哈佛校长呼吁：请加快外国学生和研究员的签证进度！
针对学生/学者的“国籍歧视”，耶鲁大学、斯坦福大学、麻省理工学院等多所美国知名高校校长纷纷发声，表达对包括中国学生在内的国际生和学者的欢迎与支持，强烈批评和抵制某些政客将教育合作当作“政治打压工具”。
哈佛大学校长 Larry Bacow 也在 7月16日向美国国务卿 Michael Pompeo、国土安全部秘书 Kevin McAleenan 致函，呼吁他们加快外国学生和研究人员的签证和移民程序。
Larry Bacow 在信里表示，美国政府围绕移民实施的一系列政策让哈佛大学里来自世界各地的教师这位学生“焦虑”。获签困难、签证延期等让学者们出勤或参与大学事务变得不确定起来。
学术本应是开放和协作的，虽然我们支持适当的措施来保护知识产权、国防和敏感新兴技术，但是挑剔一个国家和它的公民与高等教育的文化和使命和我们的国家理想是不相容的。
Larry Bacow 还表示，哈佛以及其他大学所做的工作推动了“创新”，这有助于塑造经济，培育新产业，改善美国和全世界的健康和福祉。
呼吁函完整内容
Dear Secretary Pompeo and Acting Secretary McAleenan:
With our mutual interest in sustaining America’s premier higher education sector in mind, I write to share my deep concern over growing uncertainty and anxiety around issues involving international students and scholars.
The success of the American academic system, particularly at research universities, is based on a vibrant, free, and open community that develops talent, produces leaders, and creates new knowledge. Together these university outputs drive innovation that has shaped the economy, fostered new industries, and improved health and well-being both in the United States and around the world.
I recognize and support the fundamental role of your agencies in ensuring that those who come to the United States do so with appropriate and honest intentions that meet the goals and requirements of our laws. However, the increasing uncertainty around the systems in place to accomplish this task are driving anxiety and fear on our campuses and undermining the impact of our critical work.
Harvard, like many leading research universities, attracts students, faculty, and researchers from across the globe. They are not just participants in the life of the university; they are essential to it. Their diverse talents, experiences, and insights drive discovery and fuel our work. Increasingly, visa delays are making these scholars’ attendance and engagement in the university unpredictable and anxiety-ridden. Students report difficulties getting initial visas—from delays to denials.
Scholars have experienced postponements and disruptions for what have previously been routine immigration processes such as family visas, renewals of status, or clearance for international travel. This year graduates across Harvard have seen significant delays in receiving Optional Practical Training approvals. This has hindered or endangered their post-graduate work and, in some cases, their medical residencies.
Science and security concerns that focus on a few specific countries also contribute to student and faculty anxieties. I appreciate that there is a broader policy priority with regard to these security concerns—one that includes grant requirements, protection of intellectual property, and reporting on institutional gifts and support. However, visa policies mandating increased scrutiny of foreign students and scholars (and sometimes naturalized US citizens) from certain countries contribute substantially to mounting concern.
Academic science is open and collaborative. While we support appropriate measures to safeguard valuable intellectual property, national defense, and sensitive, emerging technologies, singling out one country and its citizens is incompatible with the culture and mission of higher education and our national ideals.
Perhaps no group is more vulnerable and exposed to the current environment of uncertainty than Dreamers. These young people have deep roots in our neighborhoods, towns, and communities. After being brought here through no fault of their own, they have grown and thrived, and now are looking for a path to work, serve, and contribute back to their communities and the nation they have known as home. I have had the opportunity to meet many of Harvard’s Dreamers, and I have been deeply impressed by them and by their determination, talent, and commitment to excel. Similarly, many of those with Temporary Protected Status find themselves at risk after having built their lives in our communities, working hard and making meaningful contributions.
I understand that the responsibility for the uncertainties in today’s immigration policy rest more broadly than just with your two agencies. That said, the visa and immigration process is increasingly unpredictable and uncertain. This poses risks not just to the individuals caught up in it, but also to the entirety of our academic enterprise.
I hope you will consider these issues as your agencies examine and assess the most effective ways to address our nation’s security concerns, while also continuing to foster the vibrant educational community and institutions that have contributed to our nation’s academic and economic excellence. Please feel free to reach out if I or Harvard can be of assistance.
Sincerely,
Lawrence S. Bacow
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