27-03-2025
House committee asks University of Maryland president for information about Chinese students
A congressional committee asked the University of Maryland, College Park's president for detailed information about Chinese students in a letter to the school's president last week, prompting students and faculty to petition Darryll J. Pines not to comply with the letter.
Pines said Monday in a response to the petition's signatories that the school's administration would 'do our very best to be responsive' to the 20-point request from the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, which is seeking a response by April 1. But Pines added that any response would be in compliance with the school's policies and procedures, 'as well as our commitment to first amendment rights and academic freedom.'
The Republican-led committee's letter to Pines seeks numerous details about Chinese students, such as how their tuition is being funded and what programs they participate in, alleging concerns over national security. The school's Graduate Labor Union, which circulated the petition, said on social media that the letter was 'an escalation of existing xenophobic policies' from the federal government during Donald Trump's presidency and a 'blatant attempt to attack higher education.'
A spokesperson for the university did not immediately return a request for comment Thursday. The union and multiple student groups condemned Pines' response later Monday in a joint Instagram post.
The university president's response offered 'no actionable guarantee to protect Chinese researchers on campus,' said the groups, which included the university's Asian American Student Union and Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines. They described the letter as a call from the Trump administration to 'profile and gather information on' Chinese students.
The congressional committee also sent letters seeking similar information to five other universities last week, claiming that American universities are 'increasingly used as conduits for foreign adversaries to illegally gain access to critical research and advanced technology.' It cites a report released last fall by the select committee and an education committee, which jointly determined that 'hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. federal research funding over the last decade' had helped China achieve technological breakthroughs, including military applications.
The committee's letter to Pines is signed by committee's chair, Republican Michigan Rep. John Moolenaar. In addition to various statistics about the school's Chinese student body, Moolenaar also requested the university to 'list all university programs that include Chinese national participants' and how they are funded, and provide a 'country-by-country breakdown of applicants, admittances, and enrollments at your university.'
Days before the letters were sent, a group of House Republicans introduced a measure to bar Chinese nationals from studying at U.S. universities altogether, citing similar security concerns.
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