The five-year contract marks a new era for the institute in Hoboken, New Jersey. Farvardin’s appointment follows a three-year investigation by the state’s attorney general into Stevens’ fiscal management that was settled last year.
Among the accusations against the school was overcompensation of the President, excessive spending by the board of trustees, and different sets of books to cover up an uncertain financial state. The resulting settlement included the resignation of the long-standing President Harold J. Ravech and a pledge for greater transparency, but no admitted wrongdoing by the university.
“We are looking forward to moving ahead,” said Board of Trustees Chairman Lawrence T. Babbio Jr., who was also under investigation, but will maintain his position for three more years under the settlement. “It’s going to help us reach another plateau. I think we closed the financial chapter a long time ago. Some of the issues raised by the attorney general were very old. We’re running a very good surplus right now.”
The school seems excited, however, about the new presidential appointment. Babbio says Farvardin “has the vision and experience to further Stevens’ position as a global leader in education, research and innovation.”
Farvardin has accomplished much since moving to the United States more than 30 years ago. Having earned a doctorate in electrical engineering from Rensselear Polytechnic, Farvardin went to the University of Maryland where he eventually served as chairman of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, dean of the engineering school and, most recently, provost. In the United States, Canada and Australia, the provost is the senior academic administrator at many institutions of higher education. The provost is generally the number two official at a university.
He will officially end his 27-year-career at that university in July when he takes up residence at Hoxie House, the traditional home of Stevens’ presidents, overlooking Manhattan Island.
“I am thrilled by the opportunity to serve Stevens as its seventh president and deeply honored to have received the vote of confidence of its Board of Trustees,” Farvardin said.
“I earnestly believe in Stevens’ mission and potential, and I look forward to working with the Stevens community to propel the institute to even higher levels of achievement.”
Farvardin says Stevens “has the ability and the responsibility to marshal its intellectual resources to understand these big problems” such as climate change, cyber security and the energy crisis. Among his other goals is fundraising; Farvardin made University of Maryland history by helping win its two largest grants ever, totaling about $61 million, and increasing funding for research to its highest level.
Farvardin’s base salary at Stevens of $625,000 plus performance incentives will be markedly less than the previous president’s salary of $1.1 million. In describing a compensation process that is not typically explained, school officials said the amount is based on “market data parameters” analyzed by AonHewitt, an independent consulting firm that looked at the income of other university and college leaders.
The number of foreign-born leaders in American higher education is on the rise. Eleven of the 61 member institutions of the Association of American Universities, which represents large research universities in the US, now have foreign-born presidents.
This reflects the increasing number of foreign-born researchers, instructors and professors on American campuses over the last four decades. Despite the greater hurdles to immigration after 9/11, the Institute of International Education reports there are a third more foreign students in the United States this year than in 2001.
Farvardin came to the United States as an undergraduate by accident of the revolution. He was one semester short of obtaining his bachelors degree in Iran when the 1979 revolution changed his life.
“The government decided to shut down the university completely,” said Farvardin. “I remember there was a tank parked in front of the main entrance of the university. There were daily strikes and demonstrations, and buildings were on fire.”
Anxious to continue his studies, Farvardin asked the American graduate schools that had accepted him to take him as a transfer undergraduate. Within weeks, Rensselear Polytechnic agreed. And so, with little money and even less knowledge of English, he was on his way to Troy, New York.
“I was in a state of shock,” he recalled.
Farvardin soon made a name for himself in the US. “I give an enormous amount of credit to this country,” he said. “There would have been no other place in the world that would have judged me by the value of my contributions and the content of my character. Quite frankly, right now I look at myself as an American, and I think others do as well.”
In addition to his academic achievements, Farvardin is founder of NovaTherm Technologies, a company working to improve buildings’ energy efficiency, and cofounder of Zagros Networks, a semiconductor company. His wife, Hoveida, works at the World Bank in Washington, DC, and will commute upon their move to New Jersey. Their daughter, Tandice, is a third-year student at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, majoring in government.