A top former official at Wright State University has officially been fired after previously being on paid leave for more than three years. The provost’s termination is related to an ongoing probe into alleged violations of a federal temporary work-visa program.
Officials placed former provost Sundaram Narayanan on paid leave in 2015 after a federal investigation was launched into alleged immigration-law violations.
Narayanan was among several Wright State administrators who were suspended over possible abuses to the federal H-1B visa program, which was designed to help employers hire foreign workers for work in, “specialty occupations.”
An investigation implicated Narayanan and the other administrators in a scheme to misuse the visa program in order to secure workers for a local IT staffing agency.
On Wednesday, six of nine Wright State Board of Trustees members voted to fire the former provost effective June 30.
The Dayton Daily news reports that following the closed door meeting, board chairman Doug Fecher said Dr. Narayanan was a high-level decision maker, and the incident, “resulted in millions of dollars in losses,” for the university.
