Latitudes

Fulbright scholars caught in the middle as Russia blacklists international-exchange group

The “undesirable” law is an increasingly popular weapon in Russia’s efforts to tamp down on dissent and squelch international engagement. IIE, as the institute is known, is among some 140 human-rights groups, think tanks, media outlets, and educational organizations that have been designated as undesirable under a nine-year-old law, a list that includes the Wilson Center, in Washington, D.C., and Bard College, in New York.

And IIE’s blacklisting means something else — the Fulbright Program, which the organization administers, is now effectively banned in Russia. The U.S. Department of State said that Fulbright, the flagship U.S. exchange program, has “temporarily suspended” its work there. Because associating with an undesirable organization can result in fines or imprisonment, Fulbright can’t even communicate with applicants or alumni in Russia.

This is an about-face: Fulbright ran academic exchanges in Russia even during the Cold War. IIE’s history goes back further — it helped Russian students stranded in Europe following the Bolshevik Revolution continue their studies, in Europe or on scholarships to the United States.

In its announcement, the Russian government called IIE and the other nongovernmental groups “anti-Russian programs and projects aimed at recruiting ‘agents of influence’ under the guise of educational and cultural exchanges.” Earlier this year, the head of Russia’s intelligence service accused the United States of seeking to meddle in his country’s elections by “activating” former Fulbrighters and other graduates of American exchanges as a “fifth column.”

It’s another reminder of how international academic engagement — meant to advance cultural collaboration, mutual understanding, and common knowledge — has become entangled in today’s global conflicts. In 2020, the U.S. government canceled the Fulbright Program to mainland China and Hong Kong, amid rising tensions between the two countries.

But that’s the geopolitics of it. There’s a human side, too. While future recruitment has been suspended, a group of 100 current Russian Fulbrighters, including graduate students and foreign-language teaching assistants, are in the United States.

The Russian government has long been opaque about its enforcement of the undesirable law when it comes to Russian citizens. Ties to blacklisted organizations could result in administrative fines or, in a few cases, arrest and detention. Or nothing could happen at all.

The Fulbright scholars can’t fully erase the association. It’s on their résumés and affixed in their passports, listed on their American visas.

Some Russian Fulbrighters are pressing the U.S. government to do more to help them stay in this country — echoes of the case of Central European University, where there were calls for the Vienna-based liberal-arts institution to more actively support and assist its Russian students and staff members.

But the Fulbrighters aren’t all on one page. Some fear that public advocacy in the United States could further endanger those who want to return home.

You can read more about the situation in The Chronicle.

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Blinken calls student exchange the “best way” for U.S.-China understanding

In remarks at New York University’s campus in Shanghai, Blinken called academic exchange and international study key to U.S.-China relations.

“Americans studying in China, Chinese students studying in the United States, getting to know each other’s countries, getting to know each other. This is really the best way to make sure that we start by hopefully understanding one another,” he said. “That’s a really important way to make sure that we avoid miscommunications and misperceptions, and even where we have profound differences, we can find ways for improvement — and, I hope, also build things together, build cooperation together.”

The number of Chinese students studying in the United States has decreased by about a third from all-time highs, as India has overtaken China as the top source of international students on American campuses.

But the fall off in American students going to China has been more precipitous, from 15,000 in 2011-12 to only 350 last year. Blinken said about 900 American students are now in the country and that he supports calls by Chinese President Xi Jinping to attract 50,000 young Americans to China in the next five years.

Still, Blinken said he told Chinese officials that for international academic collaboration to thrive, China must do more to promote academic freedom, foster open discussion, and ensure the safety of American visitors.

The State Department has maintained a travel advisory for China, cautioning Americans to “reconsider” travel there, citing China’s “arbitrary enforcement of local laws, including in relation to exit bans and wrongful detention.” Because many colleges base their study-abroad policies on the State Department warnings, it has remained more difficult for Americans to go to China.

Even as higher-education and business groups have called for loosening the travel restrictions, a top congressional Republican said the Biden administration should not lift obstacles to U.S. citizens going to China for study or work. “Americans are not safe when traveling to China,” Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican who is chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee, wrote in The Hill. “The risks far outweigh the rewards.

As protests spread, international students face hard choices

Cornell later reversed the suspension, but Taal’s remarks underscored the complicated calculus international students face when deciding whether to engage in public protest. Just like American citizens, they have First Amendment rights to free speech. But because of they are studying on student visas, they can also face harsh penalties — being arrested or convicted, for example, could affect their current visa status or ability to enter the United States in the future. And because international students are required to be enrolled full time, expulsions or lengthy suspensions could also cause them to run afoul of visa rules.

