GRAND RAPIDS — A Michigan State University engineering professor exploited his students and forced them to work long hours for little to no pay at his personal company, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court.

MSU officials have known about the issue since at least 2011, but did not take action to monitor the students working for Professor Parviz Soroushian, a lawsuit filed March 22 in the United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan alleges.

Because of the pending litigation, MSU officials declined to comment on the issues raised in the suit, MSU deputy spokesperson Heather Young said.

Soroushian told the State Journal on Friday he denies all the allegations made against him in the lawsuit. He has been on paid administrative leave since July 2018, when Michigan State began an investigation into his conduct with students at his lab, Lansing-based Metna Co.

Soroushian is is a 35-year veteran in MSU's College of Engineering and holds degrees in both civil and structural engineering. In addition to serving as a tenured professor, he is an academic adviser.

So when Salina Ramli began her doctoral program in January 2016, she believed she had no choice but to work at Metna when he told her to, according to the lawsuit.

Ramli, who was at MSU on a Malaysian government-funded scholarship, worked at Metna every day she didn't have class, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., at times staying as late as 7 p.m. for meetings.

But her second semester, Soroushian said she wasn't allowed to take off the days she had class, according to the lawsuit. Her scholarship only covered tuition and a modest stipend, so she had to earn money elsewhere.

Ramli, the mother of two children, said in the lawsuit she started working at a bakery from 3 a.m. to 8 a.m. so she could keep up with bills.

She'd return to Metna at 9 a.m. to continue her research.

In August 2017, Talal Salem started his doctoral program. He paid his own tuition, and Soroushian told Salem he would pay him $300 a month to work at Metna as a research assistant.

He started off working a few hours, here and there. A month later, Soroushian required him to work full-time, up to seven days a week, earning a few hundred dollars more per month.

Salem worked all hours of the night, at times leaving in the early morning hours, according to the lawsuit.

Soroushian refused to let Salem take time off to study for exams, and "used his authority as Salem's adviser to force him to work," according to the lawsuit.

The work Salem and Ramli did at Metna was physically, mentally and emotionally taxing, according to court records. They had to do heavy physical labor, including lifting and moving heavy equipment, and milling, mixing and casting concrete.

Salem suffered multiple shoulder dislocations which needed surgery and metal screws to fix. Ramli has untreated back and knee pain from the labor.

The work largely fell outside their career interests, according to the lawsuit.

Soroushian would yell at Ramli when the research didn't produce the desired results, and told her she did not deserve a Ph.D, according to the lawsuit.

She became so scared of him that she shook in his presence.

No other options

But regardless of Soroushian's treatment, Ramli and Salem didn't have many options, according to the lawsuit. Their doctoral progress depended on a favorable evaluation from Soroushian.

If they defied him, he had the power to devastate their academic careers, according to the lawsuit.

It's very uncommon to switch advisers within a doctoral program, and when Ramli attempted to do so, according to the lawsuit, she was unsuccessful.

When Ramli and another student went to the department chair, Venkatesh Kodur, Kodur told Soroushian that the two students had complained about him.

"Despite receiving multiple complaints and having general familiarity with Soroushian's historical mistreatment of his advisees, Kodur did nothing to investigate or intervene," the lawsuit said.

Kodur did not respond to a request for comment.

MSU's investigation

The lawsuit alleges Soroushian's abuse and exploitation of his students was an "open secret" in the college.

In July 2018, the dean of the College of Engineering initiated an investigation of Soroushian, which reportedly arose from several anonymous complaints, according to the lawsuit.

The report, which was sent to the university for review in December 2018, found a "significant culture of disregard" within the department and a "demonstrable lack of concern" for the health, safety and welfare of graduate students who had been working with Soroushian, according to the lawsuit.

MSU's Young said she had no comment on that allegation, and said the university was still reviewing the report to determine what actions to take.

The college knew about that allegation well before 2018, according to the lawsuit. In January 2011, MSU prohibited Soroushian from "acting in ways that enriched himself at the expense of ... the University students."

MSU and Soroushian agreed to a conflict of interest management plan after 2011 regarding his Okemos-based company, Technova, according to the lawsuit. The plan was updated in 2016 to include Metna.

Young said she could not comment on this plan because it was too closely related to the pending litigation.

The plan prohibited Soroushian from serving as the chairperson of any thesis or dissertation committee for a student who works for him, and it required him to disclose his relationship with Metna to students, according to the lawsuit. It also claims MSU's administrators, including Kodur, failed to supervise Soroushian.

The lawsuit claims Kodur told investigators it was "not his job to go to Dr. Soroushian's company to check on the students."

"Soroushian was left to abuse and exploit his students, with no oversight, supervision or intervention, despite MSU's knowledge of Soroushian's history of using University students for his personal enrichment," according to the lawsuit.

Contact Kara Berg at 517-377-1113 or kberg@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @karaberg95.