Assembly Higher Education Committee Chair Celeste M. Riley (D-Cumberland/Gloucester/Salem) questioned Kean University’s priorities after a report today detailed the exorbitant amount of money the university spent on a custom made conference table while more and more New Jersey students are struggling to afford college.
“This is a quintessential example of the misguided priorities that are failing our students and putting college further out of reach for them.
“The administration’s continued justification for spending well over $200,000 on a table shows it is both out-of-touch with the community it’s intended to serve and more focused on style than substance.
“It’s baffling to hear the university president repeatedly ask ‘why not’ when confronted with the question of why the university wasted that much money on a table. Quite simply, the follow-up question should be: why not apply that money towards lowering the cost of higher education for the countless students who are now graduating college saddled with more debt than any previous generation?”
Riley is one of the lead sponsors of a comprehensive 20-bill package designed to make college more affordable and attainable in New Jersey, which has been making its way through the Assembly recently.