OMG:St. John’s student testifies she was live-in maid for former dean Cecilia Chang in exchange for scholarship

Chinese student says she cooked, cleaned, grocery shopped, hand-washed dean's dirty underwear

Former St. Johns University Dean Cecilia Chang.

A former St. John's University student testified Monday that she cooked, cleaned and did laundry for her former dean because she feared losing her scholarship.


Peiyi (Tracy) Gan, a Chinese national, had no idea the 20-hours-per-week service to the school, which is required under the Asian Studies scholarship program, would mean she had to serve as Dr. Cecilia Chang's housekeeper and endure verbal abuse from Chang's son.

"To work for the dean is my duty," Gan testified in a deposition that was videotaped on Sept. 21 because she had to return to China.

"If I don't do the duties, she is going to terminate the scholarship," Gan said.

Her "duties" included mopping the kitchen and bathroom floors of Chang's fancy home in Jamaica Estates, grocery shopping, taking out the garbage, doing the laundry — Chang's underwear and her son's wet suit for surfing had to be handwashed — and cooking meals for the dean and her son Steven.

Chang and her son were not above critiquing the young woman's dishes.

"Sometimes she said 'Really delicious,'" sometimes 'Not tasty,'" Gan said. "(Steven) look at me and say, 'This is not delicious, don't cook it any more.'"

Steven Chang wouldn't even pick his dirty clothes off the floor and sometimes called Gan "stupid," she testified.

Cecilia Chang, a former dean of the university's Asian Studies Center, is charged with hand-picking students whom she could bribe with scholarships in order to force them into work as her personal servants.

Gan explained that she had received an associate degree in English and tourism from a college in China, but her test score was not high enough to continue for a four-year degree.

Gan's uncle, who lived in Brooklyn and knew Chang personally, suggested that she apply for a scholarship to St. John's.

She began working for Chang in the summer of 2004 — seven days a week at first. Another scholarship student showed her around Chang's house and explained her chores.

"Sometimes I like to work for her, sometimes she was nice to me," Gan said. "Sometimes it was a hard job…I just wanted to keep my scholarship."

Gan, now 31, continued working for Gan until 2007 when she earned a Master’s degree.

Chang even provided a scholarship to Gan's boyfriend, who did not speak Chinese. He was tasked with doing paperwork in the Asian Studies office.

On cross examination, defense lawyer Stephen Mahler pointed out living in Chang's house wasn't so bad — the former student had her own room and bathroom. Chang wasn't even home that often since she traveled abroad frequently.

"Were you satisfied with the food you had in the house?" Mahler said.

"Food I cooked," Gan pointed out.