Brown and White Vol. 131 no. 4

              The Brown and White Vol. 131 No. 4
Tuesday, September 20, 2016 ‘All the Lehigh News First’
Speech not restricted despite ‘red light’ rating
By JESSICA HICKS
Associate News Editor
Maintaining individual rights to
speech and expression is crucial for
allowing free and open discussion on
college campuses, yet many students
are unaware of what their schools
permit and prohibit.
Lehigh was given a “red light”
speech code rating by the Foundation
for Individual Rights in Education in
October 2015. According to the FIRE
website, a red speech code rating
indicates the institution has at least
one policy that substantially restricts
students’ freedom of speech.
Lehigh’s Use of Computer Systems
and Facilities Policy through Library
and Technology Services, as well as a
section of the harassment policy, are
both deemed red light policies.
Lehigh’s harassment policy defines
a hostile work, learning, co-curric-ular,
social or living environment
as a place in which, “a member of
the Lehigh University community
or a guest is subjected to unwel-come
statements, jokes, gestures,
pictures, touching, or other conducts
that offend, demean, harass or intim-idate.”
FIRE has also given a “yellow
light” rating to several of Lehigh’s
other policies, including the social
policy, expectations of conduct, and
the diversity and inclusion section
of the Principles of Our Equitable
Community. According to the FIRE
website, the yellow light rating indi-cates
the institution’s policy “restricts
a more limited amount of protected
expression or, by virtue of (vague
wording), could too easily be used to
restrict protected expression.”
However, despite these
negative ratings for some of
Lehigh’s policies, multiple
people on campus don’t feel
that it’s a problem.
“I understand the back-ground
for having the (pol-icy
of harassment), and I
believe it’s very important,”
said Haiyan Jia, an assis-tant
professor of journalism
and communication. “But
at the same time, especial-ly
in academic situations,
you want to have protection
of freedom of speech and
expression so that students
and professors can have a
safe place to express their
thoughts and ideas.”
Jia, who started teaching
at Lehigh this fall, previous-ly
taught classes at Penn
State, which also received
a red light speech code rat-ing
by FIRE. Penn State’s
harassment policy limits
a student’s right to free
speech.
Though Penn State has
received a red rating, Jia
believes the institution
has come a long way from
years past when there were
“free speech zones” and the right to
express oneself was limited. Though
Jia has only been at Lehigh for a
short time, she believes the admin-istration
is actively creating a free
speech environment for students and
professors alike.
“As an educator I would feel ner-vous,
for myself and my students, if
I were to work at an institution that
does not have policies protecting free-dom
of speech,” she said.
Compared to other private univer-sities
in Pennsylvania, Lehigh is more
lenient. Jia reviewed Pennsylvania
universities’ FIRE ratings and said
she was alarmed by what she found.
Jack Lule, the professor and chair
of journalism and communication,
said Lehigh’s policies are compara-ble
to those of public universities,
which are legally bound by the First
Amendment. But because Lehigh is a
private university, it’s not required to
follow the First Amendment.
“I’ve been at Lehigh for 25 years
and really have not seen any lim-itations
on free speech,” Lule said.
“That’s to Lehigh’s credit. We’re a
private university, not a public uni-versity,
so we aren’t held to the same
Professor faces 120 years in prison for NASA fraud
See SPEECH Page 3
By SAM TOPP
Assistant News Editor
A Lehigh professor is facing a stat-utory
maximum of 120 years in pris-on
for a $700,000 scheme to defraud
NASA. His sentencing has been set
for Sept. 28.
Yujie Ding, 54, was previously an
electrical and computer engineering
professor. Ding and his wife, Yulija
Zotova, 42, proposed a development
project to NASA in 2010. The proj-ect
was to be carried out by their
company, ArkLight, according to
The Morning Call. Ding pocketed
$300,000 of the grant money was
while the majority of the work was
done by a sole graduate student,
identified only as “D.L.” in court
papers.
Ding was arrested by NASA spe-cial
agent Erik. J. Saracino in 2014
while attempting to flee to Reykjavik,
Iceland, wrote Peter Hall, a reporter
for The Morning Call. Ding was then
freed on $50,000 bail. Zotova was not
initially charged, but was identified
as the sole owner of ArkLight.
The couple said their research was
aimed at creating a “single photon
detector,” a device to detect trace
levels of chemicals, such
as carbon dioxide, in the
atmosphere, according to
The Morning Call. The
project was eventually
completed through the
work of graduate students
in Ding’s lab and deliv-ered
to NASA.
In February 2015, the
couple was charged with
10 counts of wire fraud in
their federal case, accord-ing
to The Morning Call
reporter Frank Warner.
If guilty of all counts, the
maximum sentence would
be 200 years each and a
fine of up to $2.5 million.
The indictment focused
on the lack of facilities for ArkLight,
using the company as a shell to pay
themselves without conducting any
work for NASA. Phase I of ArkLight’s
budget was $100,000 in 2010. Phase
II had a budget of $600,000 from
2011 to 2013.
Lehigh University was
cleared of any wrongdoing
because the couple was
determined to conceal
information related to the
fraud, Warner wrote.
In November 2015,
Ding and Zotova’s trial
commenced.
The plaintiff said while
NASA ultimately got
their research project,
the pocketed money was
a breach in the contract,
Hall wrote.
The defendants argued
Ding was singled out
because of his ethnicity
and that the work was
too difficult for average
graduate students to complete on
their own, according to The Morning See NASA Page 4
Courtesy of Lehigh University
Yujie Ding,
Lehigh University
professor of
electrical and
computer
engineering.
Call. Saracino later said he singled
out Ding for being the only contract
in NASA’s database under an indi-vidual’s
name.
As the trial progressed, the focus
turned toward Zotova’s role in the
NASA project, Hall wrote. Graduate
students said she had never appeared
in the lab even though her role was to
oversee the project. Zotova testified
that she had not been involved with
ArkLight for over a year, and her
lack of supervision over the students
was because of a crippling inability to
interact with others in person.
After an 11-day trial, the jury found
Ding and Zotova guilty of six out of 10
counts of wire fraud for sending fake
invoices to NASA from ArkLight,
Hall wrote. Each count carries a
maximum sentence of 20 years. The
juror said there was no scheme to
defraud the government originally,
but the intent became apparent after
a proposal for Phase II of funding
Kelly McCoy/B&W Staff