麻省理工学院校长 L. Rafael Reif 向在MIT工作和学习的教师、科研人员和学生发表了一封公开信，谈到中美关系给科研教育带来的影响。Leo Rafael Reif (雷欧·拉斐尔·莱夫)是知名委内瑞拉裔美籍发明家、电气工程师和作家。在 2012 年 7 月 2 日，他接替苏珊・霍克菲尔德成为麻省理工学院校长。此前，他历任该校的教务长，工程系主任和微系统实验室（MIT-MTL）负责人。 Reif出生在马拉开波的一个东欧犹太移民家庭，其父母在 20 世纪 30 年代经由厄瓜多尔和哥伦比亚移居到美国。他于 1979 年从斯坦福大学获得电气工程博士学位的，并之后在斯坦福大学担任客座教授。

1.公开信中文全文

    致麻省理工学院的成员们：

    像美国一样，麻省理工学院蓬勃发展，因为它如同磁铁一般吸引了世界上最优秀的人才。同时，它还是一所全球化的实验室，来自不同文化和背景的人们互相激励，共同创造未来。

    今天，对于麻省理工学院华裔社区成员遭遇的痛苦境况，我感到很沮丧。我相信，因为我们将其珍视为朋友和同事，所以他们的境遇以及更宏大的国家背景，也应该关系到我们所有人。

    形势

    中美两国在不断升级的紧张局势中苦苦挣扎，从所谓的个人学术间谍事件到普遍认为中国政府通过收购高科技知识产权以进行系统性的学术间谍行为，美国对此提出严重关切。

    作为包括麻省理工学院林肯实验室在内的研究所的负责人，我已无法找到更严谨的方法来处理国家安全相关事宜。我很清楚学术间谍活动的风险，因而麻省理工学院已经制定了谨慎的政策来防范此类违规行为。

    但在处理这些风险时，我们必须非常小心，不要营造充斥着毫无根据的怀疑和恐惧的不悦气氛。纵观全国各地的案例，少数具有中国背景的研究人员可能确实是出于恶意行事，但他们是例外，而且与规则相去甚远。然而，教员、博士后、研究人员和学生却告知我，在与政府机构打交道时，仅仅因为他们是中国人，他们现在感觉到自己受到了不公正的审查，同时感到耻辱和紧张。

    没有比这个更加偏离、甚至是在腐蚀我们社区的协作力量和开放的理想的了，华人和华裔同事的这些报道令人心碎。作为学者、教师、导师、发明家和企业家，他们不仅是我们之中的模范成员，而且是美国社会的杰出贡献者。但令我深感不安的是，他们觉得自己得到的回报是普遍的不信任和不尊重。

    向世界发出的信号

    对于我们这些直接了解麻省理工学院全球社区和科学思想自由流动的巨大价值的人来说，理解这些同事的痛苦是美国向世界传达的越来越响亮的口号的一部分是非常重要的。

    旷日持久的签证延误。由于宗教、人种、种族或民族出身的原因，对大多数移民和其他群体的严厉言论。这些行动和政策合而为一，共同将美国正在关上大门的声音调到了最高。我们不再寻求成为吸引世界上最具驱动力和创造力的人的“磁石”。我相信这一信息与美国的成功方式并不一致。我也确信这不是学院取得成功的原因所在。我们应该考虑它会给国家和麻省理工学院带来严重的长期成本。

    为了记录下来，让我满怀温暖及热情地告诉麻省理工学院全球社区的每一位成员：我们很高兴、很自豪并且很幸运地与你们在一起!对那些分散在世界各地的校友，我想告诉你们：我们仍然是一个共同体，通过我们共同的价值观和理想团结在一起!对于所有正在崭露头角的人才，我想告诉你们：如果你对创造一个更美好的世界充满激情，如果你梦想加入我们的社区，对于你的创造力、不可阻挡的能量及希冀，我们非常欢迎。我们希望你能够找到加入我们的方法。

    五月份，世界失去了一位才华横溢的创作大师：麻省理工学院1940级建筑师贝聿铭(I.M.Pei)。他在上海和香港长大，17岁时来到美国求学。从波士顿到巴黎，从中国到华盛顿特区，还有我们的校园内，他留下的标志性建筑遗产随处可见。按照他的说法，一生之中，他都有意识地保持着自己的中国血统。然而，当他在102岁时去世时，《波士顿环球报》(Boston Globe)将其形容为“他那代人中最著名的美国建筑师”。

    多亏了美国卓越的制度，它也为作为移民的我创造了空间，因此所有这些事实可以同时都是真实的。

    正如我在40多年的学术生涯中发现的那样，一所大学隐藏的力量是，每年秋天，它都会被新的一批学生所更新。我同样相信，美国精神的一部分也在被移民通过他们充满激情的能量、大胆、聪明才智和渴望更美好生活的动力而不断更新。

