THE GRADUATE STUDENT ORGANIZING COMMITTEE CONTINUES ITS STAND AGAINST ANTI-CHINESE AND ANTI-IMMIGRANT RACISM
To the University of Pittsburgh community:
The ongoing assault on immigrant and particularly Chinese students’ rights in this country continues. On May 29, 2020 the Trump Administration announced its “Proclamation on the Suspension of Entry as Nonimmigrants of Certain Students and Researchers from the People’s Republic of China,” which seeks to ban Chinese researchers from the United States because of their undergraduate institutions’ affiliations with the Chinese government. Thousands of Chinese academics’ careers will be paused or halted by this, and this ongoing assault continues to grow.
Senators Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee recently introduced “The SECURE CAMPUS Act,” a bill that seeks to further codify racist policies like the aforementioned proclamation. The bill would make it even harder for Chinese students to receive visas to study in the United States. Pitt’s administration has been disturbingly silent on this issue. The Graduate Student Organizing Committee (GSOC - USW) believes that to be silent is to be complicit in this attack against us and our colleagues.
Using the pretext of intellectual property or national security to prevent Chinese students from completing or continuing their fruitful academic careers in the United States is racist. Chinese students and researchers are essential members of our Pitt community, and we will not be silent in the face of racist proclamations or xenophobic legislation, which only seek to divide us and minimize the contributions of our colleagues.
Chinese scholars’ research helps the university fulfill its mission and enhance the prestige of Pitt upon the global stage. These students, like other graduate students, are not a homogenous amalgam: their research interests are diverse and their contributions to their universities vary widely. In being chosen by their host universities, Chinese scholars and researchers have already fought hard to live and work in the United States. They already undergo strict vetting procedures. Questioning these people’s legal status threatens the perception of academic institutions like Pitt as welcoming, dynamic communities of learning.
It is insensitive, painful, and wrong that this present racist animosity comes on the heels of longstanding and re-emergent xenophobia against Chinese people in the United States. We should not allow racism and xenophobia to stifle the important research being done by Chinese scholars and researchers in this country, and we cannot abide the irreparable damage that will be done to individuals’ lives and careers by these plans. We call on the University of Pittsburgh to disavow the racist restrictions being placed on Chinese scholars and researchers, and to refuse any governmental attempts at interfering in its student visa process. We also call on the university to take an official position against the Secure Campus Act to show they care about protecting their students.
We will continue fighting for the rights of all graduate students at Pitt. Please write to us here or at info@pittgradunion.org if you would like to hear more about how a union can help.
To the University of Pittsburgh community:
The ongoing assault on immigrant and particularly Chinese students’ rights in this country continues. On May 29, 2020 the Trump Administration announced its “Proclamation on the Suspension of Entry as Nonimmigrants of Certain Students and Researchers from the People’s Republic of China,” which seeks to ban Chinese researchers from the United States because of their undergraduate institutions’ affiliations with the Chinese government. Thousands of Chinese academics’ careers will be paused or halted by this, and this ongoing assault continues to grow.
Senators Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee recently introduced “The SECURE CAMPUS Act,” a bill that seeks to further codify racist policies like the aforementioned proclamation. The bill would make it even harder for Chinese students to receive visas to study in the United States. Pitt’s administration has been disturbingly silent on this issue. The Graduate Student Organizing Committee (GSOC - USW) believes that to be silent is to be complicit in this attack against us and our colleagues.
Using the pretext of intellectual property or national security to prevent Chinese students from completing or continuing their fruitful academic careers in the United States is racist. Chinese students and researchers are essential members of our Pitt community, and we will not be silent in the face of racist proclamations or xenophobic legislation, which only seek to divide us and minimize the contributions of our colleagues.
Chinese scholars’ research helps the university fulfill its mission and enhance the prestige of Pitt upon the global stage. These students, like other graduate students, are not a homogenous amalgam: their research interests are diverse and their contributions to their universities vary widely. In being chosen by their host universities, Chinese scholars and researchers have already fought hard to live and work in the United States. They already undergo strict vetting procedures. Questioning these people’s legal status threatens the perception of academic institutions like Pitt as welcoming, dynamic communities of learning.
It is insensitive, painful, and wrong that this present racist animosity comes on the heels of longstanding and re-emergent xenophobia against Chinese people in the United States. We should not allow racism and xenophobia to stifle the important research being done by Chinese scholars and researchers in this country, and we cannot abide the irreparable damage that will be done to individuals’ lives and careers by these plans. We call on the University of Pittsburgh to disavow the racist restrictions being placed on Chinese scholars and researchers, and to refuse any governmental attempts at interfering in its student visa process. We also call on the university to take an official position against the Secure Campus Act to show they care about protecting their students.
We will continue fighting for the rights of all graduate students at Pitt. Please write to us here or at info@pittgradunion.org if you would like to hear more about how a union can help.