A change of plea hearing has been rescheduled for the St. Cloud State University professor facing charges of conspiracy and smuggling.

Yiwei "Steve" Zheng is accused of transporting elephant ivory and rhinoceros horns to China in a scheme that ran from 2006-2011. He was arrested in March on three charges of smuggling in the fourth degree, one count of conspiracy, making false statements and a Lacey Act violation. The Lacey Act prevents illegal trade of wildlife, fish or plants.

According to court records, Zheng was scheduled to appear in front of Judge John R. Tunheim in a change of plea hearing Thursday morning. However, a notice of rescheduling was added to the docket Wednesday.

Zheng is now due in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis January 13, 2016. He will still appear before Judge Tunheim, but the hearing has been moved to Courtroom 2 at 10 a.m.

In the meantime, Zheng continues to teach at SCSU in the Department of Philosophy.