A Wright State staff letter was sent out Monday with the first public details surrounding the federal investigation of three Wright State employees since they were put on leave in early May 2015.
President David Hopkins states in the letter that the federal authorities are still reviewing potential violations of federal criminal statutes surrounding what is called the H-1B work visa program.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the H-1B program “applies to employers seeking to hire nonimmigrant aliens as workers in specialty occupations [of] distinguished merit and ability.” Common fields for the visa program include: biotechnology, chemistry, mathematics, education, law, accounting as well as others.
This helps employers to hire skilled workers (with a least a bachelor’s degree) from outside of United States citizenship, with a contracted agreement that the employees will be paid wages that are at least equal to the actual wage paid to other workers filling the same job.
The investigation delved into the university’s visa program with reasons to believe that some of the hired staff were not actually paid employees at the university. The present situation developed around two to five years ago.
Sundaram Narayanan, the Wright State provost, along with senior advisor to the provost, Ryan Fendley,
and Director of Business Process Re-engineering, Phani Kidambi, were removed from their posts. Measures are being taken to also remove Narayanan and Kidambi from each of their teaching positions.
“We will get this right because we know it matters. Our work matters,” President Hopkins said, as per the staff letter. “I am confident that we will emerge from this ordeal stronger and with more capacity in our quest to be the best university for the world.”
The letter also indicated that Wright State will be making future changes to the administrative structure with plans to eradicate the provost position. As an alternative, Dr. Thomas Sudkamp, professor of Computer Science and Engineering, has been appointed as the Chief Academic Officer, Provost and Vice President for Curriculum and Instruction.
The federal investigation is still in progress and Wright State will refrain from further comments until the investigation is complete.
