SMITHFIELD – Bryant University President Ross Gittell and Vice President for International Affairs Hong Yang, director of the university’s Confucius Institute, jointly announced Monday in a letter to faculty and staff that Bryant will not apply for continued funding for the institute once the current contract expires.
The institute, Gittell and Yang said, was first established in 2006 and was the first such institute in southern New England dedicated to Chinese language and culture. It offers language resources and educational programs benefiting students, businesses and educators in Rhode Island and in the New England region, they said.
Gittell and Yang said that Bryant will evaluate changes that are taking place in China regarding U.S.-China relations before making any future commitments to the institute on the Smithfield campus. Bryant did not immediately answer questions from Providence Business News Monday as to when the institute’s contract will expire or how students and staff will be supported when it does.
Gittell and Yang said the institute had no influence over Bryant’s curriculum offerings at its Zhuhai, China, campus. “We continue our strong beliefs that economic and business ties between the two nations are significant and are committed to provide high-quality business education through our curriculum offerings in Zhuhai,” Gittell and Yang said in the letter.
In September, Bryant said that it had no plans to close the institute even though then-U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stated publicly he hoped all such institutes on college campuses in the U.S. would be shut by the end of 2020. Pompeo, per a report from CNBC at the time, accused the institutes on U.S. college campuses of working to recruit “spies and collaborators.”
Gittell told PBN at the time that no scientific research activities relevant to national security or intellectual property issues are involved with the U.S.-China Institute’s activities and programs. The U.S.-China Institute, also located at Bryant’s Smithfield campus, manages the Confucius Institute.
It is unclear where current U.S. Secretary of State Anthony J. Blinken stands on the continued operation of the Confucius institutes across the country.
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter at @James_Bessette.
