Editor's Note: This article was originally published by The Exponent, Purdue West Lafayette's student publication.
By Olivia Mapes (Editor-in-Chief)
A total of 337 students, faculty and staff members have signed an open letter that was sent to the Purdue University Board of Trustees demanding that they end the reported ban on international students.
Faculty reached out to The Exponent at the end of the fall semester, saying they had been directed not to admit graduate students from certain countries. Purdue has consistently denied the existence of a ban.
“An unwritten Purdue policy threatening the international student community was revealed by several faculty whistleblowers,” the letter said. "According to these faculty, Purdue administrators told graduate admissions committees that the university will be “highly unlikely” to sign admissions letters for students from China, Russia, Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, or North Korea. Such a policy violates Purdue’s Equal Opportunity and Equal Access.”
The letter was signed by 27 alumni, 17 faculty, three staff members, 99 graduate students, 44 undergraduates, 40 members of unions and other groups, alongside 107 anonymous signees, at the time of writing.
Patrick DeBonis, a visiting assistant professor who signed the letter, said international graduate students are fundamental to the success of Purdue.
“Any perceived or actual ban on the admitting of graduate students to Purdue paints the university as an unwelcoming, hostel, and directly undermines the administration's stated goals of increasing Purdue's standing among public universities,” DeBonis said in an email. “I hope the administration can give reassurance that they will continue to welcome and admit international graduate students in the coming years.”
In a Q&A with local journalist Dave Bangert, Provost Patrick Wolfe said there was no ban. The authors of the letter have said the denial itself is odd.
“Ultimately, Purdue’s culture of opacity — for instance, faculty sharing threats of retaliation for going public or internal Purdue memos instructing faculty to ignore journalist questions — nullifies any credibility the Provost’s statement might otherwise have,” the letter said. “The only sensible action is to believe the story faculty whistleblowers shared despite fears for their jobs, rather than the incomplete narrative laid down by a university with an evident interest in ensuring we don’t have all of the information.”
The letter demands that the university provide its policies in writing, disclose which administrators were a part of these policies, and provide information on how many students have had their admissions rescinded.
It also calls for Purdue to issue a reaffirmation of Purdue’s commitment to nondiscrimination and publicly disclose any actions taken towards international communities on behalf of the government. Finally, it asks Purdue to restore admission to students who have had their offers rescinded because of the policy.
Background
A letter from the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party sent a letter to President Mung Chiang in March, highlighting a growing worry about national security concerns.
While the letter from the house committee was a request, not a rule, Purdue has since reportedly limited graduate student acceptance from a list of “adversarial countries,” including countries like China, Russia, Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, and North Korea.
Graduate Rights and Our Wellbeing, who blew the whistle on the unwritten policy in the fall, have spearheaded the letter alongside other groups like ResLife Organized Workers, Students for Justice in Palestine, and Purdue Young Democratic Socialists of America.
Other schools have also gotten the letter from the House Select Committee. None have made as broad of a response as the faculty are claiming Purdue did, but has worked on a case-by-case basis instead of outright banning international students from certain countries, said Kieran Hilmer, a GROW member.
The petition sent to Purdue has crossed state lines, as students from the University of Maryland, University of Massachusetts, New York State, John Hopkins, and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have also signed the petition.
Hilmer said Purdue was the most egregious university in its response.
“Instead of protecting international students, Purdue has bowed to vague and constitutionally questionable pressures from state and national governments,” according to the letter. “Purdue has no legal mandate, much less authority, to unilaterally declare students are a national security threat based solely on their nationality. Preemptively capitulating to these political pressures betrays Purdue’s place in the global community. Purdue must do what is right for the scientific community as a whole, not what is easiest in the face of implied threats by a temporary political administration.”
Chinese students have already reportedly had their admissions rescinded, months after their preliminary acceptance from department heads.
The process for graduate school admissions starts with a department accepting a student and then passing the application onto the provost’s office, which usually gets approved. Students had accepted Purdue, gotten visas based on attending, and even signed leases before finding out their admissions had been rescinded.
Pressure on the provost
At the end of January, a group of faculty wrote a different open letter to Purdue with the American Association of University Professors calling for the provost to resign. In the list of 16 grievances, the ban on international students was mentioned.
GROW had a vote at a recent meeting to back the letter.
“Ultimately, the buck stops with the provost when it comes to decisions like these,” Hilmer said. “It's the provost’s responsibility to make sure that international students are being treated fairly. This policy is egregious enough. So even this on its own, I think, would call into question the Provost’s ability to serve the community.”
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