Zarko Research is deeply exploring a major research exclusive. ZR has filed a FOIA for more details.

Based on a tip from a source, Zarko Research has become aware of the "China Scholarship Council," a branch of the People's Republic's of China (PRC)(yes, that's the nation of China), and an agreement they have with the University of Michigan (UM) to provide special access to U-M. During 2006, much was made by Democrats in the Gubernatorial election and elsewhere of all the jobs Dick DeVos was sending to China directly, and indirectly how Republicans generally were allowing jobs to go to lower-labor rate countries and China in particular through support of trade policies (regardless of the fact that trade agreements have all had bi-partisan approval, including President Clinton, over the decades). In the meantime, UM had and still has a deal to guarantee slots to Chinese engineers - in crass terms that unions and corporations alike should understand, Michigan taxpayers are funding and subsidizing our competition's long-term growth. The double-and-triple ironies here are numerous - I'm expecting (perhaps naively) the Democrat Party to remain consistent here and rally around at least this limited aspect of what MCRI prevents (special deals with foreign nations to give them inside-access, in preference over Michiganders or US citizens, to our education system -- quotas to groups that have no need for the preference and are already competing). ZR opines that Chinese nationals should have at most equal access to US educational facilities - not subsidized access. Chinese nationals have for a long-time had open-access to our institutions and the Chinese government is free to subsidize that as they will, but U-M need not add to the subsidy and advantage thereto received.

Proposal 2 provides that no university:

"...shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin..."

I have emphasized the key phrase.

Below is from the top-linked U-M description of the program I was alerted to. Much of the material still remains in password protected areas of the U-M website, now subject to a ZR FOIA. I've italicized key parts of U-M's violation of Proposal 2 - since the PRC is funding the scholarship, that is itself not a violation of the law - but U-M's reserveration/quota of 5 seats and co-pay guarantees of free medical insurance and other costs, in combination with the limitation of PRC citizenship, make this program a violation of Proposal 2:

The CSC-UM Postdoctoral Fellowship Program 2007-08
The application process for the CSC-UM Postdoctoral Fellowship for 2007-08 is under evaluation at this point in time and we will post the application information both on this website and in an e-mail to the University of Michigan academic community as soon as it is available.

Background:

The China Scholarship Council (CSC) and the University of Michigan (UM) have agreed to launch a joint postdoctoral program with the goal of fostering academic exchange and research collaboration between Chinese scholars and the faculty of the University of Michigan. Every year, up to five postdoctoral fellowships will be awarded to nationals of the People's Republic of China. The UM Center for Chinese Studies at the International Institute will be the coordinating unit responsible for collecting UM faculty applications and providing liaison between the participating programs and CSC. Postdoctoral Fellows should have their Ph.D. degree in hand by the time the fellowship begins, and should have obtained their doctoral degree within the last five years in a Chinese or overseas institution.

CSC and UM will jointly participate in the selection of fellows to ensure good match of expertise and interests between UM faculty and the candidates. Specific goals of the program are: 1) to involve the postdoctoral fellows in ongoing faculty research projects at the University of Michigan, and 2) to promote UM-related academic exchange and research capacity building in China. The postdoctoral period is intended to be up to 2 years, the first academic year to be spent at the University of Michigan and additional time up to one year to be spent in the P.R.C. Alternative proposals for the duration and location of the post-docs will be considered as long as they meet the above goals.

This program will initially be implemented for three years to begin fall semester of 2005 with the possibility of renewal at the end of three years and expansion at any time at the agreement of both parties.

Financial and Logistic Arrangements:

The China Scholarship Council will provide each fellow with international airfare and a monthly stipend of no less than $1,150 while the postdoctoral fellow is at the University of Michigan. The UM programs and faculty hosting the fellows will provide medical insurance and a supplemental monthly stipend of $683.33 while the postdoctoral fellow is in the United States and $416.67 while the postdoctoral fellow is in China to match current UM and Chinese minimal postdoctoral stipend levels. The UM Center for Chinese Studies will assist UM-units with J1 postdoctoral scholar visa applications to the United States as well as help arrange housing and other university paperwork while the postdoctoral fellow is at UM. The UM Center for Chinese Studies will also determine the feasibility of any proposed second-year Chinese arrangements. The program will be open to full-time faculty from any academic unit on the Ann Arbor campus.

Selection Process:

Application to the CSC-UM Postdoctoral Fellowship Program is open to PRC nationals who have obtained their doctoral degree within the last five years in a Chinese or overseas institution and who must have the Ph.D. in hand by the beginning of the fellowship.

The selection process will have two stages. First, a UM postdoctoral fellowship selection committee will be established to select five or more UM faculty postdoctoral fellowship proposals. The committee will include representatives from the UM Center for Chinese Studies and the International Institute. The committee will consider the following criteria in selecting the proposals: first, the quality of the research project; second, the extent to which the project meets the two goals of the postdoctoral fellowship program, including the extent to which the project commits to investing faculty time and project resources in mentoring the postdoctoral fellow.

UM faculty proposals should include the following:

1. Project description of research questions and methodology (2-3 pages)

2. Sources of project funding

3. Job description for the postdoctoral fellow

4. Expertise or skills required of the postdoctoral fellow

5. Expected output at the end of the fellowship period

The Center for Chinese Studies and CSC will publicize the UM postdoctoral fellowship opportunities both inside and outside China. CSC will forward up to three eligible candidates for each postdoctoral research position (candidate can apply to multiple projects, but must rank-order their preference), and the UM faculty in charge of each postdoctoral project will select the fellowship winner from among the proposed candidates, reserving the right to refuse all candidates if they are academically unsuitable.

Chinese national applicant proposals to UM should include the following:

1. Letter of interest

2. Detailed curriculum vitae

3. Sample publications

The letter of interest should include a 1-2 page statement for each project to which applicants are applying of its relevance to their research interests and training highlighting the expertise they bring to the project.

Application Schedule for 2007-08 fellowships - To Be Determined

Evaluation:

Postdoctoral Fellow Faculty Advisors are responsible for annual reports evaluating the performance of each CSC-UM postdoctoral scholar including a list of all co-authored working papers and publications.

Administration:

Interested UM faculty should send their application to Summer Tucker (summert@umich.edu) at the Center for Chinese Studies, Suite 3668 SSWB, University of Michigan, 1080 South University, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1106.

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This may be the first documented violation of Proposal 2. ZR will both seek more information and agressively pursue a wider audience.