THE
Daily Egyptian SERVING THE SOUTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY SINCE 1916.
DAILYEGYPTIAN.COM
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2022
p. 2
p. 5
Black RSOs coming together for Black students
Sam’s Café serving the community late at night
VOL. 106, ISSUE 4
p. 12
p. 15
“Bodies Bodies Bodies” is all killer and no filler
SIU vs. SEMO: 50 miles, 90 games and one coveted wheel
“He just wants to teach:” Supporters urge SIU to return Mingqing Xiao to campus Annie Hammock | @anniehammock
As applied mathematics professor Mingqing Xiao awaits sentencing on a minor tax charge, 59 people from Southern Illinois University (SIU) and the community at large have signed a letter to the editor urging the university to take him off administrative leave and allow him back on campus. “We’re just trying to show the community supports him and we want him back,” said the letter’s author, Ed Benyas, a music professor at SIU and friend of Xiao’s. Xiao was caught up in a government crackdown on China’s theft of intellectual property from academic institutions. A federal judge in Benton, Illinois, dismissed two counts of wire fraud and a jury ruled Xiao was not guilty of making false statements regarding a grant application with the National Science Foundation. However, that same jury found him guilty of failing to disclose a bank account in China. On his tax forms, Xiao did not acknowledge an account set up for him by Shenzhen University to help cover expenses during his planned visits to teach there and recruit students for a joint PhD program with SIU – visits that were interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. “He didn’t check a box,” Benyas said. Xiao will learn his fate at a Sept. 19 sentencing hearing in Benton. Benyas said he hopes supporters from the faculty,
student body and community will attend. “He just wants to go back to work, he just wants to teach,” Benyas said. Benyas said it’s unfortunate Xiao was caught up in overzealous prosecution, in which federal prosecutors across the U.S. were given quotas for bringing professors to trial under a Trump-era policy known as The China Initiative. Sullivan said, “No allegations have been made of intellectual property theft. His body of work is applied mathematics.” Benyas said he hopes the letter to the editor will spur activism on campus. “I’d like to see the students at SIU have some concern about this xenophobic program and they should be concerned about their fellow students and faculty,” he said. Sullivan said the China Initiative has had a quelling effect on campus. “We have other Chinese American faculty at this school and they are terrified to apply for grants and that is happening all over the country,” he said. Xiao was academic advisor for many students at SIU, and he has to go through another faculty member to have any contact with them. “These students are from China and Saudi Arabia, having to go through a third party to hear from their professor – what are they telling their friends about the land of the free?” Sullivan said.
SIUC math professor Mingqing Xiao was acquitted of some charges and convicted of others relating to the “China Initiative.” Photo provided by Edward Benyas
Letter to the editor: Bring back Professor Xiao Ed Benyas | edwardbenyas@mac.com
violate the tax code.
We write this explanatory column to express our support for Dr. Mingqing Xiao, a longtime member of the Southern Illinois community and a distinguished Professor of Mathematics at SIU. We know Dr. Xiao to be a caring and accomplished professor devoted to his students, and an honest, loyal and giving member of our local community. While Dr. Xiao has been completely exonerated of all allegations of grant fraud made against him by the federal government in relation to a National Science Foundation grant that SIU received, we believe he has been wrongly convicted of minor technical tax issues, with evidence that there was no willful intent to
Professor Xiao and Service to the Community Dr. Mingqing Xiao has been a resident of the United States since 1991 and a proud US citizen since 2006. Since 2000, Dr. Xiao has served on the faculty of the SIU Department of Mathematics, having been granted promotion to full professor in 2007. His research area is mainly in applied mathematics, such as differential equations and computational science. Dr. Xiao has authored or co-authored over 100 peerreviewed journal articles, book chapters and refereed conference publications. He has received five National Science Foundation
grants on SIU’s behalf and in 2016, the SIUC College of Science named Dr. Xiao its Outstanding Scholar. Since 2013, Dr. Xiao organized and taught weekly math enhancement classes for local K-12 students every week for 8 years until his 2021 indictment ended the program. Students attending “Ming Math” won numerous awards at regional, state and national math competitions and went on to attend such institutions as Harvard, Stanford, Yale, MIT and Columbia. In 2020, Ming received the Good Neighbor Award from WSIU Public Broadcasting for this volunteer work. Please see XIAO | 10
1, 2, & 3
BEDROOMS (618)549-0335 | (618)549-0895
AVAILABLE Grab a roommate for $300-$350 per person!
805 E. Park Street