Iranian Students Feel 'Betrayed, Excluded, And Threatened' By UMass Policy
Two student groups are decrying an "outrageous" University of Massachusetts Amherst policy that restricts Iranian citizens from enrolling in some engineering and science programs, arguing that the policy is "clearly in conflict with academic values and principles that prohibit discrimination."
The university first posted the policy denying admission to Iranian students planning to study in certain engineering and science fields last week, citing U.S. sanctions against their home country. UMass Amherst, the flagship campus of the UMass system, deleted the policy Friday morning after it was criticized online. That afternoon they reposted it.
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Two student groups are decrying an "outrageous" University of Massachusetts Amherst policy that restricts Iranian citizens from enrolling in some engineering and science programs, arguing that the policy is "clearly in conflict with academic values and principles that prohibit discrimination."
The university first posted the policy denying admission to Iranian students planning to study in certain engineering and science fields last week, citing U.S. sanctions against their home country. UMass Amherst, the flagship campus of the UMass system, deleted the policy Friday morning after it was criticized online. That afternoon they reposted it.
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US policy (or rather lack of policy) has tended to attract and hang onto the smart people, good recipes, hard workers, and hotties (or all genders; we're modern and sensitive proffies, after all) from every group of people we're been allowing into the country.
ReplyDeleteAnd this has been entirely to our political and gastronomical benefit. Alas, since Late in 2001 policy has been made, and that policy hurts us in the long run. This is just more of the same. Another brick in the wall. Another chapter for the Gibbon's of the next civilization.
I have always wondered about this. We can't have some foreign students working on certain research projects and companies can't sell some scientific equipment to certain countries. Why should we be allowed to educate their students in science and engineering?
ReplyDeleteI'm not in favor of that policy but it does seem consistent with other policies that are strictly enforced. It does seem odd that one school would stick its neck,out to try this on its own without support from the State Department.
Did UMass-Amherst really do this on their own initiative, without any order from the U.S. State Department, who do have the authority to issue orders like this? If so, I take a dim view of it, since the university would be taking the law (here, immigration law) into its own hands. If I didn't like the local crime problem and so went out at night shooting muggers, the real police wouldn't like it. If an Air Force General didn't like what was happening in some foreign country and so ordered a nuclear strike without authorization by the President, it would be trouble. This sounds to me like yet another bloated university administration doing things they shouldn't be doing.
ReplyDeleteI don't approve at all of what's going on in Iran, but what to do about it is the job of the U.S. State Department, not UMass-Amherst.
DeleteI agree with Frod on this one: foreign students need a visa to come to grad school in the US, and if the State Dept decides it is not a good idea to educate students from certain countries in (say) nuclear engineering, then deny the visa application. It is not a university's role to make these kinds of decisions on their own.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, as Pissed Pumpkin suggests, I'm not convinced these restrictions are good policy. There's a good chance these students, once they get their degrees, will at least try to say in "the West", and develop their professional careers here. If that happens, the effect would be to remove a talented individual from the local pool of workers in the country/area considered "dangerous".
In the long run I think it is in the best interests of "the West" to have many talented people from other countries (and there are many) trained here, developing a benevolent view of Western mores and ties to our not-so-benevolent corporations, in the hope that if enough of these people are successful and return, they can have a positive influence on the developments in their home countries. Even if you think the chances of that happening are low, I think the risk of having them learn really sensitive stuff can be kept low, too.
And in any case, if we don't educate them the Germans, French or Swedes will be more than happy to do it.
And lower the demand and salaries for US scientists in these fields?
DeleteBut as Peter Medawar noted in "Advice to a Young Scientist," scientists who close their doors keep out more than they keep in.
Delete@Beaker Ben, in math the situation is the following: the proportion of US PhD's awarded to students who got their undergraduate degrees elsewhere has hovered around 50% for the past 30 years, sometimes a little higher. But if you look at the top 10 departments, the non-US proportion is much higher. In my own entering graduate class (12 students), five were non-US educated. All finished their degrees, and four of those have academic careers in the US. Of the seven US students: three finished, and two are still in academia.
DeleteThere is no comparison between a typical undergraduate education (in math) in the US, vs. in a growing number of foreign countries (China, Germany, Russia, Brazil, for instance). We get their absolute brightest people, and our own absolute brightest--from our top undergraduate departments--compete on a basis of equality at best. The people who come from "normal" US departments are hopelessly, thoroughly outclassed. Noncompetitive.
Yes, you could restrict the number of foreign math graduate students, or "force" more of them to return to their home countries. The result of that would be that math research in the US would very quickly become second-tier (it already is, in some areas).
And the effect on the American new PhDs who make it through grad school (at a top-ten place, say) is just the opposite of what is commonly thought: everybody wants them! In particular, selective SLACs hire them at far greater rates than they do foreign-born PhDs. If you are a US-born woman with a math PhD from a top-ten place, you can pretty much write your own ticket.
Peter, it's much the same story in chemistry. I agree that the best foreign students are very competitive with our own best and bringing in the best from around the world has lots of advantages and few disadvantages.
DeleteAt my school, we don't work with the best grad students from anywhere. I'm more concerned about the mid- and lower quality foreign students (there are many, believe me) who come here. Those grad students will complete with American PhD grads for jobs.
If you chase the Iranians away, they will come to Russia and learn nuke tech at the Kurchatov Institute and other institutions. The Motherland wins, Uncle Sam loses.
ReplyDeleteI wrote "Kurchatov Institute" and suddenly UMass backs down: http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/university-massachusetts-reverses-ban-iranian-science-students-n308331 .
DeleteNo matter - the atom bombs will be built by everybody all the same, because Russia, America, and China have them.