Johns Hopkins Instructor Accused of Trying to Pass Info to Russia
"Dr. Anna Gabrielian, an instructor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine at Hopkins, and her wife, Dr. Jamie Lee Henry, a major in the U.S. Army, are facing a count of conspiracy and seven counts of wrongful disclosure of individually identifying health information. They could face up to five years in prison for conspiracy and 10 for each count of wrongful disclosure." – Inside Higher Ed, 9/30/22
Biden Won’t Forgive Privately Held Federal Loans
"When President Biden last month announced plans to forgive up to $20,000 in federal student loans for eligible Americans, the department didn’t definitively say whether privately held federal student loans would be included in the plan but said that it was discussing the issue with private lenders. Now, those borrowers have an answer: their loans will not be forgiven." – Inside Higher Ed, 9/30/22
The ACT is Still Useful
"As a diagnostic tool, the ACT is invaluable in identifying those who need help preparing for college, a vocation, or the mundane tasks of adulthood (like managing a household budget). Knowing that only 25 percent of students who took the ACT in 2021 met all four College Readiness Benchmarks, and that 55 percent (711,705 students) were 'below proficient' in understanding complex texts, are critical pieces of information if one seriously wants to help students succeed." – James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal, 9/30/22
Western Connecticut Challenges Reflect System Tensions
"Faculty demands for accountability continue at Western Connecticut State University, months after the president stepped down amid scrutiny over the depletion of the institution’s reserves. New leadership has been tasked with righting the ship, and faculty eagerly await answers. For some, the answers aren’t coming fast enough—and they worry accountability won’t come at all." – Inside Higher Ed, 9/30/22
States Sue to Stop Biden Loan ‘Forgiveness’ Program: ‘Unwise,’ ‘Unfair,’ and ‘Unlawful’
"Nebraska, Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas, Iowa, and South Carolina joined together to file a lawsuit against the Biden administration on Thursday in an attempt to stop the president’s announced student loan-forgiveness program from taking effect. 'In addition to being economically unwise and downright unfair, the Biden Administration’s Mass Debt Cancellation is yet another example in a long line of unlawful regulatory actions,' argued the plaintiffs in their filing." – National Review, 9/29/22
In a reversal, the Education Dept. is excluding many from student loan relief
"In a remarkable reversal that will affect the fortunes of many student loan borrowers, the U.S. Department of Education has quietly changed its guidance around who qualifies for President Biden's sweeping student debt relief plan. At the center of the change are borrowers who took out federal student loans many years ago, both Perkins loans and Federal Family Education Loans." – NPR, 9/29/22
0% Interest On Student Loans Is the Next Debt Forgiveness
"Loan forgiveness is the easiest option, but most seem to agree it’s misguided, as conservatives and liberals have united in their criticism of the measure. As a result, politicians will wisely avoid the infamous 'debt forgiveness' tag in the future. Instead, they will opt for less politically alienating policies such as interest-free student loans." – RealClearPolicy, 9/29/22
Exclusive: Federal Judge Vows to Stop Hiring Law Clerks from Yale Law School
"Judge James C. Ho of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit announced Thursday that he would no longer be hiring law clerks from Yale Law School and urged other judges to follow suit. In a keynote address to the Kentucky Chapters Conference of the Federalist Society, titled 'Agreeing to Disagree — Restoring America by Resisting Cancel Culture,' Ho cited a number of high-profile examples of speakers being shouted down or otherwise censored at law schools across the country but singled out Yale Law ... " – National Review, 9/29/22
New York City, embracing merit, rolls back diversity plan for schools
"New York City schools announced Thursday they would allow middle schools to consider academics in admitting students to some of the city’s most sought-after programs, unraveling pandemic-era rules aimed at injecting racial and economic diversity into a segregated system. High schools would also rely more heavily on merit and less on the luck of a lottery under the new plan, reversing the previous administration’s direction as a new mayor takes command of the nation’s largest school system." – Washington Post, 9/29/22
Fossil-Fuel Money Is Warping Climate Research
"As the effects of climate change become daily more apparent, universities are busy declaring climate emergencies, divesting their financial assets in fossil fuel, and pledging to meet ambitious climate goals. At the same time, however, these institutions are accepting hundreds of millions of dollars from the fossil-fuel industry. In a grim irony, many of the scientists and scholars tasked with helping us survive the climate crisis are funded by companies actively working to delay climate action." – Chronicle of Higher Education, 9/29/22
“At least $6.5B” unreported. Why should we not cut off funding to those institutions that failed to report and place it elsewhere in academia. We might have a pause in research, but talent will follow money every time. When you got them by the checkbook, their hearts, minds, and residences will follow.
“One would think that the government would want to encourage financial transfers to American universities from China”
Do you think China is handing out this money from the goodness of their hearts?
