Debate: Are U.S. Colleges too Dependent
on International Students?

Thursday, November 6, 2025, 7:00 p.m

Wong Auditorium (E51-115)

Register to Attend Here 

On Thursday, November 6,  2025, the MIT Free Speech Alliance, joined by the MIT Open Discourse Society, will host its fall campus debate, where two teams will debate the following proposition:

Resolved, American Universities are too Dependent on International Students

Livestreaming MFSA's Debate

MFSA's Debate will be livestreamed through our YouTube channel, and you can watch it below. The recording will remain in place after the debate's completion for continued viewing. 

Fall 2025 Debate Participants

Anant Agarwal (Moderator) is Chief Academic Officer of 2U, founder of edX, and professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT. Prior to becoming Chief Academic Officer, Agarwal served as 2U’s Chief Platform Officer.

Since launching edX in 2012, Agarwal has guided the organization’s vision to expand access to high-quality education for everyone, everywhere. Today at 2U, he leverages his expertise in building powerful online learning platforms to drive edX’s growth as one of the world’s most comprehensive free-to-degree online learning marketplaces.

As the first educator to teach an edX course on circuits and electronics from MIT, Agarwal drew 155,000 students from 162 countries. He remains a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT today. Previously, he served as the director of CSAIL, MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.

Agarwal is a successful serial entrepreneur, having co-founded several companies including Tilera Corporation, which created the Tile multicore processor, and Virtual Machine Works. He has received multiple accolades over the years for his pursuit of great educational innovation. He won the Maurice Wilkes prize for computer architecture and MIT's Smullin and Jamieson prizes for teaching. He is also the 2016 recipient of the Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Prize for Higher Education, which recognized his work in advancing the MOOC movement. Additionally, Agarwal is a recipient of the Padma Shri Award from the President of India and was named the Yidan Prize Laureate for Education Development in 2018.

A pioneer in computer architecture, Agarwal is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a fellow of the ACM. Scientific American selected his work on organic computing as one of 10 World-Changing Ideas in 2011, and he was named in Forbes' list of top 15 education innovators in 2012.

Agarwal held a Guinness World Record for the largest microphone array, is an author of the textbook "Foundations of Analog and Digital Electronic Circuits,” and in his spare time he hacks on WebSim, an online circuits laboratory. He holds a Ph.D. from Stanford and a bachelor's from IIT Madras.

James T. Fishback is the Founder and CEO of Azoria, a free-thinking investment firm. He is also the founder of Incubate Debate, the fastest-growing debate league in America. Incubate hosts no-cost, in-person tournaments for thousands of middle and high school students and equips teachers nationwide with a free toolkit to host in-class student debates tied directly to the curriculum. His work has earned praise from Vivek Ramaswamy, who said that James “is a major star in our pro-America movement,” and Bari Weiss who said that what James has built at Incubate Debate “gives me hope.”

David Freed  is the founder of OnCall AI, a medical technology firm focused on streamlining the administrative bloat of the American healthcare system. He previously was the Chief Operating Officer of Crimson Education, helping students around the world find and get into their dream universities. He studied mathematics, economics, and statistics while at Harvard University, and writes regularly online about the intersection of business, labor economics, and sports. His prior work has been cited in The New York Times, ESPN, and The Atlantic.   

Chris R. Glass  is a Professor of the Practice in the Department of Educational Leadership and Higher Education at Boston College where he leads the Executive Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) in Higher Education program and serves as an affiliated faculty member in the Center for International Higher Education (CIHE). His research and writing focus on global student mobility, virtual mobility and exchange, as well as equity, inclusion, and sustainability in international higher education.

His research has been published in Studies in Higher Education, Higher Education Research and Development, Journal of Studies in International Education, Compare, International Journal of Intercultural Relations, and the International Journal of Educational Development.

Glass is an active member of the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) and the Study Abroad and International Students SIG. He has a deep commitment to the transformative power of international education, developed through years of leading study abroad programs and strengthened by personal connections with international students and scholars around the world.

Nathan Halberstadt is a Partner at New Founding, a venture firm focused on critical civilizational problems. Nathan studied neuroscience and history at Vanderbilt University and began his career at Boston Consulting Group (BCG) focused on the industrial goods sector. He has written on managerialism, AI, and coalitional dynamics in the New Right for UnHerd, The American Conservative, and American Reformer. His work has been featured on the All-In Podcast and Matt Walsh Show. Nathan has made interview appearances on platforms including The Pomp Podcast, The Wade Stotts Show, OANN, Timcast, and UnHerd. He is a fellow at State Leadership Initiative. You can find him on X at @NatHalberstadt.

Debate Co-Sponsors

MFSA and MODS are pleased to be joined by the following organizations, whose names appear in our materials as organizations sharing MFSA’s commitment to free inquiry, and to presenting programming confronting difficult and controversial topics:

• Alumni Free Speech Alliance
• American Council of Trustees and Alumni
• Arizona Strategies
• Braver Angels
• Cornell Free Speech Alliance
• Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
• Free to Choose Network
• Harvard Alumni for Free Speech
• Harvard Union Society
• Heresy Press
• Heterodox Academy
• Institute for Liberal Values
• Incubate Debate
• James Madison Program at Princeton University
• National Association of Scholars
• The Stanton Foundation
• UNC Alumni Free Speech Alliance