CLEVELAND, OH – On April 26, 2022 Cleveland State University’s (CSU) board released information to the media announcing the replacement of its chief executive officer, Harlan Sands, with provost Laura Bloomberg. EJBNEWS had editorialized for Sands’ and law school dean Lee Fisher’s termination in February 2022.
The CSU board appointed Asian Indian alien Nigamanth Sridhar to the position Bloomberg left as “interim” provost during its administrative shakeup. He had been on leave of absence with the National Science Foundation since 2020.
The provost is CSU’s senior academic administrator. It places Sridhar in the role of senior vice president over managing academic faculty at a tax supported state university whose staff and student body is becoming increasingly foreign. Americans pay state and federal tax dollars to employ our citizens as educators to educate our nation’s children.

EJBNEWS electronically forwarded a public records request to CSU’s “chief counsel” on April 29 seeking a copy of Sands separation agreement, Bloomberg’s contract and Nigamanth’s personnel records. Among the requested public records sought should have been those that verified Nigamanth’s immigration and citizenship status; and federal authorization to work.
Section 3344.60 of the Ohio Adminstrative Code required CSU officials to conduct background screening to learn if and to ensure that all applicable federal laws had been met in hiring and promoting Sridhar. EJBNEWS cited section 149.43 of the Ohio Revised Code as the authorizing state law that granted access to the public records.
Though I chose to leave my name and make the request in writing as the author of the request, the state law doesn’t require a requestor to leave their name, submit a written request or to identify the reason for their desire to review or obtain public records. CSU has a duty to maintain public information in a manner that allows a requestor to visit its offices during normal business hours and review or receive copies. When EJBNEWS requested the documents on April 29, 2022, Sands’ separation agreement had already been made available to other media outlets. CSU’s legal counsel was “prompt” in delivering public records to other media outlets but not with EJBNEWS.
It took a second demand on May 17, 2022 to receive Sands’ separation agreement 19 days later. According to the unnamed response from the office of CSU’s chief legal counsel, attorney Sonali Wilson, the Bloomberg contract and Sridhar personnel records were being reviewed.

A biography associated with the Indian alien identifies him as a citizen of India who arrived here in 1999 to earn a doctorate in computer science from Ohio State University. Sridhar obtained a master of science degree from the Birla Institute of Technology & Science in Pilani, India in 1997. The school was established in 1964.
F1 and M1 student visas authorize citizens of other nations to remain in ours for the “duration of status” of their “full” course work. Foreign students are supposed to be economically self-sustaining for the duration of their studies. It takes between 4 and 6 years for students with full time jobs to complete a doctorate. Foreign students like Sridhar are supposed to be full-time so the duration of their “in country” time is shorter. Student visas expire in three years. They’re allowed to remain without extensions until their course work is completed.
Shyamala Gopolan, the late mother of Vice President Kamaladevi Harris, played the “forever a student” game and ultimately stopped interacting with immigration officials after she was scheduled for a deportation hearing in 1968 for “visa fraud.” Federal immigration officials then were on the lookout for alien students lying on federal documents to remain, unlawfully, in our nation.
Under “hardship” circumstances foreign students can work on campus if the work is specifically related to their studies. Foreign students are not permitted to work off campus without a written request and permission from DHS to be employed and obtain a social security number.
As a citizen of India Sridhar’s student visa, if he obtained one, came with a departure date. Sridhar could not have violated any federal, state or local laws, especially any immigration laws, if he wanted to change his immigration status in order to obtain an H1B “work” visa. It’s a temporary green card with a 3-year expiration or “leave America” date.

What his Linked In page shows is the Indian citizen graduated with a doctorate in computer science from Ohio State University around 2004; and applied and was accepted for employment at CSU in 2004 instead of returning to India. To hire a citizen of India in 2004 federal laws required CSU to certify to the following two attestations to DHS on federal forms.
- There are insufficient available, qualified, and willing U.S. workers to fill the position being offered at the prevailing wage
- Hiring a foreign worker will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of similarly employed U.S. workers
The “change of status” was supposed to have been requested by Sridhar from DHS in writing before he sought “off campus” work from CSU on his very restricted student visa; and 365 days before the expiration date. The state college was required to affirm that no Americans were available, qualified and willing to work for the jobs he held at each level of his climb up CSU’s administrative ladder. They were also supposed to validate his written request and written DHS approval dates. Sridhar had mandatory duties to provide them with his validating documents.

If Sridhar obtained an H1B visa prior to working for CSU it expired in 2007. He could get a 3-year extension if the state university’s officials attested on federal forms that no Americans – not even those who had graduated with Sridhar from OSU – were qualified to teach computer science.
After his 3-year H1B visa expired, Sridhar was authorized to one 3-year extension and then one “single” year extension. Afterwards he was supposed to return to India. The longest period he was authorized to work for CSU under an H1B visa would have been until 2011.
With each of the two extensions, and with each promotion upwards, CSU’s officials were required to attest on federal forms that no American was as qualified as Sridhar to teach computer sciences or serve as a dean. CSU would have no legal authority, unless he had been granted “permanent resident” status, to keep Sridhar working, being promoted and building an Ohio taxpayer funded pension for the next 11 years. In 2020 CSU allowed him to take a “leave of absence” to work for the federally-funded National Science Foundation.

