school’s students struggle to pay the bill. But the taxpayer-supported school in the township of Union spent $219,000 so far and has authorized up to $270,000 — about the average price of a house in the nearby working-class neighborhood — for a custom-made, circular conference table that seats 23 and features data ports, microphones and an illuminated map of the world in a glass panel at its center.
The table was bought without competitive bidding, which is normally required under New Jersey law for purchases at state colleges and universities. Instead, Kean hired a company in China to manufacture the table. The school recently established a branch campus there and wants to strengthen ties with the Chinese government.
The price tag is as much as 10 times what has been spent by other schools for similar tables, records show.
Kean President Dawood Farahi, who has grand ambitions for the university, including expansion of the China campus, said the school saved money by going to China and that the table would have cost half a million dollars if made in the United States. “It is small-minded to focus on the university buying a $200,000 table,” Farahi said in a recent interview on campus. “Why not?” he responded when asked about the purchase. “Why not? Why not?”
But critics say the purchase of the table from a Shanghai company reflects misguided priorities, possible financial improprieties and a president preoccupied with vanity projects at the school. “Whether or not this is legal, it’s certainly not ethical and it’s a waste of taxpayer money,” said Assemblyman Joseph Cryan, D-Union. “And it’s an added insult that they didn’t go to an American vendor.”
Kean said the furniture fell under the category of professional creative services and that bids were not required. It cited exemptions from the public bidding laws for the “acquisition of artifacts or other items of unique intrinsic, artistic or historic character.”
The 22-foot table, made of oak with a cherry veneer, has been installed on the top floor of the new $40 million Green Lane Building, which the school said was designed to fulfill “a university need for a world-class corporate meeting space.” The building will also house the new architecture school, which has generated controversy because the state already has a well-respected but under-enrolled public program at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Kean established its program as the first step needed to replicate it in China, where there is a demand.
The table is the showpiece of the circular rooftop conference center with panoramic views of lower Manhattan. The striking new building has an undulating glass facade that overlooks a nearly shuttered Merck plant. Kean said the table, which has bands of ornamental stainless steel at its base, has a motorized, two-tiered glass turntable that is uniquely Chinese.
Not right fit, initially
In May, Kean’s governing board agreed to award a contract for up to $200,000 to Shanghai Rongma Office Furniture Ltd. for the design, construction, transport and installation of the table, according to records obtained through the state’s Open Public Records Act. But the table didn’t quite fit right so the board agreed again to waive bidding in September to authorize an additional $70,000 for the firm to change the diameter and improve the lighting, the records show. The original purchase price and the cost of the modifications are tied to Chinese currency and the final tab is expected to come in at $219,024, said Marsha McCarthy, spokeswoman for the school.
In the interview, Farahi, the president, who was born just over the Chinese border in Afghanistan, spoke about the potential of the Wenzhou campus, which he said would benefit New Jersey students. The new campus, which has 880 Chinese students, is being financed by the Chinese government at no cost to New Jersey students or taxpayers, Farahi said. It will operate an exchange program that will let lower-income students from New Jersey travel to China at little cost, he said.
A lofty vision
While the table is part of Farahi’s vision to raise Kean University’s profile, its price far exceeds that paid for most custom-made multimedia conference tables, said Paul Downs, owner of a custom conference-table company that bears his name in Pennsylvania. “We’ve made very complex tables for a lot less,” Downs said. “We’ve worked for other universities in New Jersey and didn’t get anywhere near that, not 10 percent of that.”
Downs’ company is a leader in the business, with high-profile corporate, government and education clients, including Harvard University. It has made tables for NASA and the World Bank. Recently it designed and built for General Electric a $61,000 table that was similar in size and amenities to the one at Kean, Downs said. But most tables go for considerably less than that, he said. McCarthy said that while the school didn’t solicit bids, it did get quotes from two American companies that were higher than the Chinese price, including one from a local company, Pollaro Custom Furniture Inc., that came in at $1 million but was later revised to $386,000.
Pollaro is a high-end, museum-quality furniture maker with such clients as Michael Bloomberg; it specializes in art deco reproductions and custom yacht furniture. The company recently partnered with Brad Pitt on a pricey furniture line. Pollaro did not return a call seeking comment on the Kean quote. “In general, a $1 million quote means, ‘Go away, we don’t want to work with you,’Ÿ” Downs said. “Pollaro is one of the most expensive furniture makers in the country, and not a conference table specialist. This sounds like somebody gaming the requirement to get multiple bids — something we run into all the time. You need to get three prices, so you make sure that two of them are absurd.”
Cryan also questioned the process. “That’s like going to get a Ferrari quote and then saying your Escalade was cheap,” he said. But McCarthy said that Pollaro, based in Union, was included in the quotes “since we actively seek opportunities to work with companies in our host community.” In an emailed statement, she defended the bid waiver and said the table celebrates a new direction for the university “as an institution that is an epicenter for poignant discussions that go beyond the borders of New Jersey and have the potential for global impact.”
Critics say the new high-end corporate space adds little of value for average students. But the university says it will add to its cachet and generate rental income of up to $850 per day. Already there have been several meetings there, the school said, including a legislative hearing last week to discuss the heroin epidemic. McCarthy said the global business school, also located in the building, will host “top-notch CEOs from around the area” for round-table discussions, thereby benefiting students who get internships from their firms. “It’s important for us to have them meet in a high-profile space,” he said.
Oak with a cherry veneerr? For 200 k you would think it would be solid cherry.
At least they have the table. Looks quite nice.
Where is the outrage when state schools (UCLA, SUNY Buffalo) (and private schools - but that’s their business) pay Hillary $250,000 to $300,000 (plus first class accommodations)for an 90 minute speech (drivel)?
Talk about a waste of money. Such snake oil salesmen. Just like Obama, the MSM and the low info voter don’t know and don’t care.
It helps the “anointed” to feel important as they sit around it. Priceless right?
If you give them money they will spend it.
It's the same throughout academe. There's even a book about it, The Fall of the Faculty: the Rise of the All-Administrative University by a professor at Johns Hopkins.
Here in IL we have the President of a local Junior College spend almost $130,000 on a wine cellar. He still has his job.
Federal education dollars have made this waste and bloat possible. >>
Did you grow up in union county?
that’s for sure, even 60 Minutes did a piece on how colleges all across America waste money and spend of opulence, often for the students, some schools have day spas!
Yeah, I grew up in Springfield.
Plus I read an article a few years ago about the building spree on the Jersey two year college campuses, even though their graduation rate isn’t higher than 40% at the best of them.
Kean is no top school, either.
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