Four professors at Cornell College in Iowa who were teaching in China as part of a partnership with a local university were attacked in a public park in a “serious incident,” college officials said Monday.
Jonathan Brand, president of the private liberal arts college in Mount Vernon, Iowa, said in a statement that the instructors were “injured in a serious incident” while visiting a public park on Sunday. They were accompanied by a professor from Beihua University, the partner university in the northeastern Chinese city of Jilin.
“We have been in contact with all four instructors and are assisting them during this time,” Mr. Brand said in the release. No students were participating in the program, he said.
Details of the attack, including the conditions the instructors were in and whether the instructors were specifically targeted, remained unclear Monday. The college has been in contact with each of the faculty members, said Jen Visser, a university representative.
Beihua University staff members have been in contact with coordinating staff at Cornell College, Ms. Visser said, although she said it was unclear what information had been shared.
Ms Visser declined to release further information about the attack.
The partnership between Cornell College and Beihua University began in 2018, Visser said. According to a new version from 2018Beihua University funds Cornell professors to travel and live in China and teach computer science, mathematics, and physics over a two-week period.
