Florida law raises eyebrows over recruitment of Chinese students

The panic among University of Florida faculty began this month when word spread: Don’t make offers yet to graduate students from seven “states of concern.”

Among the seven was China, Florida’s largest source of international students, a major research university, especially in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

The guidelines stemmed from a new law that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, and state lawmakers said was intended to prevent the Chinese Communist Party from exerting influence over the state’s public institutions.

It remains unclear whether the law outright bans the University of Florida and other schools from hiring Chinese students. But the varying instructions given to professors in recent days have sown uncertainty at the school, Florida’s flagship campus, just as admissions committees begin reviewing graduate student applications for next year.

The measure, passed this spring, bans public universities and colleges from “accepting grants from or participating in partnerships or agreements” with individuals or schools from seven countries: China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela and Syria.

Researchers are concerned that the law has already deterred talented Chinese students who are also considering graduate schools and research opportunities in other states and countries. The law and its fallout come as a growing number of Republican-led states have imposed new bans on Chinese nationals and entities amid rising tensions between the US and China.

“These students are concerned that they will be discriminated against if they come to Florida,” said Qianqian Song, an assistant professor of bioinformatics at the University of Florida.

In recent days, she said, she has been inundated with questions from applicants after articles about the Florida law were posted on Chinese social media and major news websites. She said losing top recruits would be a huge blow to her research, which uses artificial intelligence algorithms to better understand diseases such as cancer.

Last week, professors from the University of Florida sent a message petition to leadership — including Ben Sasse, the university’s president, who previously served as a Nebraska Republican in the Senate — calling for clearer guidelines for hiring international researchers.

According to the petition, nothing less was at stake than the school’s “position as a top university.” By Thursday, more than 300 faculty members had signed it.

The original Florida bill was part of a package passed by the state legislature, which aimed to combat the influence of the CCP. Under the law, students can be hired on a case-by-case basis with the approval of the Board of Governors that oversees state universities, but it remains unclear how such a process would work.

The university did not respond to a request for comment. David Norton, the university’s vice president for research, recently told Science that the school was still working on policies and procedures to comply with the new law.

The law does not prohibit the University of Florida from admitting students from the seven countries, but doctoral students typically receive an accompanying job offer, usually in the form of a job as a research assistant or teaching assistant.

The faculty petition stated that the university enrolls more than 1,000 students each fall from the seven countries covered by the law. In 20201,100 students – 40 percent of the University of Florida’s total graduate students – came from China, while 83 students came from Iran.

While they wait for further guidance, some academic departments at the University of Florida are considering whether to interview candidates from the seven countries. At least one committee is trying to figure out how to withdraw verbal offers that have already been made, said Meera Sitharam, a professor of computer science and president of the university’s faculty association.

Across the country, 20 states have proposed or passed legislation that would restrict Chinese purchases of land, buildings and homes, citing concerns about threats to national security. Tensions have been fueled this year by the Chinese spy balloon hovering over the United States and anti-China rhetoric from Republican presidential candidates.

In May, at the same time Mr. DeSantis signed the research restriction, he passed one of the strictest versions of a land ownership ban, effectively banning Chinese nationals from purchasing real estate within 10 miles of any military base or critical infrastructure, such as airports. . Both laws came into effect in July.

“Florida is taking action to oppose the greatest geopolitical threat to the United States – the Chinese Communist Party,” Mr. DeSantis said in a statement. when he signed the lawsand added: “We are following through on our commitment to crack down on communist China.”

There has been some discussion about it in the Republican-led House of Representatives to recover the “China Initiative,” a Justice Department program designed to crack down on Chinese espionage by focusing on investigators working in the United States. The effort was scrapped last year amid criticism that it had chilled scientific research and contributed to racial profiling.

Civil rights advocates have said such policies take a broad approach to national security threats and lead to increased discrimination against Chinese individuals and Asian Americans more broadly. Gisela Perez Kusakawa, executive director of the Asian American Scholar Forum, said Florida’s law is another example of “fear-mongering and scapegoating Chinese American immigrants and students in the country.”

Richard Woodard, a physics professor at the University of Florida, said he shared concerns about the potential security risks outlined by Mr. DeSantis and other top administration officials, and that he supported stricter vetting of foreign researchers. But Mr Woodard said he did not want a blanket ban on students and scientists from China.

“Many of our best faculty come from China,” Mr. Woodard said, adding that “the Chinese are our best graduate students.”

“It won’t stop our research if there aren’t any more,” he added, “but it will hurt us.”

Chenglong Li, a professor of medicinal chemistry at the University of Florida, said he was concerned that restricting international students from countries such as China and Iran would cut off a pipeline of talent that has been crucial to America’s global scientific dominance.

Some might point to Mr. Li’s experience as an example of that pipeline. He came to the United States more than three decades ago after the Chinese government’s bloody crackdown on student demonstrators in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Mr Li’s research in the United States has since helped develop targeted cancer treatments that could cause fewer side effects than those of previous approaches.

“If you don’t want to deal with Chinese government agencies or business institutions, that’s fine with me, it doesn’t matter to me,” he said. “But most Chinese students who come here just want to stay in this country and pursue the American dream. They have nothing to do with the government.”