    在确保我国国家安全及管理和改善我国移民系统所必需的行动方面，肯定有一系列重要问题需要考虑。但在此时的喧嚣之外，我认为我们应该发出的一个响亮和清晰的信号，美国移民故事对于理解美国如何成为并保持乐观、开放、创新和繁荣至关重要，而这个关于美国移民的故事也将永无止境地更新下去。

    在像我们这样的国家中，移民就是如同氧气般的存在，每一次吸入新鲜氧气都会使整个身体重新充满活力。作为一个社会，当我们向移民提供机会时，我们都会得到对于我们共同的未来至关重要的燃料。我相信这种智慧将永远在麻省理工学院的生活和工作给予我们引导。我也希望它能继续指导我们的国家。

    你真诚的，

    雷欧·拉斐尔·莱夫

2.公开信英文全文

    To the members of the MIT community,

    MIT has flourished, like the United States itself, because it has been a magnet for the world’s finest talent, a global laboratory where people from every culture and background inspire each other and invent the future, together.

    Today, I feel compelled to share my dismay about some circumstances painfully relevant to our fellow MIT community members of Chinese descent. And I believe that because we treasure them as friends and colleagues, their situation and its larger national context should concern us all.

    The situation

    As the US and China have struggled with rising tensions, the US government has raised serious concerns about incidents of alleged academic espionage conducted by individuals through what is widely understood as a systematic effort of the Chinese government to acquire high-tech IP.

    As head of an institute that includes MIT Lincoln Laboratory, I could not take national security more seriously. I am well aware of the risks of academic espionage, and MIT has established prudent policies to protect against such breaches.

    But in managing these risks, we must take great care not to create a toxic atmosphere of unfounded suspicion and fear. Looking at cases across the nation, small numbers of researchers of Chinese background may indeed have acted in bad faith, but they are the exception and very far from the rule. Yet faculty members, post-docs, research staff and students tell me that, in their dealings with government agencies, they now feel unfairly scrutinized, stigmatized and on edge – because of their Chinese ethnicity alone. 

    Nothing could be further from – or more corrosive to ­– our community’s collaborative strength and open-hearted ideals. To hear such reports from Chinese and Chinese-American colleagues is heartbreaking. As scholars, teachers, mentors, inventors and entrepreneurs, they have been not only exemplary members of our community but exceptional contributors to American society. I am deeply troubled that they feel themselves repaid with generalized mistrust and disrespect.

    The signal to the world

    For those of us who know firsthand the immense value of MIT’s global community and of the free flow of scientific ideas, it is important to understand the distress of these colleagues as part of an increasingly loud signal the US is sending to the world.

    Protracted visa delays. Harsh rhetoric against most immigrants and a range of other groups, because of religion, race, ethnicity or national origin. Together, such actions and policies have turned the volume all the way up on the message that the US is closing the door – that we no longer seek to be a magnet for the world’s most driven and creative individuals. I believe this message is not consistent with how America has succeeded. I am certain it is not how the Institute has succeeded. And we should expect it to have serious long-term costs for the nation and for MIT.

    For the record, let me say with warmth and enthusiasm to every member of MIT’s intensely global community: We are glad, proud and fortunate to have you with us! To our alumni around the world: We remain one community, united by our shared values and ideals! And to all the rising talent out there: If you are passionate about making a better world, and if you dream of joining our community, we welcome your creativity, we welcome your unstoppable energy and aspiration – and we hope you can find a way to join us. 

   In May, the world lost a brilliant creative force: architect I.M. Pei, MIT Class of 1940. Raised in Shanghai and Hong Kong, he came to the United States at 17 to seek an education. He left a legacy of iconic buildings from Boston to Paris and China to Washington, DC, as well on our own campus. By his own account, he consciously stayed alive to his Chinese roots all his life. Yet, when he died at the age of 102, the Boston Globe described him as “the most prominent American architect of his generation.”

    Thanks to the inspired American system that also made room for me as an immigrant, all of those facts can be true at the same time.

    As I have discovered through 40 years in academia, the hidden strength of a university is that every fall, it is refreshed by a new tide of students. I am equally convinced that part of the genius of America is that it is continually refreshed by immigration – by the passionate energy, audacity, ingenuity and drive of people hungry for a better life.

    There is certainly room for a wide range of serious positions on the actions necessary to ensure our national security and to manage and improve our nation’s immigration system. But above the noise of the current moment, the signal I believe we should be sending, loud and clear, is that the story of American immigration is essential to understanding how the US became, and remains, optimistic, open-minded, innovative and prosperous – a story of never-ending renewal.

    In a nation like ours, immigration is a kind of oxygen, each fresh wave reenergizing the body as a whole. As a society, when we offer immigrants the gift of opportunity, we receive in return vital fuel for our shared future. I trust that this wisdom will always guide us in the life and work of MIT. And I hope it can continue to guide our nation.

    Sincerely,

    L. Rafael Reif

本文转自公众号-IMS峰会