“Individuals, they cannot decide where they are born. They’re only thinking of their educational opportunities," one professor said.
A Florida law is prompting backlash from professors, students and advocates across university campuses in the state who say the measure could keep Chinese grad students out of their schools.
The measure, State Bill 846, restricts the state’s public universities from hiring graduate students for positions such as researchers and lab assistants, from “countries of concern,” including China, the largest contributor of international students in the state.
While the measure went into effect last July, schools typically issue offer letters in the spring, prompting the recent protests.
While Gov. Ron DeSantis’ has said that the legislation is part of an attempt to counter China’s “malign influence” in the state, critics say it’ll do more harm than good. From taking legal action to participating in rallies this week, students, faculty and others are calling for the measure to be reversed, arguing that the law could pose a threat to the state’s academics and impede scientific advancements and freedoms.
“It’s discriminatory,” Chenglong Li, a professor at the University of Florida College of Pharmacy, told NBC News. “Individuals, they cannot decide where they are born. They’re only thinking of their educational opportunities.
The issue is there are limited spots in higher education, and when those students from outside the country come here it takes a spot from a person inside the country. Normally, I’m OK with that (I’m not anti-immigrant or “they’re taking our jobs!!”), but most of those students immediately leave the country once their education is done, taking that knowledge and training with them instead of staying here and contributing to the US. Many of these universities are also state-supported, so my taxes pay for them. Yes, the out-of-country students pay a lot more than in-state people, but they don’t pay more (or not much more) than out-of-state but still US students. My taxes are going towards helping to educate Chinese scientists who are actively working to attack the US. Also, a lot of critical research is done by universities and sponsored by US companies. This knowledge is immediately sent back to China on the cheap, since they aren’t beholden by our IP laws.
That said, it is discriminatory and is open to abuse. I don’t know which countries are on his “countries of concern” list, and I don’t know how easy it is for FL to add a country like Egypt or Ukraine or DRC to it.