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Ex-St John's Dean Accused of Using Students As Slaves
By
Ben Yakas
Published Sep 30, 2010
Modified Sep 30, 2010
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Sep 30, 2010
Modified Sep 30, 2010
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The former St. John's dean who is accused of embezzling over $1 million from the school is facing new charges that she used scholarships to force students to work for her off-campus for the most menial of duties. We imagine this wasn't as bad an indentured servitude as it was for Karla Giraldo, but maybe worse than what LeBron James got.
Feds say that Cecilia Chang, 57, who had gotten very comfortable at Rikers Island lately, "expected [the students] to perform duties...for a period of twenty hours per week." To keep them in line, she "notified the students by letter that their 'grant may be terminated at any time' by [Chang] if the recipient fails to perform his or her work duties." Instead of school work, she had the scholarship students cook, clean, wash clothes, chauffeur herself and her son, and babysit for a friend's child. One unfortunate student told the FBI he was was responsible for taking out the garbage and shoveling snow at her home.
Chang, who worked as dean of St. John's Center of Asian Studies for nearly 20 years, was responsible for choosing 15 students to give scholarships to each year. She was caught in 2009 after an internal probe revealed that she had spent nearly $1.3 million to pay for casino trips, lingerie from Victoria's Secret and her son's law school tuition.
Tagged
cecilia chang
embezzlement
scholarships
slaves
St. John's
students
Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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