Latitudes

Protests add a new wrinkle to overseas-campus debate

Students and faculty members said a doctoral student who pulled out the Arab head scarf and shouted “free Palestine” as they crossed the graduation stage was detained and later removed from the Persian Gulf country. Other students made gestures of protest when receiving their diplomas, they said.

Witnesses asked not to be named because of fears about the consequences of speaking out. An NYU spokesman neither disputed nor confirmed the events when contacted by The Chronicle.

Colleges in the United States have also struggled with how to respond to campus protests over the Israel-Hamas war, which have included disruptions to graduation ceremonies. But the stakes can be heightened at overseas branch campuses in countries where local speech protections are not as strong and students and professors may worry about jeopardizing their visas.

The fallout from NYU-Abu Dhabi’s May 22 commencement has again raised questions about whether American colleges can keep their assurances of free exchange at international outposts.

“What concerns us is that the commitment to academic freedom has been eroded in the aftermath of war,” said Paula Chakravartty, an associate professor of media, culture, and communication and vice president of NYU’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors. “Whatever guarantee there has been has been thrown out the window.”

The faculty-rights organization released a statement criticizing NYU for having “silenced” students and professors in Abu Dhabi. What “should have been a moment of celebration of achievements,” they wrote, “turned into a heavily policed event.”

The Middle East Studies Association also sent a letter to Linda G. Mills, president of NYU, and Fabio Piano, interim vice chancellor of the Abu Dhabi campus, expressing “grave concern” about the events. The group called on administrators to “publicly and forcefully reaffirm your commitment to respect and uphold the free-speech rights and the academic freedom of faculty, students, and staff across all of NYU’s campuses, and to fully protect their safety and well-being.”

Graduating students were told in a May 17 email from Abu Dhabi administrators that they could only wear “approved academic attire” and that they could not decorate their caps or gowns with pins, symbols, or inscriptions. Bags, signs, posters, banners, flags, and flag-like attire were also barred from the ceremony, the message said, asking students and their guests to maintain “high standards of civility and achievement.”

Footage from previous commencement exercises, however, shows graduates wearing keffiyehs and other cultural dress.

One student told The Chronicle she felt “completely defeated” when reading the email. “We’re going to graduate, and we have no voice,” she said. Students said they were searched when entering the commencement venue and again as they lined up to receive their diplomas.

In addition to the student with the keffiyeh, who was allegedly detained for a week before being deported, other graduates made a thumbs-down sign or signed “free Palestine” in American Sign Language, witnesses said. Such gestures of protest are not clear in a recording of the ceremony NYU posted online. Those who protested said they were cut from the video.

Some of the students later faced disciplinary action.

NYU enrolled its first students in Abu Dhabi in 2010. Two years later, it announced a second overseas liberal-arts college, in Shanghai.

In a written statement, John Beckman, an NYU spokesman, said that “in both Shanghai and Abu Dhabi, we have been guaranteed academic authority over our campuses’ scholarly mission, and our partners have lived up to those commitments of academic freedom in our classrooms, research spaces, study areas, and libraries.”

Courses that cover the Israel-Palestine conflict continue to be taught in Abu Dhabi, Beckman said, noting there had not been allegations of “any interference with such courses or research.”

Still, Beckman wrote that students and faculty and staff members must abide by local laws at all of NYU’s locations, including in the United States, and that the university has “no authority over any nation’s immigration or law-enforcement actions or decisions.“

“This reality,” he said, “is why we undertake substantial efforts to make sure our community members understand the culture and laws in which they pursue their studies and scholarship, and advise them clearly and repeatedly about expectations, obligations, and boundaries, including the protocols for the NYU-Abu Dhabi graduation.”

Beckman did not respond to specific questions about whether administrators in New York or Abu Dhabi had set the commencement rules. He also did not answer queries about whether authorities in the United Arab Emirates had asked NYU to put restrictions on protests at graduation or during the academic year.

Mills, the NYU president, and Mariët Westermann, then-vice chancellor of the Abu Dhabi campus who has since left to lead the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation, attended the commencement ceremony, as did some NYU trustees and members of the Emirati royal family. When the administrators congratulated graduates, a number refused to shake their hands, witnesses said.