If USCIS granted him an M1 visa, Sridhar had 60 days to return to India after his coursework was completed in 2004. An F1 visa would have given him 30 days to leave our borders and return to India. Unless he had been prior-approved to remain in America, Sridhar had no choice but to return to India and apply through the United States Embassy there for an H1B work visa or permanent resident status.
Without pre-approved written authorization to stay, Sridhar would have made himself ineligible to be hired by CSU, or to apply for permanent residence, by remaining and then working in our nation without it as an immigration criminal. He would have also needed “prior” DHS permission to seek off campus work and receive a social security card under his student visa.
Congress has enacted Title 8 of the United States Code, Section 1324b under the heading, “Unfair immigration-related employment practices.” Preferential employment is mandated for two classes of Americans. Those who are citizens or nationals; and those who are lawfully admitted aliens. Every employer – including those in Chinatown or the city’s foreign owned businesses – without exception is required by laws enacted by the United States Congress to complete a form that verifies the eligibility of workers to work in the United States of America.

The federal work authorization form is identified as an I9, Employment Verification Eligibility. The federal document applies to citizens, nationals and non-citizens; and is completed by the employee who is required to “attest” to their eligibility to work.
As an example, the Indian owners of Miles Market at East 131st and Miles Road must have I-9’s and attestations that no Americans wanted jobs as cashiers at the store’s checkout counters to hire all Indians. Americans wanting the jobs have the authority to report the owners to DHS. Municipal police have the authority to enforce federal criminal laws that pertain to immigration and aliens pursuant to Section 737.11 of the Ohio Revised Code. Cleveland police under Mayor Justin Bibb are too busy chasing Americans who ride dirt bikes with the unlawful assistance of the Ohio Highway Patrol.
It violates Title 8, Section 1324a of the United States Code for employers to hire workers who are not citizens or lawfully admitted aliens. Protected class citizens, nationals and lawfully admitted aliens have rights to challenge and file complaints against employers hiring H-1B or green card workers who have to leave within 6 years. Locally the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio along with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and DHS are the enforcement authorities.
CSU is authorized to sponsor foreign workers pursuant to Section 3344-60-03 of the Ohio Administrative Code, but only with the permission of DHS. Since the state authorizes CSU to receive federal funds there are references throughout Section 3344 of the Ohio Administrative Code that its officials are to obey federal laws. Part of the records EJBNEWS wants to review are those associated with the “mandatory” duties CSU officials were required to perform in order to hire an Indian alien. Did they fully comply with every federal law requirement to the letter of the law?
According to records on file with the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, Sridhar appears to now be claiming that he’s a citizen, Sridhar has been voting as a Democrat from precinct 15M since November 8, 2016. Since then he’s voted in 10 federal, state or local elections. Aliens here with student visas and work visas have no voting rights. It’s a criminal offense for Sridhar to have cast votes in federal elections if he was not a citizen. Under Ohio law a non-citizen cannot register to vote.
Sridhar’s first election vote was “absentee” in 2016 during the federal election cycle. Half his votes have been absentee. The year President Donald Trump encouraged Americans to challenge illegal voters at the polls in 2020 Sridhar voted absentee. Sridhar also voted absentee in last year’s federal primary election for Congress in the 11th Congressional District.

CSU is a university created by the Ohio General Assembly and the laws controlling how its governed are found in Section 3344 of the Ohio Administrative Code. It’s records, including email, are public and only Sridhar’s social security number and those of his dependents can be redacted. None of the records or documents EJBNEWS seeks is exempted from disclosure under state laws. CSU’s hiring policies are found at Section 3344.60 of the Ohio Administrative Code.
Sridhar last July 2020 was appointed to a seat on the Cleveland Municipal School District’s board of education by former Mayor Frank Jackson. He was confirmed by a Cleveland city council former councilmember Kevin Kelley presided over as president. Cleveland is one of the American cities that calls itself a “sanctuary” for illegal aliens. It suggests that no city hall official bothered to confirm that Sridhar was legally authorized to assume the public office.
In 1947 President Harry Truman allowed 24,000 foreign students access to an education in our colleges and universities. Today the annual number under President Joseph Biden and Indian alien Harris exceeds 1.7 million.
53 percent of Case Western Reserve University’s (CWRU) 2024 graduating class is foreign and last year generated an investigation of its foreign deals by the United States Department of Education. Former CWRU president Barbara Snyder was asked to identify the foreign dollars associated with the 200 agreements she’d entered with 40 foreign governments. One of her contracts included educating Saudi Arabian instead of Americans in dentistry.
It is up to Sridhar to maintain all of the requests he’s submitted and approvals he’s received from federal immigration authorities to arrive, study, be employed, vote and now hold public office in the United States of America. It is up to CSU officials to have asked him to deliver the records to them before he was hired. The same with the mayor and council of Cleveland. Hiring an undocumented worker, or one working with fraudulent documents, is a “federal” criminal offense.
As of May 24, 2022, CSU officials have still not delivered the public records EJBNEWS sought on April 29, 2022. Ohio’s open records law requires that they be delivered “promptly.” Prompt for records that are supposed to be maintained in a manner that the public can walk into the office and inspect them during regular business hours is not 26 days.
Either Sridhar and CSU obeyed federal immigration laws or they didn’t. EJBNEWS seeks to affirm that its officials either obeyed or disobeyed federal immigration laws.