U.S. Colleges Finding Ideals Tested Abroad

Adam Dean for The New York Times

Prof. Xia Yeliang, an economist and professor at Peking University, was told to leave in October.

WELLESLEY, Mass. — Members of the Wellesley College faculty reacted strongly when word spread that Peking University might fire Prof. Xia Yeliang, a critic of the Chinese government. Professor Xia, an economist, had visited Wellesley over the summer after the college signed a partnership agreement with Peking University.

In September, 130 Wellesley faculty members sent an open letter to Peking University's president, warning that if Professor Xia was dismissed for his political views, they would seek reconsideration of the partnership. The next month, Professor Xia was fired. Peking University said it was because of his teaching, not his politics, but many at Wellesley doubted that. Still, after much debate, the faculty voted to keep the partnership, as the college president preferred.

Like American corporations, American colleges and universities have been extending their brands overseas, building campuses, study centers and partnerships, often in countries with autocratic governments. Unlike corporations, universities claim to place ideals and principles, especially academic freedom, over income. But as professors abroad face consequences for what they say, most universities are doing little more than wringing their hands. Unlike foreign programs that used to be faculty-driven, most of the newer ones are driven by administrations and money.

"Globalization raises all kinds of issues that didn't come up when it was just kids spending junior year in France," said Susan Reverby, one of the Wellesley professors supporting Professor Xia. "What does it mean to let our name be used? Where do we draw a line in the sand? Does a partnership with another university make their faculty our colleagues, obliging us to stand up for them? Do we wait for another Tiananmen Square?"

Wellesley is hardly alone in wrestling with these issues. Many American universities have partnerships with Peking University, but few reacted to Professor Xia's dismissal.

"We went into our relationship with Peking University with the knowledge that American standards of academic freedom are the product of 100 years of evolution," said Richard Saller, dean of the school of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford University, which opened a $7 million center at Peking University last year. "We think engagement is a better strategy than taking such moral high ground that we can't engage with some of these universities."

This week, another prominent professor, Zhang Xuezhong, who teaches at the East China University of Political Science and Law in Shanghai, lost his job after refusing to apologize for writing that the Communist Party was hostile to the rule of law. That university has many partnerships with foreign institutions, including an exchange program with the law school at Willamette University in Oregon and an executive M.B.A. program offered with the University of Wisconsin law school.

With so many universities seeking a foothold in China — New York University opened a Shanghai campus this year and Duke will open one in Kunshan next year — concern is growing over China's record of censorship. Earlier this year, the Chinese government banned classroom discussion of seven topics, including human rights and the past mistakes of the Chinese Communist Party.

Of course, similar issues arise elsewhere. Last year, just as Yale was starting a liberal arts college in partnership with the National University of Singapore, the Yale faculty, despite the university president's objections, passed a resolution expressing concern about Singapore's "recent history of lack of respect for civil and political rights."

"There's a million unanswered questions about Yale and Singapore," Christopher Miller, a Yale professor, said. "We don't know how much of the Singapore specialty of self-censorship has taken place. I continue to think the whole setup is inappropriate, and deeply regret that this was set up where it was and the way it was."

Last month, Frederick M. Lawrence, the president of Brandeis University, suspended a 15-year partnership with Al Quds University, a Palestinian university in Jerusalem, after campus demonstrators in black military garb raised a Nazi-like salute, and the president of Al Quds, asked to condemn the demonstration, responded with a letter that Mr. Lawrence deemed "unacceptable and inflammatory." Syracuse University followed suit. But Bard College, which offers dual degrees with Al Quds, is staying.

Many American colleges argue that their presence abroad helps to spread liberal values and push other societies toward openness, whereas leaving would accomplish little.

"I think engagement is more important than rules right now," said Allan Goodman, the president of the Institute of International Education. "It's in our institute's DNA to advocate engagement, because that process is what brings change."

Kenneth Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch, cautioned that universities must be prepared to revoke partnerships that violate basic principles of freedom. "I do see value in liberal education, but you have to ask on what terms," he said. "If a country like China wants to legitimize a cramped version of liberal education by attracting prestigious Western universities, there's a real possibility of those universities compromising the values on which they were built because they're so eager to get into China."

Some universities, including Columbia, have created study centers rather than branch campuses, in part to avoid commitments that would be hard to break.

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