Hiring ban disrupts research at Florida universities

When Zhengfei Guan, an agricultural economist at the University of Florida (UF), advertised for a new postdoc last summer, one applicant from China quickly rose to the top of the pile. But after being offered the job, the young scholar decided he didn’t want to work in Florida. His change of heart was triggered by a new Florida law prohibiting the state’s 12 public universities from employing graduate students and postdocs from China and six other “countries of concern” without special permission. Enacted in May 2023, the law restricts collaborations between Florida and Chinese academic institutions. In October 2023, the Florida Board of Governors, the state body overseeing higher education, issued guidance that extends the law’s reach and makes clear that faculty no longer have a free hand in deciding who can work in their labs. The law “has a strong discriminatory color,” the candidate wrote to Guan in rejecting the job offer in December 2023. It didn’t help that the university had sat on the proposed contract for 4 months before telling Guan that the candidate needed to go through a potentially lengthy review process meant to ensure he did not pose a security risk. Facing what he calls an “absurd” situation, Guan agreed to be a plaintiff in a suit filed last month in a U.S. district court in Miami seeking to overturn the law, known as SB 846. The suit, filed by lawyers for the Chinese American Le...
Source: ScienceNOW - Category: Science Source Type: news