Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 9, 1993 TAG: 9303090214
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: associated Press
DATELINE: CHICAGO LENGTH: Medium
CHINESE STUDENT SUES UNIVERSITY
Zeng-Li Yang thought she had the promise of $12,000 a year to go with a job at Northwestern University and her new life in America.She received no money for two years. And when her husband sought pay on her behalf, she was beaten up by the man who recruited her and eventually fired.
The story of Yang, a graduate of a Beijing university, has produced protests and petitions on campus.
Yang turned down $32,000 offered by Northwestern, choosing to file a lawsuit. It was the second recent lawsuit involving alleged mistreatment of women at Northwestern.
Yang's history with the university began in 1990, when she was recruited from Beijing College of Traditional Chinese Medicine by Lang Xia, one of her former teachers. Yang, 40, has a bachelor's degree from the Beijing school.
A 1990 letter to Yang from Professor J. Peter Rosenfeld said she would work at Northwestern from Sept. 1, 1990, to May 31, 1993, for an annual salary of $12,000, according to a copy of the letter provided by Yang's lawyer, Jonathan Lustig.
She cared for and observed rats at a psychology laboratory in a study of the effects of opiate derivatives, Lustig said.
To survive without pay, Yang chopped vegetables in a student cafeteria and her husband worked as a busboy, Lustig said. They lived in a one-room apartment with furniture donated by a church, he said.
Northwestern said in a statement last week that Yang signed an agreement with Xia that she wouldn't get paid, though Yang denies it and Northwestern wouldn't produce a copy of the agreement.
Northwestern offered Yang $32,000 while acknowledging there might have been confusion about her salary. The school won't comment beyond its written statement, saying "the matter will now be resolved in court."
Yang's visa application, signed by university officials, also listed the $12,000 annual pay, according to a copy of the application provided by Lustig.
Yang, who doesn't speak English, waited two years before her husband confronted her bosses because she feared risking her status in the United States and her relationship with the school, Lustig said.
"You've got to remember where she came from," he said. "This was an opportunity of a lifetime. Why jeopardize it?"
Yang's husband went to Xia in August to inquire about her pay, Lustig said. When Yang showed up for work the next day, Xia, 54, kicked and beat her with his fists, Lustig said.
Xia didn't return telephone calls to his home and office.