Feds Launch Probe of UC Berkeley Over Hiding Millions In Funding from China, Other Countries; Trump Signs Executive Order Putting A Stop To Dark Foreign Money Influence In American Universities

Feds launch probe of UC Berkeley over hiding millions in funding from China, other countries:

The Department of Education launched an investigation of the University of California, Berkeley, Friday for allegedly running afoul of federal law by failing to report hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign funding — including from China, according to senior administration officials.

UC Berkeley raked in $220 million from Chinese government officials to build a joint Tsinghua-Berkeley Institute in the city of Shenzhen — but never reported the payment despite its price tag exceeding the $250,000 mandatory disclosure threshold of Section 117 of the Higher Education Act.

Those payments were previously revealed as part of a House committee investigation in 2023 — but a senior Education Department official told reporters Friday that “hundreds of millions of dollars” will now be combed through.

The investigation, which follows an executive order from President Trump authorizing the move, will also uncover whether significant US technologies were transferred to Chinese state-linked entities as part of the arrangement.

“They’ll have 30 days to respond with the records that we requested, and so we hope to have quite a volume of records and we’ll be able to verify the degree to which UC-Berkeley is or is not compliant after our examination of those records,” an Education Department official told reporters.

Dan Mogulof, assistant vice chancellor in Berkeley’s public affairs office, said in a statement responding to the probe: “Over the course of the last two years, UC Berkeley has been cooperating with federal inquiries regarding [Section] 117 reporting issues, and will continue to do so”

The first Trump administration opened at least 19 civil probes of universities over foreign funding, but many of those investigations languished during the Biden administration.

At least nine schools had pending cases closed by 2022, a senior department official said.—>READ MORE HERE

Trump Signs Executive Order Putting A Stop To Dark Foreign Money Influence In American Universities:

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday requiring American universities to be more transparent about any foreign donations they accept.

The order, “Transparency Regarding Foreign Influence At American Universities,” calls on Education Secretary Linda McMahon to seek information from universities about the source and purpose of foreign funding and make such details available to the public. The Trump administration has been putting schools under a microscope in recent months, probing for information on foreign funding, international professor and student recruitment and anti-Semitic protests.

The order also tasks the U.S. Attorney General with enforcing the disclosures and holding schools accountable.

“Protecting American educational, cultural, and national security interests requires transparency regarding foreign funds flowing to American higher education and research institutions,” Trump’s order reads. “It is the policy of my Administration to end the secrecy surrounding foreign funds in American educational institutions, protect the marketplace of ideas from propaganda sponsored by foreign governments, and safeguard America’s students and research from foreign exploitation.”

An investigation during President Trump’s first term revealed that 19 schools failed to report a total of $6.5 billion in foreign funds, the press release stated.

“Colleges and universities have a legal duty to report foreign gifts and contracts and, in President Trump’s first term, the Department of Education held them to it,” McMahon said in a statement following the signing of the order. “Unfortunately, in the last four years, the Biden Administration undermined the structures the President built to do this critical work, allowing nations like China and Qatar to funnel billions of dollars to U.S. universities with little to no oversight. This financial infiltration enabled foreign governments to steal taxpayer-funded intellectual property and reshape how our elite campuses teach about Israel and the Middle East.” —>READ MORE HERE

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