Letter: Professors' relationships with foreign students need legalities

Editor,

The shocking killing of UCLA professor William Klug by his former graduate student in engineering, one Mainak Sircar who was from India, begs examination of exploitation of foreign students by American professors, because in this case Sircar reportedly bore a grudge against this former professor, having claimed earlier that Klug had “cleverly” stolen his code.

Yes, UCLA like many schools requires intellectual property (such as uniquely brilliant code) to be signed over to the university for subsequent licensing possibility, if it is developed at the university. But an American professor possesses extraordinary power over the future career of foreign students from a third world country. So how many professors exploit the typical naiveté of such a foreigner and take credit for what is really the student’s original work, in publication? Later the professor may just go ahead and use the research data acquired by the student to verify the goodness of fit to the student’s own mathematical model; the question here is whether this is ethical, because pure data could at some level be considered intellectual property, however elemental.

And the student who not only benefits by but absolutely needs a good recommendation from the professor typically just accepts this quietly, a huge reason being this third world student may be the best and brightest in the world, but they want to stay on in America and this is the only way to get that green card.

All this time, the foreign student not being an American may not know and definitely may not get apprised by the university, including said professor who is their advisor and/or the head of the corresponding group, about royalty sharing, should a student’s invention be commercialized by the university.

On top of this all is the sad fact that the culture in places like India (where Sircar got his first degree, in a top engineering school) is such that you do not argue such matters with your professor or do something about it. You are supposed to show your professor respect and obedience. So Sircar could have applied that mentality here in America and repressed for as long as he did any desire to complain about the possible “stealing” of code, and then he lost it.

It is therefore imperative that a non-fuzzy and uniform standard be applied in America, clarifying the transnational legalities of the working relationship between American professors and foreign students, in which grievances about the student not getting credit and even intellectual property rights and corresponding patents can be uploaded by the student even if they are a foreigner, without fear of retaliation, so that grudges do not build up to where such a tragedy happens.

Arun Ahuja

UNM student