MCLC: Penn St. drops Confucius Institute

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MCLC LIST
Penn St. drops Confucius Institute
Source: WSJ (10/1/14): http://online.wsj.com/news/article_email/penn-state-latest-school-to-drop-chinas-confucius-institute-1412196655-lMyQjAxMTI0NzA1MjMwNTIxWj 
Penn State Latest School to Drop China’s Confucius Institute
Chain of Academic Centers Criticized for Influence of Chinese Government
By DOUGLAS BELKIN
Penn State University has become the second major U.S. research university in a week to announce it is cutting ties with the Confucius Institute program, an international chain of academic centers run by the Chinese government.
The action signals increasing discontent on university campuses over the institutes’ hiring practices and refusal to acknowledge unflattering chapters of Chinese history.
On Monday, the University of Chicago allowed a five-year contract with its center to expire. In June, the American Association of University Professors urged universities to cut ties with the institutes unless they agree to greater transparency and academic freedom.
“There is clearly a growing sense that these academic centers need to be looked at a little more carefully,” said Henry Reichman, a vice president of the AAUP and chairman of the committee that issued a statement condemning Confucius Institutes. “I suspect U Chicago and Penn State won’t be the only ones to come to the conclusion that a relationship with these institutes is not really worth it.”
Confucius Institutes, which are funded by the Chinese government, began popping up on college campuses just as the economic recession started to bite into university budgets. The centers are aimed at teaching the Chinese language, spearheading Chinese cultural events and projecting China’s influence as the nation’s economy has grown into the second largest in the world. They spread to about 90 schools in the U.S. in part because many schools saw them as an inexpensive way to expand their academic offerings.
But several institutes have run into criticism for discriminating against the Falun Gong, a spiritual movement the Chinese government considers a threat, and for refusing to acknowledge the protests at Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989, among other things.
Last year, McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, refused to renew a five-year contract with the Confucius Institute on its campus when McMaster became concerned that instructors in China were being discriminated against based on their religious beliefs.
“Several of our goals are not consistent with those of the Office of Chinese Languages Council International, known as the Hanban, which provides support to Confucius Institutes throughout the world,” Dr. Susan Welch, dean of the College of the Liberal Arts at Penn State, said in a statement on Tuesday.
Eric Hayot, a professor at Penn State and the former director of the Confucius Institute there, said in an email that the decision was made about a month ago and comes as the series of controversies “that have made the overall situation for [Confucius Institutes] much less attractive than it once was.”
by denton.2 at osu.edu on October 6, 2014
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