Dive Brief:
- Kean University, a public school in Union, NJ, is reaping negative publicity for authorizing spending up to $270,000 on a custom-made, circular conference table.
- The purchase was made without a competitive bidding process, which is normally required of public institutions under New Jersey law.
- So far, the school has spent $219,000 on the table, roughly equal to the average four-year tuition bill for four Kean Students.
Dive Insight:
Sure, the table is expensive, but let’s not overlook how nice it looks. According to NorthJersey.com, it seats 23 people and is outfitted with data ports, microphones, and an illuminated glass panel (featuring a world map) in the middle. The university recently set up a branch in China and wants to strengthen its ties to that nation's government, so it hired a Chinese company to build the table. Kean President Dawood Farahi provided the following let-them-eat-cake quote to NorthJersey.com: “It is small-minded to focus on the university buying a $200,000 table," claiming the table would have cost $500,000 from a U.S. maker. But the price is reportedly as much as 10 times what other schools have paid for similar tables.