Latitudes: As foreign governments extend their reach, U.S. colleges must do more to protect international students and scholars

A report looks at transnational repression in academe. Plus, a setback for undocumented students, and another college goes need-blind for foreign applicants. ADVERTISEMENT [Latitudes Logo]( You can also [read this newsletter on the web](. Or, if you no longer want to receive this newsletter, [unsubscribe](. Transnational repression an “everyday threat” on U.S. campuses A federal jury has [convicted]( a Chinese student at the Berklee College of Music of stalking and threatening a fellow student and activist who posted fliers in support of democracy in China. Prosecutors said Xiaolei Wu, 26, sent the activist a series of messages on email, Instagram, and WeChat, writing, “Post more, I will chop your bastard hands off.” Wu also published the victim’s email address online and said he had reported the student’s actions to security officials in China who would question their family. Wu, who was found guilty last week after a four-day trial, 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, according to Freedom House. In a [report]( released today, the nonprofit human-rights group warns that transnational repression on American campuses is an “everyday threat” and that college leaders are not doing enough to protect vulnerable students and scholars and safeguard academic freedom. “Universities and colleges are supposed to be places where we can have conversations about democracy and other sensitive issues,” said Yana Gorokhovskaia, research director for strategy and design at Freedom House and one of the authors of the report. “It’s hard for people to understand that foreign governments can reach you if you live in the U.S. or Canada.” In recent years, American colleges have become [increasingly international]( forming research partnerships, joint academic programs, and other collaborations with universities overseas. More than one million foreign students studied in the United States last year, and as many as [one in five professors]( was born in another country. These international linkages have important benefits, Gorokhovskaia and her co-author, Grady Vaughan, a research associate at Freedom House, said, exposing domestic students to global perspectives, expanding access to American degrees, and improving the quality of education and research. But the ties also have a downside, making colleges more at risk to repressive activity from abroad. The report — the latest exploring the impact of transnational repression on particular sectors or communities, including journalism — catalogs a number of incidents, such as a [firestorm]( in 2022 over posters critical of China’s human-rights effort at George Washington University and efforts in 2019 by the Chinese Students and Scholars Association at McMaster University, in Canada, to work with local embassy officials to [disrupt]( a campus speech by an activist from China’s Uyghur Muslim minority. The group was banned from McMaster’s campus later that year. Episodes involving Chinese students have been more prominent, both because of Chinese-government efforts to limit dissent and because of the large number of Chinese students at American colleges — about one of every three international students. But Vaughan and Gorokhovskaia said other governments, including India, Rwanda, and [Saudi Arabia]( have sought to exercise control over students and scholars abroad. Some incidents are the result of direct government action, such as a graduate student in a human-rights seminar who was asked by officials at her country’s embassy to report on classroom discussion by fellow students from her country. (The Freedom House report does not name the country.) In other cases, the pressure is less explicit, with government policy encouraging students, like Wu, to keep tabs on their classmates. Some students and scholars engage in self-censorship, like a [student journalist]( at Yale University who was afraid her reporting on anti-Chinese-government protests in New Haven could endanger her family back home in China. Gorokhovskaia noted that the students, professors, and administrators who spoke with Freedom House asked to do so anonymously because of concerns about the risk of being publicly identified. Still, such incidents can fly under the radar because they can be hard to spot, like digital harassment, or appear minor, like removing fliers. But repression doesn’t just affect those who are its targets but everyone on campus, by narrowing academic freedom and silencing open discussion. “It worsens the climate for Americans,” Vaughan said. “It hurts the dialogue in the classroom.” The report said that a lack of attention to transnational repression has left students and scholars to deal with its impact on their own, calling the lack of reporting mechanisms “by far the biggest weakness in existing campus responses.” It makes several recommendations for actions college leaders can take, including: - Adopting a standard definition for transnational repression and identifying common tactics. Doing so will raise awareness among students and professors, the report said. - Creating a mechanism for reporting incidents of foreign influence or harassment. The system should include safeguards for the rights of those accused of acting on behalf of foreign governments. - Issuing statements of support for students and scholars affected by transnational repression, underscoring institutional commitments to free speech and academic freedom. - Incorporating transnational repression into existing student and faculty codes of conduct. Modules on the