The UT system submitted its new travel regulations in March in order to comply with Gov. Greg Abbott’s GA-48 bill. The bill intends to protect Texas’ sensitive and critical infrastructures from “foreign adversaries” at universities and state agencies.
This comes after the 2023 Texas Education Code § 51.956 “Policy Framework for Research Security,” which requires that all governing boards of higher education institutions designate a person to serve as a research security officer. These officers, among many things, are responsible for conducting foreign influence reporting regarding university research.
As a result, SB 1273 went into effect on Sept. 1. This legislation added that R1 universities’ research security officers will be a part of the newly-established Higher Education Research Security Council, which will:
(1) Identify best practices for universities to conduct research while mitigating the threat “of foreign espionage and interference.”
(2) Develop a model research security policy.
(3) Submit a confidential report on the status of university research security every year, beginning in 2026.
Since the initial crackdown began in 2023, the Texas legislature has been rapidly limiting university staff from traveling to any nations listed as foreign adversaries for work-related purposes. Travel to these nations — China, North Korea, Iran, Cuba, Venezuela and Russia — is now “generally” prohibited by policy with extremely limited exceptions.
While this may be intended for infrastructural security, it results in a detriment to overall education. This bill bars almost all faculty and student-employees from research, conferences, workshops, presentations, fieldwork, teaching and fellowships they planned to attend. Not only does this harm academia across international borders, but it decreases the quality of international work and limits educational opportunities are crucial to many students’ and faculty’s areas of study, research and overall learning.
If a university employee wants to travel to one of these nations, there are two narrow exceptions: (1) they are funded by a federal grant that expressly provides for that travel, or (2) they receive higher approval from UT leadership. This includes approval from the International Oversight Committee.
Sung-Sheng (Yvonne) Chang, the director of the Center for Taiwan Studies, has traveled to China nearly every year for the past two decades and said that the regulation lowers her incentive to go back.
“You want to encourage and reassure researchers … to continue to go to China (and conduct) research. We can all naturally understand, if (we) stop doing that, (we’re) just going to hurt ourselves,” Chang said.
Arlene Rosen, a professor of anthropology and environmental archaeology, has previously done extensive research in China.
“I think the bottom line is if you want to encourage learning and scholarly collaboration, you don’t put up barriers,” Rosen said. “The very fact that we’re antagonistically creating barriers means that we’re stopping any progress and the flow of knowledge and information.”
The continuous onslaught against collaborative academia has and continues to harm research across international borders, decreasing the quality of international work and limiting educational opportunities that are crucial to research, dissertations and education for all UT staff and students. Politicizing academia — whether it takes place in “foreign adversary” nations or not — is not a positive means of protecting Texas’ educational interests.
Gray is an anthropology, government and economics junior from Baytown, Texas.
