IU Bloomington’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors is alleging the university violated policy in terminating tenured professor Xiaofeng Wang.
The university terminated Wang on Friday. But the AAUP’s chapter said that all occurred without the proper process — required notice and a hearing before the Faculty Board of Review.
The FBI on Friday searched two homes belonging to Wang, a professor at the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering, and IU Libraries analyst Nianli Ma in Bloomington and Carmel. The agency has not provided comment about the nature of the search.
Neither has IU. The university referred the Indiana Daily Student to the FBI twice before the IDS received the provost’s termination letter to Wang. An IU spokesperson later said the university is not making public comments at the direction of the FBI after the IDS sent the termination letter for verification.
Alex Tanford, professor emeritus and IUB’s AAUP chapter president, told the IDS on Monday that the lack of communication from the university is worrying faculty.
“They're not talking,” Tanford said. “And everybody, guilty or innocent, is entitled to a fair due process procedure for determining their responsibility. He was a tenured professor, and it's frightening to all of us.”
The organization, in an open letter published Monday morning, claimed IU violated Wang’s due process by failing to comply with university policy. It said the policy for termination, ACA-52 section D, necessitated notice and a hearing with the Faculty Board of Review.
It was the AAUP’s “understanding” that neither occurred. The organization, in its open letter, then requested Wang’s termination be revoked and he be provided notice and a hearing. The letter, addressed to Provost Rahul Shrivastav, asked the university to report it had taken those actions at the Bloomington Faculty Council’s April 8 meeting.
According to ACA-52 section D, termination can only occur for the reason of:
- Incompetence
- Serious personal or professional misconduct
- Extraordinary university financial exigency
“No academic appointee shall be dismissed unless reasonable efforts have been made in private conferences between the appointee and the appropriate administrative officers to resolve questions of fitness or of the specified financial exigency,” the policy reads.
The policy says appointees should be notified in writing one year before the date of dismissal — those found responsible for serious personal misconduct can be terminated on shorter time frames, but not less than 10 days’ notice.
IU did not respond to a request for comment regarding the AAUP’s letter before publication.
“AAUP is not standing up and claiming that he’s innocent of things, right?” Tanford said. “We're saying we don't know.”