issue can be included in student and professional orientations. - Working with other colleges and academic associations to discuss experiences with transnational repression and share best practices. The authors note that there have been some efforts to raise awareness of and combat transnational repression. The International Safety and Security Office at the University of Wisconsin at Madison has created an [information guide]( outlining the purpose and tactics of transnational repression and offering resources. Yale includes discussions of the issue during new faculty orientation. A joint commission of higher-education and government officials in Australia drafted [guidance]( to protect students and scholars from foreign interference while retaining academic openness. Gorokhovskaia and Vaughan acknowledge there may be limitations to institutional policies — for instance, some people may be hesitant to report incidents because of past experience with police in their home countries or concern that doing so could trigger unwanted scrutiny from law-enforcement or immigration officials. Colleges could make clear that mechanisms for reporting transnational repression don’t automatically notify law enforcement. Still, Gorokhovskaia said it was important to bring more attention to the issue. Of affected students and scholars, she said, “they need our support. They need our awareness.” As for Wu, the Berklee student, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a written statement that he would be sentenced at a later date by a federal judge. Each of the counts of which he was convicted include maximum penalties of up to five years in prison and fines of $250,000. ADVERTISEMENT NEWSLETTER [Sign Up for the Teaching Newsletter]( Find insights to improve teaching and learning across your campus. Delivered on Thursdays. To read this newsletter as soon as it sends, [sign up]( to receive it in your email inbox. Setbacks for undocumented students The University of California has backed away from a plan to allow undocumented students to work on its campuses, while new federal student-aid forms are creating headaches for students without legal-immigration status and their families. The public-college system suspended for a year its plan to hire undocumented students for campus jobs, saying that it carried “significant risk for the institution and for those we serve.” In [remarks]( at a Board of Regents meeting last week, Michael V. Drake, the University of California’s president, said moving forward with the plan could expose undocumented students and their families to prosecution and deportation and make college employees vulnerable to civil or criminal prosecution if they participate in hiring practices deemed impermissible under federal law. “I know that many in our community will be disappointed that we are unable to take immediate action,” Drake said. “As an individual, I would like nothing more than to do so, right here, right now, because it is the right thing to do.” The regents voted, 10 to 6, with one abstention, to rescind a policy, adopted in May 2023, to explore implementing a hiring plan. The UC system’s colleges would have been the first to put in place such a measure. Students and faculty members who advocated for the plan argued that while federal law bars employers from hiring undocumented immigrants, it does not mention states explicitly. Therefore, the federal prohibition does not bind state-government entities, like the university system, they said. But Drake said that after consulting with lawyers and experts, college leaders determined that human-resources and legal staff members could be at risk under federal law. He also said that moving forward with the proposal could “endanger” government grants and contracts. Politico [reported]( that the Biden administration had pushed the university system to reconsider the plan, saying it was based on untested legal theory. The University of California enrolls 4,000 undocumented students on its 10 campuses. While many of these students receive state financial aid and have their tuition waived, they are ineligible for federal student aid and may struggle to cover rent and other living expenses. Undocumented students, who were on a hunger strike to pressure the university to adopt the hiring proposal, reacted to the decision with sadness and anger. “Cowards!” one student in the audience at the regents meeting [yelled]( according to a Cal Matters report. “Shame,” another said, while a third added, “I hope you live with this for the rest of your life.” Meanwhile, undocumented students and their families [have encountered problems]( filling out the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid form. Due to [system errors]( parents without Social Security numbers are receiving a message saying they are “unauthorized” to complete the application and are locked out of completing a form previously started by their children as well. There is currently no workaround to the problems, according to the U.S. Department of Education. And in related news, the University of Texas at Austin has eliminated a scholarship for undocumented students, amid concerns it could run afoul of state and federal laws. In [internal messages]( reportedly obtained by The Dallas Morning News, university officials said the scholarship, which awards grants of $500 to $1,000 annually, could violate Texas’s new [ban on diversity, equity, and inclusion programs]( at public colleges. They also cited potential conflicts with federal immigration law. FROM THE CHRONICLE STORE [The Future of Campus Safety - The Chronicle Store]( [The Future of Campus Safety]( Colleges