The governing bodies of faculty and undergraduate students at Cornell University have voted against a proposed partnership with China’s Peking University (PKU), citing the state-run institution’s poor record of academic freedom and human rights. In a 16-39 vote with 20 abstentions, the Cornell Faculty Senate on Wednesday rejected a non-biding resolution endorsing a proposed dual-degree program between Cornell and PKU, one of the 76 top-tier universities directly administered by the Chinese Ministry of Education. The proposed two-year program, according to the website of Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration (pdf), would allow graduates to obtain a master of management in hospitality degree from Cornell, and a master of business administration degree from Peking. Once a hotbed of the nationwide pro-democracy protests in 1989, the PKU is now more than willing to discipline faculty and students whose ideologies are not aligned closely enough with the interests of the Chinese communist regime. In …