Dr. Jane Wu was a pioneering Chinese-American neuroscientist who died by suicide on July 10, 2024 after Northwestern University abruptly shut down her laboratory. The forced closure of her lab followed the conclusion of a years-long administrative investigation into Dr. Wu by the NIH, which did not charge her with any wrongdoing. Dr. Wu's family is suing Northwestern, alleging a pattern of discrimination and retaliation that ultimately led to Dr. Wu’s death. Her tragic death is connected to a broader climate of scrutiny and suspicion fostered by policies and programs like the now-defunct China Initiative. Furthermore, it reflects a recurring pattern of behavior by Northwestern: isolating its international and immigrant scholars while trading away their rights and security under federal pressure. As a university, Northwestern has a responsibility to provide an environment conducive to research and learning, including providing critical support and safety to its international and immigrant scholars.
In response, we demand that Northwestern:
- Publicly acknowledge and apologize for it’s treatment of Dr. Wu.
- Implement policies that protect scholars from racialized targeting. This includes not sharing data on individuals — such as immigration and citizenship status, disciplinary records, and other student or employee records — unless given specific consent by the individual or required by law.
- Release official guidance on which areas of campus are considered public (which do not require a judicial warrant to access) and nonpublic (which do require a judicial warrant to access).
- Release step-by-step procedures for staff if immigration enforcement officers request access to areas on campus or student/employee information. These procedures should designate a university point-of-contact to handle such requests and instructions on directing immigration enforcement officers to this point-of-contact.
- Implement a training for all staff on how to respond to immigration enforcement activities on campus, including how to differentiate between judicial and administrative warrants and protect the privacy of students and workers.
- Host a quarterly town hall where students and workers can discuss concerns about Northwestern's policies directly with higher-up members of the university administration
- Commit to academic freedom and fairness for all of its scholars, including international and immigrant scholars.
We recognize that protections are are only meaningful when they are transparent and enforceable. As such, we call on Northwestern to codify strong and extensive protections for international and immigrant workers, such as those listed above, in its collective bargaining agreements with campus workers, including with the Northwestern University Postdoc Union (UE Local 1151) and Northwestern University Graduate Workers (UE Local 1122).
To support this petition, please leave a short message of support in solidarity with the family of Dr. Wu, as well as all international and immigrant scholars at Northwestern and beyond. The messages will be compiled and presented to Northwestern's administration along with the petition. No personal information will be included on the petition.
If you are an organization endorsing the petition, please leave the name of your organization and link to your logo to be included with your message. Organizational signatures will be listed separately from individual signatures.