As demonstrations spread to dozens of campuses across the country, international-student offices are weighing how to respond: They are concerned about students’ safety and legal status, but don’t want to be perceived as stifling speech. Over the past week, many colleges have emailed foreign students or posted guidance online informing them of their right to protest and of the risks.

Students’ own choices have varied widely. One student, at a West Coast college, told me he supports student activists’ goals but would find ways of engaging other than physical protests, such as letter-writing campaigns, that he perceives to be safer. Another student, at an institution in the Northeast, said she didn’t feel comfortable speaking out because she is a “guest in this country” — and that she had to study for final exams.

My colleagues Sonel Cutler and Alecia Taylor spoke with David, an international student at Emerson College, in Boston, who was arrested last month by campus police when joining pro-Palestinian demonstrations. During his eight hours in jail, he wondered if he’d ever see his apartment or classmates again because of his visa status. (All of the students asked not to be identified because of safety concerns.)

Recent protests have reignited calls by some elected officials to revoke the the visas of international students who express support for Palestinians or criticize the Israeli government’s military response in Gaza. Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican of Florida, said the visas of foreign students who harass Jewish students should be “canceled and they should be sent home. That should just happen.” Sen. Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican, has repeatedly posted calls on social media to “deport all foreign students in the USA on visas who support Hamas.”

Some publications have amplified the unsubstantiated assertion that “hate-filled foreign students” are driving the protests. A writer for Tablet magazine, for example, contended that it was “evident” and “obvious” that protest leaders are international students, citing a brief mention of “visa issues” in a statement from Sally Kornbluth, president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

While students of all backgrounds have joined the protests, less than five percent of international students are from the Middle East and North Africa. Foreign students comprise only about 5 percent of all enrollments at American colleges.

During the Black Lives Matter marches, I talked with international students about the complicated cultural, social, and political reasons they choose to, or not to, take part in protests. I’d like to hear the perspective of international students on the current demonstrations about the Israel-Hamas war. Email me at karin.fischer@chronicle.com.

More on Gaza protests and global education

In “The Interpreter,” The New York Times’s global newsletter, columnist Amanda Taub digs into why campus demonstrations over Gaza have so far been a largely American phenomenon. There have been sit-ins at overseas campuses — such Australia’s University of Sydney, the University of Warwick in Britain, and Sciences Po and the Sorbonne in France — but they have been more widespread in this country.

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, called the college protests “horrific” and said that “antisemitism on campuses in the United States is reminiscent of what happened in German universities in the 1930s.” In a statement, presidents of nine Israeli research universities wrote that “freedom of expression and the right to demonstrate are vital to the health of any democracy and are especially crucial in academic settings” but that violence and threats by protesters crossed the line.

And an essay making the rounds in China circles compares (and contrasts) today’s protests to the 1989 student movement that culminated in the Chinese government’s crackdown in Tiananmen Square.

Around the globe

Xiaolei Wu, a Chinese student at Boston’s Berklee College of Music, has been sentenced to nine months in prison for threatening and stalking a fellow activist who posted fliers in support of democracy in China. Human-rights groups have said such behavior is part of a troubling trend in which authoritarian governments harass, intimidate, and surveil international students, visiting scholars, and foreign-born faculty members on American campuses.

The U.S. Department of Education said it has fixed a problem that prevented students from submitting federal financial-aid applications if one or more of their parents is undocumented.

Western Iowa Tech Community College has approved a $3-million settlement to a federal lawsuit filed by 13 students from Chile who alleged the college lied to them about internships. The students said they were promised scholarships and internships in their fields of study but were instead forced to work in factory jobs. The college said the settlement is not an admission of liability.

The United States is seeing a surge in popularity among international students amid policy changes seen as detrimental to academic mobility in other major destination countries, according to an IDP Education survey of 11,500 current and prospective students.

More than 50 British universities report job cuts because of international-enrollment declines.

A cap on international students in Canada has led some colleges to begin announcing the closure of academic programs.

Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat of Maryland, has signed into law a bill that will require community colleges in the state to grant degree credit for English-language courses and for four-year colleges to accept the transfer of such credits.

The University of California at San Diego will give preference to Californians who want to choose selective majors, like engineering and data science, over international students.

Students and faculty members walked out of classes to protest austerity measures imposed by Argentina’s government that have made it difficult to keep the lights on at some colleges.

International students have been blamed for a housing crunch in Australia, but the fault is misplaced, according to a study, which found that students are not competing with families for rentals.

The British government shouldn’t regulate campus speech, argues a prominent university vice chancellor, saying that public officials have taken a “schizophrenic approach” to college protests and speech.

Thanks for reading. I always welcome your feedback and ideas for future reporting, so drop me a line at karin.fischer@chronicle.com. You can also connect with me on X or LinkedIn. If you like this newsletter, please share it with colleagues and friends. They can sign up here.