Kean University President Dawood Farahi will serve his last year as the university’s president in 2020 and then step down, he announced Thursday during an annual opening day address.

This news comes seven years after Farahi had previously received a vote of no confidence and been called on by the faculty union to resign. The faculty members took this vote in 2012 against Farahi after news media outlets reported he had inaccuracies on his resume in 1983 when he applied to Kean University for a faculty position.

The resulting news stories about the inaccuracies on his resume brought unwanted media attention to Kean. However, Farahi remained at its helm.

Farahi led the effort to create the first full-scale public university in China, Wenzhou-Kean University, partnering with then Provincial Secretary Xi Jinping of Zhejiang to redevelop a 300+ acre property in Wenzhou, China, into a large scale, state-of-the-art campus serving both Kean University and Chinese students. Xi is now president of China.

“It is important to Dawood that Kean students have the same opportunities to succeed as those who attend elite universities,” Steve Fastook, chair of the Kean University Foundation board of directors, said in a statement Thursday. “Many of our students are the first in their family to attend college, and President Farahi does all he can to ensure it is the greatest experience they ever have. His passion for Kean and its students is unmatched. We have been lucky to have him for so long.”

According to Kean, Farahi transformed Kean’s main campus in Union, through a $500 million redevelopment program that saw aging and dilapidated facilities be replaced by academic and research buildings. He headed the development of athletic facilities for Division III schools and in a partnership with the state of New Jersey and Union Township, oversaw the transfer of property that allowed the creation of the Union Township train station.

Kean Federation of Teachers President James Castiglione, AFT New Jersey President Donna M. Chiera and American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten issued statements calling for an open, inclusive national search for next Kean University president after Dawood Farahi resigned.