The timeline has expanded on Indiana University’s internal probe on professor Xiaofeng Wang to December last year, according to a document written by a close collaborator obtained by the Indiana Daily Student.
In December, according to the document, the university asked Wang to explain why he was listed on a 2017-18 grant in China that he allegedly had not disclosed to IU. The document says IU notified Wang in February this year that it would investigate further.
The IDS hasn’t yet been able to verify the grant mentioned in the document.
The document’s contents were first reported by WIRED. The investigation’s start in February lines up with information previously shared with the IDS.
In early March, the document says, Wang notified IU that he accepted an offer from a university in Singapore, hoping to start in June.
“IU responded by putting him on administrative leave, removing his IU homepage, and disabling his IU email address,” the document reads.
On March 28, the FBI searched two homes belonging to Wang and his wife Nianli Ma, an IU Libraries analyst. IU terminated him the same day. Ma’s university page has since been removed and the IDS has learned that she was terminated as well.
Computer science faculty and IU Bloomington’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors have condemned Wang’s termination, alleging the university did not follow due process. Many faculty at the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering, told the IDS that the termination had made them fearful.
Especially among Chinese and Chinese American faculty, including U.S. citizens, several said they are concerned that IU’s termination of a tenured faculty member shows the university could fire them without due process.
Neither IU, nor the FBI, who the IDS have reached out to several times, have commented on the nature of the search. That’s making faculty particularly nervous.
Wang and Ma are not facing any pending criminal charges, have not been arrested and are safe, their lawyers said in a statement Wednesday.
The collaborator’s document said Wang has been communicating after the search with colleagues at the ACM Special Interest Group on Security, Audit and Control, a group Wang is listed as chairing.
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