Nine people connected to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have had their visas revoked in the last week and the ongoing threat of revocations will have a chilling effect on “top talent” worldwide “that will damage American competitiveness and scientific leadership for years to come,” the school’s president, Sally Kornbluth, said in a letter Monday.
“I write to bring you up to date on developments in two areas where recent government actions are interfering with the normal functioning of MIT, diminishing our ability both to serve the nation and to attract the world’s finest talent,” the letter, addressed to the MIT community, read.
Since April 9, nine students, recent graduates, and post-doctoral students at the Cambridge university have had their visas and immigration status unexpectedly revoked, the letter said.
One of them has independently filed a lawsuit against the federal government. MIT is not a party to the suit, the letter said, but school officials have been in touch with the student directly.
“We are extremely concerned that there appears to have been no notice or explanation from the government for the revocation,” Kornbluth wrote.
“Our concern extends to all the members of our community who face such unexpected revocations, and we know that our international community — indeed our campus community broadly ― is alarmed by the possibility of future actions,” the letter continued.
The letter directed concerned students to guidance documents prepared by MIT’s Office of the General Counsel, as well as the International Students Office or the International Scholars Office.
“To live up to our great mission, MIT is driven to pursue the highest standards of intellectual and creative excellence,” Kornbluth wrote. “That means we are, and must be, in the business of attracting and supporting exceptionally talented people, the kind of people with the drive, skill and daring to see, discover and invent things no one else can.”
“To find those rare people, we open ourselves to talent from every corner of the United States and from around the globe,” the letter continued. “MIT is an American university, proudly so — but we would be gravely diminished without the students and scholars who join us from other nations.”
Separately, MIT has signed onto a federal lawsuit challenging newly imposed cuts to government-funded research by the Department of Energy, the letter said.
On Friday, the Department of Energy announced that for grants to universities, it would no longer cover indirect costs at previously agreed-to rates, according to the letter.
The new rate was set at 15 percent and the department said it would terminate all grants unless they conformed to the new blanket rate, the letter said.
Such grants support the work of nearly 1,000 members of the MIT community, Kornbluth’s letter said.
The lawsuit filed Monday in federal court in Boston named the Department of Energy and its secretary, Chris Wright.
“If DOE’s policy is allowed to stand, it will devastate scientific research at America’s universities and badly undermine our Nation’s enviable status as a global leader in scientific research and innovation,” the 41-page suit read.
MIT joined 10 higher education associations and universities, including Brown and Princeton, in the lawsuit.
A one-size-fits-all approach to the new rate won’t work and “the harm will be immediate and irreparable,” the lawsuit said.
“Because universities cannot sustain DOE-funded programs at the 15% indirect cost rate ... myriad critical projects — often the product of years or decades of effort — are in jeopardy of being stopped in their tracks,” Kornbluth wrote.
“Progress on a safe and effective nuclear deterrent, novel energy sources, and cures for debilitating and life-threatening illness will be obstructed,” Kornbluth wrote. “America’s rivals will celebrate, even as science and industry in the United States suffer.”
Tonya Alanez can be reached at tonya.alanez@globe.com. Follow her @talanez.