Officials at a New Jersey college where a Chinese graduate student was arrested for allegedly threatening to burn down a campus building say they're concerned that the incident is being misreported in foreign-language media.

Zhai Tiantian, a former graduate student at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey, was arrested April 15 and faces a charge of making a terroristic threat.

The charge, which can refer to a range of verbal threats, has been reported by some Chinese media outlets as Zhai being arrested for allegedly being a terrorist.

College officials say that misunderstanding, as well as several foreign news reports that seem to indicate Zhai was arrested for questioning authority or clashing with a teacher, has distorted what they say is a long-running disciplinary situation into a mini-international incident.

Zhai's attorney, Ming Hai, said his client denies making the threat and feels his arrest was retaliation for arguing with a teacher, publicly criticizing the school and threatening to sue.

Stevens spokesman Michael Schinelli said Zhai was suspended March 11 _ nearly a month before his arrest _ after a lengthy investigation that found he had numerous violations of the school's code of conduct.

Schinelli, who declined to detail the violations citing student privacy rules, said they involved Zhai and several individuals, none of them faculty.

Zhai appealed his suspension, Schinelli said, and it was upheld. Zhai was arrested April 15 after allegedly threatening in a letter or e-mail to burn down the administration building, Schinelli said.

He said Zhai was a longtime student known to many at Stevens as "a very bright, very clever" student who had received bachelor's and master's degrees and was enrolled in the Ph.D. program studying enterprise systems, a computer-related field.

School officials were concerned for Zhai's well-being and had been trying to contact his family in China, Schinelli said.

"This is an institution that's been here for 140 years, and has never had anything like this happen," Schinelli said. "It's an unfortunate situation."

Ming said his 26-year-old client came to the United States from Xian, China, at age 19. He said Zhai's family in China was desperately trying to get answers about his case as Zhai remains in detention at the Hudson County Correction Center. Zhai faces deportation once the criminal complaint is resolved in U.S. courts, Ming said. His student visa has been revoked, he said.

"He's a young person living in the U.S. since he was 19 years old, so he has no parental (supervision) since 19 years old, and sometimes he may lose control, but basically I don't think Chinese people would become a terrorist," Ming said. "They may say some wrong things, but that's the worst; they don't pull terrorist acts. This guy is a Ph.D. candidate, I don't think if he said something he's serious about it."