Four college instructors from 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, the 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 with a faculty member of Beihua University, the partner university in Jilin City, in northeastern China.
“We have been in contact with all four instructors and are assisting them during this time,” Mr. Brand said in the statement. No students were participating in the program, he said.
Details about the attack, including the instructors’ conditions and whether the instructors were specifically targeted, remained unclear Monday. The college has been in touch with each of the faculty members, said Jen Visser, a spokeswoman for the university.
Staff members from Beihua University have been in contact with coordinating staff at Cornell College, Ms. Visser said, though she said that it was unclear what information had been shared.
Ms. Visser declined to release additional information about the attack.
The partnership between Cornell College and Beihua University began in 2018, Ms. Visser said. According to a 2018 new release, Beihua University provides funding for Cornell professors to travel and live in China and teach computer science, mathematics, and physics over a two-week period.
