There’s probably nothing strange about a university in China expressing preference for a member of the Chinese Communist Party when announcing a job opening.

What is strange is that the university is jointly owned and operated with an American university—and a public university, no less.

Hats off to Inside Higher Ed for pointing out that Wenzhou-Kean University’s job offer for a “specialist for student conduct” says: “Membership in Communist Party is preferred.” The same designation is included for its “specialist for residence life.”

While student life positions in the United States have been criticized for indoctrination, it may well be that the Communist Party connection has more to do with spying on the students than instructing them. (That’s my opinion based on some knowledge of past Chinese practice.)

The source of this information is Kean University’s faculty and staff unions (affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers). They have been unhappy about the creation of the joint university, which just completed its third academic year and now has 1,000 students.