Prominent Indiana University cybersecurity professor Xiaofeng Wang was unexpectedly fired after a massive FBI and DHS raid, but neither he nor his wife were formally charged. The community is stunned — lawyers are talking about a violation of academic rights.
On March 28, 2025, the FBI and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security raided two homes associated with Professor Xiaofeng Wang and his wife, Nianli Ma. The university immediately terminated Wang’s contract that same day, without providing a public explanation.
The professor’s attorney, Jason Covert, said the couple were not arrested, were not charged, and are not in hiding. Wang and Ma thanked their colleagues for their support and said they were waiting for the investigation to be completed to restore their reputations.
In February 2025, a complaint was filed against Wang for alleged violations of grant documentation, which the professor described as minor. On March 14, he was temporarily suspended from work, blocked from access to data and computers. Two weeks later, he was fired without explanation, which contradicts the university’s internal regulations.
The faculty union filed a protest demanding that Wang be given due process for dismissal.
The case has become a wake-up call for academia: Even a professor with an impeccable reputation can be dismissed without explanation when federal agencies are involved. There are no charges yet, and the administration’s actions are against university policy, leaving many questions unanswered—not just legal, but moral.
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