Cecilia Chang, a former administrator at St. John’s University, was charged with forcing students to act as personal servants last month following other charges for embezzling almost $1 million from the university early in September.

Chang served as the dean of the Institute of Asian Studies at the university and had worked at St. John’s for more than 30 years. As the dean, Chang had the power to grant up to 15 scholarships a year, mostly to international students who were interested in Asian studies, according to a statement released Sept. 30 by the university.

Chang was suspended from the university in January during an internal investigation of possible fraud and embezzlement totaling up to $1 million from the university, according to a Sept. 15 article in The New York Times.

In June, she was fired by the university. Official charges were brought in September for both the embezzlement and the forced labor, according to a Sept. 30 article in The New York Times.

‘What did she do wrong? She did this for decades, she’s been giving out scholarships,’ said Ron Rubinstein, one of Chang’s lawyers, in an ABC News story published Oct. 2.

The students’ scholarships were under the condition that they must perform 20 hours of work per week in exchange for their scholarships and that Chang would allegedly terminate their scholarships if they failed to perform their duties, according to an affidavit filed by the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of New York.

The affidavit alleged students were forced by Chang to do activities not related to the university, including driving her son to the airport at 3 a.m., delivering her cash at a casino and shoveling snow from Chang’s driveway.

Rubinstein said in the Sept. 30 New York Times article that the activities students were doing were no different than normal Federal Work-Study jobs.

‘The fact that this is even a crime is shocking,’ he said outside court to The New York Times. ‘Cooking a meal doesn’t sound at first blush like Work-Study, but wait ‘til the trial. I’m not going to give you the defense now.’

Multiple calls to Rubinstein by The Daily Orange were not returned.

Jordan Dolan, a sophomore English major at St. John’s, said he disagrees with Rubinstein’s assessment of what constitutes a Work-Study job. He is not one of the students involved in the lawsuit, but said his Work-Study job is different from that description.

‘My Work-Study is tutoring at the writing center. Other people’s Work-Studies are watching the desks in the dorms or assisting the residence directors with clerical duties,’ Dolan said. ‘Keeping house is definitely not part of the job description.’

The affidavit also alleged Chang forced the students to do these tasks for her through threats of serious harm and told them they would lose their scholarships if they did not comply. Students were also allegedly forced to falsify documents, said Charles Kleinberg, an assistant U.S. district attorney, in The New York Times article.

Multiple calls to Kleinberg by The Daily Orange were not returned.

The university called Chang’s behavior shocking and in complete violation of all the university stands for in its Sept. 30 statement.

‘They trusted a St. John’s employee thinking she wouldn’t do them wrong, and now that this has all unfolded, she’s endangered the trust the public has had on St. John’s officials,’ said Abigail Hernandez, a freshman journalism major at St. John’s.

Hernandez, who was not one of the students involved in the lawsuit, said she believes the students followed Chang’s directions because they are international students who were uninformed about how Work-Study traditionally works.

All the students will continue to receive full scholarships to St. John’s, and a complete review is going on at the university to keep this from happening again, the university’s statement said.

‘I think the university should keep closer tabs on its employees,’ Dolan said. ‘In times like these, money is a definite issue for every school, and to see this happen at a Catholic institution is a shock.’

medelane@syr.edu

Published on October 19, 2010 at 12:00 pm

Contact Meghin: medelane@syr.edu | @meghinwithani