can’t foresee and avoid every possible safety concern. Yet students, parents, and others are demanding that colleges do more to keep campuses safe. [Order this report]( to explore strategies colleges are employing to counter threats to their communities’ well-being. Student vets have expanded opportunity to study abroad It is now easier for student veterans to use their benefits to study abroad. In [new guidance]( the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs said students will be able to temporarily study overseas on education-abroad programs not yet approved for G.I. Bill funding if they are enrolled at an American college that has been approved. Foreign programs will be able to enroll student veterans if they have contracts or written agreement with an American institution that assumes responsibility for the quality and content of the study-abroad coursework. The credits earned abroad would have to transfer back to the American partner, which would need to get state approval for the arrangement. The changes, which will give student veterans access to a wider number of overseas programs, are the result of a new veterans-benefits law signed in early 2023. SPONSOR CONTENT | The University of Oklahoma Price College of Business [A Laboratory of Economic Development]( Brown is latest college to go need-blind for foreign students Brown University has joined a select club of colleges that are fully need-blind for international students. Brown is just the eighth institution to extend its [comprehensive need-based aid program]( to all undergraduate students regardless of citizenship, meaning that it does not consider students’ ability to pay as part of the admissions process and it meets 100 percent of all financial need. While Brown has had such a policy in place for American students for two decades, the university said in a [statement]( that it was able to extend it to international students thanks to a $120-million fund-raising campaign. The policy will take effect beginning with the class of 2029, which will enroll in the fall of 2025. Logan Powell, associate provost for enrollment and dean of undergraduate admission, said becoming need-blind would help Brown recruit talented students from around the globe, regardless of socioeconomic background. “Expanding opportunities to talented and deserving students from around the world will add to one of Brown’s greatest strengths: its people.” While more colleges have provided financial aid to international students in recent years, the majority of students still rely on personal and family funds to pay the costs of an American degree. Just 11 percent of foreign undergraduates said that an American college was the primary source of funding for their education, according to the [Institute of International Education](. ADVERTISEMENT Around the globe The Chinese embassy is warning that students who arrive at Dulles International Airport, near Washington, D.C., have been subjected to “[unwarranted interrogations]( and, in some cases, deportation. It said it had made a complaint to American officials. China’s ambassador to the United States said in a [social-media post]( that the Chinese government will set up a Young Envoys Scholarship and support a variety of study-abroad and exchange programs to encourage more young Americans to [study in China](. The U.S. government will extend [emergency relief]( for Syrian students on F-1 visas experiencing severe economic hardship because of the conflict and humanitarian crisis at home, allowing them to work more hours and take a reduced course load. About 12 percent of students enrolled at University of California campuses were international in the fall of 2023, a slight decline from the previous year, according to [enrollment data](. The number of freshmen from overseas increased slightly, while the number of international students transferring from a California community college dipped. The public-college system has been under pressure to [cap]( international and out-of-state enrollments to make room for more Californians. The president of Western New Mexico University has been criticized for spending nearly $100,000 over the last five years on [international trips]( even though the college has attracted just a small number of students, less than two percent of the student body, from overseas. Canadian higher-education groups are asking for “[urgent consultations]( with the government to clarify a policy to [cap student visas]( and mitigate its negative impact. A French council charged with reviewing legislation to ensure it conforms to the Constitution has [struck down]( provisions of a new immigration law that would have required international students to pay a [deposit]( when applying for a French student visa. A multicountry research project funded by the European Union will study the impact of [rising nationalism]( on European higher education. An elite Swiss college will limit the number of [international students]( it admits. The Israeli military said it will review an [incident]( in which it destroyed the main building of Israa University, in Gaza. An Iranian graduate student has been sentenced to a year in [prison]( for her part in anti-government protests. Congratulations to Jill Blondin of Virginia Commonwealth University for being named [senior international officer of the year]( by the Institute of International Education. 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.]( CAREER RESOURCES [Career Resources]( [Read the February collection]( to learn the secrets behind mastering the final stages of the interview process. 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