The blind Chinese activist Chen Guangchen came to NYU’s law school last year after escaping house arrest in China. Now it appears he is leaving the university.
The New York Post ran a story Thursday morning that claimed NYU was pushing Chen out “under pressure from the Communist government.” The university is due to open a degree-granting campus in Shanghai this fall.
The university dismissed those claims, but acknowledged to TPM that Chen and the university were parting ways.
“The story’s claims of ‘outside pressure’ are fanciful and false,” John Beckman, NYU’s vice president for public affairs, said in a written statement. “We indicated that beyond this academic year he would need to make a transition to a more self-supporting life.”
The NYU administration has been besieged by criticism from its faculty this year. Professors have held several votes of no confidence against NYU President John Sexton, many of which highlighted NYU’s rapid global expansion as a central gripe.
