As students protest, US colleges denounce Russia, pull out of country over Ukraine war
As Russia continues its invasion of Ukraine, some American colleges are joining the growing Western coalition of governments and businesses taking action against Moscow – an unusual position for the academy, which generally tries to stay out of international politics.
The response from U.S. universities has ranged from denouncements of Russia’s actions to shutting down academic partnerships and programs in Russia.
That development is especially striking given that universities celebrate their openness to cultural exchange, even with controversial governments such as China or Saudi Arabia. But Russia's invasion of Ukraine is testing how far the commitment to intellectual diversity can go in the face of war.
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The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has taken the most drastic steps in the academy, severing ties with a Russian university it helped found. And on Monday, the State Department urged all Americans to leave Russia, which could affect collegians studying abroad.
Some study-abroad students heading home from Russia
Middlebury College, a private liberal arts institution in Vermont, pressed students in its Russia study-abroad program to return home as quickly as possible on Monday.
“Our priority right now is making sure you are able to leave Russia quickly and safely,” wrote Nana Tsikhelashvili, director of the Middlebury School in Russia. “Then we will work on the academic component.”
Tsikhelashvili said that the college staff would help students find and pay for flights and that it was “unfortunate that your time in Russia has been cut short.”
Sarah Ray, a spokeswoman for the college, said 12 students – three from Middlebury and nine from other universities – had been studying in Russia. As of Wednesday afternoon, three had left the country and the rest were scheduled to depart later in the week.
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It’s not immediately clear, however, how many American students might have been studying in Russia or Ukraine. In the 2019-20 academic year, the most recent year for which data is available, about 400 American students studied in Russia, according to the Institute of International Education. But the beginning of the pandemic in 2020 could have affected those numbers. In the prior two academic years, about 1,300 Americans studied in the country.
To compare, in the 2019-20 academic year, 55 Americans studied in Ukraine, about half of the 100 who had studied there the year before.
MIT pulls out of Russia
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology went further than recalling students from Russia: It severed its connection with a Russian university it helped to launch more than a decade ago.
MIT’s president, L. Rafael Reif, said the Russian government’s “violent invasion of a peaceful neighbor” forced the university to cut ties with the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology.
The university’s response carried some emotional weight for Reif. In his message to the campus, he shared a story of how his parents fled the western Ukraine-Moldova region ahead of World War II.
“The circumstances then were different: My parents were running from pervasive antisemitism and the rise of Hitler,” Reif wrote. “In their small town, no one they left behind survived. But their experience is a reminder of the brutal human consequences of state-sponsored aggression and violence.”
One of the most prominent Russian exchange programs is American University's Carmel Institute of Russian Culture & History. The Washington center also hosts events focused on Russian culture and history, though it has come under fire in the past for what critics say is a sanitized depiction of the country. Maria Butina, a Russian agent who attended American University and was later found guilty of conspiracy, had also attended Carmel Institute events, The New York Times reported.
Matt Bennett, the university's chief communications officer, said in a statement that the institute hadn't sponsored any American University students to study in Russia this semester. A Russian student from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations did receive a Carmel Institute grant for housing and living expenses in Washington, he said.
Bennett also said that the institute doesn't have any planned events and that it generally doesn't "address contemporary political issues."
"Learning about different countries and cultures is a pathway to better relations and constructive global engagement," Bennett said. "One of the many tragedies of war is that it interrupts cultural exchange."
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Should colleges go further?
Some university presidents have denounced Russia's actions outright, including the Rev. John I. Jenkins of the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.
“This unprovoked war is an international abomination and must stop now,” Jenkins wrote.
And the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, a group of 500 college leaders, asked President Joe Biden's administration to grant special immigration protections to Ukrainian students studying in America.
College students, many of them with ties to Ukraine, have also staged demonstrations calling on their universities to denounce Russia and take action to support Ukranians.
So far, such demonstrations have taken place at universities including Northeastern in Boston, the University of Illinois, Louisiana State, Princeton in New Jersey and the University of Wisconsin.
Hanna Onyshchenko, 28, is a doctoral student from Ukraine studying economics at the University of Michigan. She is leading a petition that calls on the institution to "publicly condemn the invasion and prioritize aid to Ukrainian scholars and students fleeing the conflict."
More than 600 people have signed the document since Thursday, she said. That's encouraging to Onyshchenko, who is still trying to study and spends nearly four hours a day talking to relatives and friends in Ukraine. She is from Chernihiv, a city that recently has been attacked by Russian forces.
Onyschenko said her effort was influenced by MIT's actions. She said she has received support from the economics department and other graduate students, but a statement from the university's administration would carry additional weight.
Ukrainian students also are working together to raise money for their home country. Northwestern University student Mykhailo Ivaniuk, 19, created a website with friends with resources on how to donate to Ukraine or what to post on social media to draw attention.
Ivaniuk said he does wish the Chicago university's administration would issue a bolder denunciation of Russia’s actions, but he has been pleasantly surprised by the fundraising efforts. He and his peers have raised nearly $10,000 from the campus so far, and they're donating it to Razom, a nonprofit that supports Ukraine democracy and is focused now on providing medical supplies to the country.
“Even though the leadership didn’t do much to condemn (Russian President Vladimir) Putin or support Ukraine,” he said, “the student body was incredibly helpful and supportive of the Ukrainian crisis.”