A new state law is thwarting faculty at Florida’s public universities who want to hire Chinese graduate students and postdocs to work in their labs.
The law, which went into effect in July, prohibits institutions from accepting money from or working with entities in China and six other “countries of concern”. The list of prohibited interactions includes offering a research contract to anyone living in one of those countries. Students could be hired if they pass a rigorous vetting process by government officials. But how that process would work is not clear, and the 12 public colleges and universities covered by the law are still writing rules to implement it.
More than 280 faculty members at the University of Florida, which has the largest research portfolio in the state, have signed a petition urging UF to clear up the confusion – and to support an open-door hiring policy. “We urgently request a timely decision that will allow us to hire top international graduate students with an assistantship, regardless of their nationality,” reads the petition, which was sent to UF President Ben Sasse and senior UF leadership on December 6. “Failure to act quickly could result in the loss of exceptional students to other universities, and the damage will be irreversible.”
The uncertainty created by the law has already led to a freeze on making offers to research students in China for autumn 2024, which usually happens in December and early January. “We missed that window,” says Zhong-Ren Peng, a professor of urban planning at UF who runs a centre for adaptation planning and design. “And the best students cannot wait. Instead, they will go elsewhere.”
Passed unanimously by the state legislature in May, the law (SB 846) is part of a broader effort by state lawmakers and Governor Ron DeSantis (R) to thwart what they see as attempts by China and other countries to influence what happens on campuses and steal intellectual property. Supporters point to several cases in which Florida scientists failed to disclose ties to China or used public funds to support work there as evidence that state universities need to be more vigilant.
The law applies to all financial interactions with China, Russia, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria and Venezuela. Exceptions are only allowed if the Board of Governors, which oversees higher education in the state, decides that the interaction is “not detrimental to the security of the United States or its residents”.
This decision, made on a case-by-case basis, would be the final step in a lengthy vetting process for anyone seeking a research position as a graduate assistant or postdoctoral fellow. (Students from the affected countries could still be admitted to a graduate programme, but could not be paid to work on a research project). The law defines “foreign researchers” not only as people currently living in another country, but also as anyone who has spent a year or more studying or working outside the United States – even if they are US citizens. What’s more, those turned away because something in their background is considered suspicious must be reported to the FBI or another law enforcement agency designated by the governor.
In October, the Board of Governors issued guidance to help universities develop policies that comply with the new law. The new procedures were supposed to be in place by 1 December. But universities are still scrambling to write them. “The university is in the process of developing policies and procedures that meet these new requirements,” says David Norton, UF’s vice president for research.
Norton says UF now employs about 350 graduate assistants and 200 postdoctoral fellows from the seven affected countries. But UF faculty are seeing a much bigger ripple effect from the new law. “A significant number of qualified applicants to our graduate programmes come from these countries of concern,” the petition says, singling out China and Iran. “Restrictions on hiring could significantly reduce our applicant pool … and lead to a significant erosion of UF’s standing within these international communities.”
Computational chemist Wenjun Xie, who accepted a tenure-track position at UF in July, worries that excluding students from countries on the list could cripple his ability to staff his lab and produce the kind of preliminary results needed to win a federal research grant. “As a new researcher working in the rapidly evolving field of AI research, this situation is particularly problematic for me,” he says.
Computational chemist Chenglong Li, a chair professor in the same department of medicinal chemistry that recently hired Xie, worries that the restrictions “will damage UF’s reputation at a time when we are striving for excellence in artificial intelligence”. Li adds: “I think we are shooting ourselves in the foot.
Li also worries that the law could put faculty supported by federal grants at odds with US laws that prohibit discrimination by those who receive federal funding. “As a principal investigator, we promise not to discriminate on the basis of race or national origin,” he notes. “But SB 846 does just that.”
Singling out individuals is never a good idea, agrees Rebecca Keiser, who heads a new office on research safety at the National Science Foundation. “There are risks posed by a particular institution or a particular government,” says Keiser, who declined to comment on the Florida law. “But I think it’s better to focus on how to get to yes, with the proper safeguards in place, rather than excluding individuals.”