The law requires colleges and universities to get approval before hiring or working with Chinese people who aren’t US citizens or green card holders
A legal challenge filed by two graduate students and a professor argues, among other things, that the state law usurps the power of the federal government
Last year, with an eye to curb Chinese influence in the state, Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law a bill requiring state colleges and universities to get government approval before they hire or work with Chinese people who aren’t US citizens or green card holders.
Since then, schools in the state have scrambled to comply. In December, Miami-based Florida International University paused the hiring of Chinese and citizens of six other “countries of concern” also targeted by the law – Iran, Cuba, North Korea, Russia, Syria and Venezuela – while waiting for the state university system’s board of governors to create a vetting process. ⠀
“Requiring the board of governors’ approval means it is next to impossible to obtain approval,” said Sumi Helal, a professor of computer and information science and engineering at the University of Florida.
Helal said he was “intent on leaving” the school. ⠀
Last year, DeSantis said his anti-Chinese influence efforts provided a “blueprint for other states to do the same”.
And according to political observers in the state, the governor may double down on his education policies. David McDonald, a political science professor at the University of Florida, said that “being an education ‘culture warrior’” was a “perceived strength of his when conservative activists helped push critical race theory and anti-trans rhetoric and policies onto the political agenda”. ⠀
“Our academic community thrives on international collaboration. SB 846 is a malicious and xenophobic bill that directly attacks our community,” said Eva Garcia Ferres, co-president of Graduate Assistants United at the University of Florida.
I work at a university.I won’t go into details, but ASIO (Australian national sec) recently gave us a special visit, advising the need to increase caution around new Chinese staff. and students (to put basically and lightly). Seems spying from within education institutions is popular at the moment, but makes sense considering the infrastructure, population of each institute, and the tens of thousands of student visas each year.
However, the meeting was with just a few need-to-know staff (CPO, COO, heads of students, and cybersec) and was basically, “This is happening more and more, so we just need extra vigilance if you can.” It was certainly no broadcast to the nation in full details with drastic measures attached.
Spying from within public educational institutions feels rather counterintuitive. Chinese students weren’t getting security clearance anyway, so the only goal of their research is to be published in publicly viewable journals or conferences. This is a witch hunt.
Ah, so that is the tiny nugget of reality they took and twisted for political gain.
Ridiculous to putting this into law, and speaks volumes to the real motives.
Removed by mod
Yep. International students and academics have been exploited as a gateway—we have an education exxhange with China that makes it easy for both sides to go abroad with little restraint. But we’re not going to cut off thousands of students and employees because of one or two isolated incidents that may not even occur again now.
Florida’s reaction could be to this…
ASIO director tells Five Eyes intelligence summit that alleged Chinese spy was removed from Australia
From what I know there’s been a few other little things and as I said it’s increased, enough for them to come to the universities and advise us to just keep an eye out and report unusual stuff.
Florida, on the other hand… Fuckin’ drama queen state. We’ll take their Chinese students and academics! Much nicer here anyway.