Another Update on the Situation at Indiana University

I wanted to provide a quick update on the case of Professor Xiaofeng Wang at Indiana University. For overview details, see the posts below. The latest is the IU chapter of a faculty organization (the American Association of University Professors) has sent a letter to the university challenging Professor Wang’s termination. You can see that letter here. The letter itself is the best evidence we as yet have that Wang was in fact fired by the university. The university itself has not confirmed that or publicly commented at all. And at least no one who is talking appears to be in contact with Wang. So we don’t have any confirmation from him or anyone speaking on his behalf.

More Details on Situation at Indiana University

Yesterday I told you about a situation at Indiana University tied to a Professor of Computer Science and cryptography named Xiaofeng Wang. According to very sketchy public reports, the FBI and DHS police searched two homes owned by Wang and a Library Systems analyst named Nianli Ma, who I assume is his spouse. Colleagues at other universities noted that Wang’s bio pages had been removed from the University website and no one seemed to know where he was. It was unclear whether he had been arrested or perhaps detained in an immigration action.

I can now report some new and as yet unreported details, which largely go to the timeline of events.

Sketchy First Reports

There’s a very weird situation developing at the Indiana University. It’s a case where there are lots of red flags but mostly a lack of information. I’ll try to give an overview. A highly regarded professor of computer science and cryptography named Xiaofeng Wang seems to have disappeared and his home was searched and swarmed over this morning by FBI agents and DHS police. On its face this sounds like some sort espionage investigation. I don’t know whether Xiaofeng is a U.S. citizen or not or a Chinese national. But I understand that he’s been at IU for about 20 years.

Help Us Close Strong

We are coming to the end of our Annual TPM March Membership Drive. And we are incredibly, incredibly grateful that it has been a big success. We set a mammoth goal of signing up 2,500 new members, to go with the 25th anniversary of the organization. And you helped us do it. We are currently at 2,777 new members for the drive, which is well beyond what we, or at least I, thought was possible. Let me especially thank all the new members reading this. Every additional member adds to the resources we hope to have to expand our reach and reporting resources in this critical year, and going forward. So if you’re considering becoming a member, I hope you will do so today. We’re continuing our 25% discount through the last day of the month. If we can get to 3,000 that will be amazing. And if you’re already a member and you’re really feeling in a TPM mood, please consider what a fellow member suggested at our TPM Happy Hour on Wednesday in New York: Email five friends who might not be members or might not know about TPM and tell them what we’re about.

Again, this isn’t a “lights are going out” plea. We met our goal. TPM is strong. Our finances are solid. But we’d like to get stronger and extend our reach (you’ll be hearing more on this front soon). And every additional member adds to that. If you’d like to join, click right here. And thank you from all of us.