Duke University will delay the opening of its campus in Kunshan, China, by a semester, to the spring of 2013, reports The Chronicle, the Duke student newspaper. In a meeting on Thursday with faculty members to discuss the controversial project, the university’s provost, Peter Lange, said bad weather had delayed construction. The planned campus has faced intense scrutiny from Duke professors, who have raised concerns about its financial feasibility, academic freedom in China, and how open administrators have been about its development.

In June faculty members at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business postponed a vote on proposed courses to be taught on the China campus.