Or are they getting stuff in return — and what? Do not forget that Zaosong Zheng was arrested at Logan with 21 vials of something concealed in a sock in his luggage. It’s rumored that the Chinese actually stole the Corona Virus from a Canadian lab. And this is biological warfare, we’re not talking about the basic patent piracy and such which they are notorious for.
Yes, Higher Education has essentially declared war on half the country and as that’s the half that’s currently in power, Higher Education ought to anticipate consequences of its vitriol. But that’s not this — they found the man with 21 vials of something that he admitted to have stolen from Beth Israel Deaconess….
The Harvard/Charles Lieber matter has the potential of being considerably more serious than it might appear at first glance.
The US Attorney states that “Zaosong Zheng, 30, a Chinese national, was arrested on Dec. 10, 2019, at Boston’s Logan International Airport and charged by criminal complaint with attempting to smuggle 21 vials of biological research to China.” Reportedly this was biological material used in cancer research that Zheng had stolen from a lab at what was then the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center* — a primary teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School.
Yes, that Harvard….
The US Attorney added that “Yanqing Ye, 29, a Chinese national, was charged in an indictment today with one count each of visa fraud, making false statements, acting as an agent of a foreign government and conspiracy.”
Stating that she was currently in China, the US Attorney continued that she is
“a Lieutenant of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), the armed forces of the People’s Republic of China and member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). On her J-1 visa application, Ye falsely identified herself as a “student” and lied about her ongoing military service at the National University of Defense Technology (NUDT), a top military academy directed by the CCP. It is further alleged that while studying at Boston University’s (BU) Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biomedical Engineering from October 2017 to April 2019, Ye continued to work as a PLA Lieutenant completing numerous assignments from PLA officers such as conducting research, assessing U.S. military websites and sending U.S. documents and information to China.”
It was initially reported that both Zheng and Ye were associated with Dr. Charles Lieber and worked in his Harvard lab (in Cambridge, as opposed to the one in Wuhan which Harvard apparently didn’t even know about). At this point, it isn’t clear what relationship there is between the three, if any.
And yes, that Wuhan — the Chinese city that is ground zero of the Corona Virus.
The Wuhan University of Technology is where Liebar established his second lab and spent “not less than nine months a year” — somehow without Harvard ever knowing about it. Maybe — like you really don’t notice that the chair of a fairly significant department isn’t on campus “not less than nine months a year”?!?
It gets worse — the Wuhan University of Technology is where China reportedly is working on Biological Warfare — in violation of International law. That’s what makes the smuggling of pathogens so scary — it isn’t just the theft of the intellectual property but that they may be potentially making things more virulent and more lethal. (And we don’t yet know where the Corona Virus came from….)
Oh, and Charles Lieber — his research involves nanotechnology for mind control. It has potential for good (e.g. with Parkinson’s disease) but in the hands of the ChiComs, ummm….
* Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center has since merged with the Lahey Clinic and is now known as Beth Israel Lahey Health. An interesting aspect of this is that Lahey is one of the main teaching hospitals of Tufts Medical School….
A couple of odd things in this piece.
“The Journal does not explain what, if anything, the money was intended for. What we do know is that it has not been used to lower tuition costs for students.”
Well, why would anyone expect China and Russia to donate money to Harvard and Yale to lower tuition for American students?
“The Journal says that some universities are dismissing the idea that national security might be compromised by accepting huge payments from foreign governments.”
The question is not whether accepting the donations compromise national security, or even whether they are illegal — as far as I know, they are not. The question is whether the universities failed to report them properly. The universities are claiming that the federal laws — or regulations? — are so unclear as to be difficult or impossible to know what is required to comply with them.
By all means, if Lieber ilegally lied about his dealings with China, then he probably deserves what he will get both from the U.S. government and from Harvard. But let’s not have a witch hunt.
One would think that the government would want to encourage financial transfers to American universities from China, given the huge imbalance in trade with that country. The government claims that China hinders imports in goods and services from the United States.
It is hard not to suspect that at least part of what is going on involves a vendetta against American academia, given that it is overwhelmingly anti- or at least not pro-Trump. The same holds for the Trump administration’s repeated absurd moves to cut science funding at American universities.
This seems like a really dumb way to advance the well-being and power of the United States.
“By all means, if Lieber ilegally lied about his dealings with China, then he probably deserves what he will get both from the U.S. government and from Harvard. But let’s not have a witch hunt.” Probably? What witch hunt? It’s hard not to suspect that “Jonathan” is a troll, if not in the pay of China. This website has repeatedly pointed out the misuse of government funding for duplicative, sterile and non-reproducible “science” . What’s absurd in attempting to rein in useless, if not criminal, squandering of public funds? This one does not think that the government should want to encourage “ilegal” theft or purchase of our intellectual property by a potential adversary.