Crackdowns on campus

The anxieties predate the conflict over commencement. Since the Israel-Hamas war began last fall, pro-Palestinian vigils and teach-ins at NYU-Abu Dhabi have been shut down, and organizers have been questioned, students and professors said. Earlier vigils, in support of Ukraine and Black Lives Matter protests, had been held without incident.

There have been restrictions on hanging posters and banners or wearing keffiyehs on campus, and efforts to create a Palestinian cultural-affinity group for professors were vetoed. At least one academic staff member has also been deported, according to the AAUP.

While some NYU faculty members, especially critics of the branch campus or of the Abu Dhabi government, have previously been denied visas to enter the country, the latest actions could represent a narrowing of speech and expression.

In the past, academic freedom “was more or less respected within the walls of the campus,” said Pursley, who is also a member of the NYU-AAUP executive board. “There weren’t crackdowns on campus.”

It’s unclear whether Abu Dhabi’s government has been taking a tougher stance on activities on foreign campuses or if NYU officials acted preemptively, essentially self-censoring. The Gulf state typically does not allow dissent or protest, but one student, who grew up in the region, said NYU’s restrictions exceeded those imposed off campus.

The dissonance between local rules and open academic inquiry, the foundation of liberal-arts education, has long led to wariness about efforts of American colleges to set up campuses in countries or regions, such as the Middle East, China, and Singapore, without the same protections for speech and nondiscrimination.

War has created a difficult environment for scholars of the Middle East

Seven in 10 American-based scholars said the challenges since the Israel-Hamas conflict began last October are the worst or among the worst issues caused by political events that they have faced in their academic careers.

You can learn more about the University of Maryland’s Middle East Scholar Barometer survey here.

Bonus reading: Scholars of the Middle East aren’t the only academics who have had to cope with the fallout from geopolitical tensions. Professors who study China and Russia have had to contend with difficulties in conducting on-the-ground research and the politicalization of formerly innocuous areas of inquiry.

Biden announces new protections for undocumented college graduates

The government plans to update guidance for granting waivers for employment visas to young people brought to the United States as children. Although there is a waiver process in place, it is lengthy, cumbersome, and subjective, and it requires coordination between multiple federal agencies. As a result, few undocumented students or their potential employers even apply for the waivers, the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration said in a fact sheet.

President Biden also announced that the government will expand legal protections for the undocumented spouses of American citizens, permitting them to remain in the United States while they update their legal status. The new policy could benefit 500,000 people.

Around the globe

Language that would have increased federal oversight of foreign gifts and contracts to American colleges has been stripped from a defense-authorization bill.

The House Committee on Education and the Workforce has approved legislation that would increase disclosure of foreign funding to public schools, in particular from China.

Citizens of China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, and Russia without permanent-resident status in the United States would be barred from visiting U.S. Department of Energy labs under a proposal passed by the Senate intelligence committee. The measure could affect students, postdoctoral fellows, and visiting researchers on temporary visas.

The Cleveland Clinic Foundation paid a record settlement to the U.S. Department of Justice to resolve allegations that it mismanaged research grants by not disclosing funding from China. The agreement could have an impact on other research institutions that receive government funding, including colleges.

Charles M. Lieber, a former Harvard University professor who is one of few American academics convicted as part of the China Initiative, is reportedly considering taking a job at a university in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong’s government has set up a commission to review leadership controversies at the University of Hong Kong.

More young adults in China are taking blue-collar jobs after unemployment rates for recent college graduates spiked.

The Australian government will restrict some temporary-visa holders in the country from applying for student visas in an effort to limit “visa hopping.”

Iranian universities could open branch campuses in Iraq.

A Palestinian professor at a prominent Israeli university who criticized the Israeli government’s military action in Gaza is under investigation for inciting terrorism.

Colleges in Russia are raising tuition because of high inflation, driven by a surge in military spending.

An effort by European countries to standardize learning outcomes across the region fell short of 20-year student-mobility goals.

The British government could halve the number of Afghan students that receive the prestigious Chevening Scholarship despite difficulties accessing education in Afghanistan, particularly for women.

Canadian colleges said reporting requirements under a proposed foreign-influence-transparency registry could harm international academic partnerships.

The U.S. Department of State awarded grants to 37 American colleges to expand study-abroad programming.

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.