Trump admin investigates UC Berkeley over foreign funding

The Department of Education has launched an investigation into the University of California, Berkeley over alleged failures to fully disclose foreign funding the school has received.

The department said that a Notice of Investigation and Records Request had been initiated into the school “after a review of the university’s foreign funding disclosures to the Department may be incomplete or inaccurate."

"The Biden-Harris Administration turned a blind eye to colleges and universities’ legal obligations by deprioritizing oversight and allowing foreign gifts to pour onto American campuses,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon added. “Despite widespread compliance failures, no new Section 117 investigations were initiated for four years, and ongoing investigations were closed prematurely. I have great confidence in my Office of General Counsel to investigate these matters fully, and they will begin by thoroughly examining UC Berkeley’s apparent failure to fully and accurately disclose significant funding received from foreign sources.”

The department announced that the Office of General Counsel would be reassuming enforcement functions relating to the disclosures of foreign gifts and contracts under Section 117 of the Higher Education Act of 1965, which requires that higher education institutions that receive federal funding must disclose foreign donations and contracts that are $250,000 or more annually.

This comes after Trump signed an executive order that mandated "full and timely disclosure of foreign funding by higher education institutions," and directed McMahon to rescind or reverse policies implemented by the Biden administration that allowed universities to obscure details about foreign gifts and contracts. Schools that fail to comply risk losing their federal funding.

The White House stated that around $60 billion in foreign gifts and contracts have flowed into American universities over several decades, with just 300 of around 6,000 institutions self-reporting these funds every year. A similar Section 117 investigation was launched into Harvard last week.

The Department of Educations stated, "In May 2023, credible news media reports indicated that Berkeley had failed to disclose to the Department hundreds of millions of dollars in funding from a foreign government," and after a review of the reports and the school’s Section 117 disclosure submissions, the department sent a letter on June 6, 2023 to the school requesting that it address these allegations.

Across two responses, one in June 2023 and one in July, "Berkeley acknowledged having failed to report millions of dollars in foreign government funding, as required by Section 117 and detailed its multiyear effort to cultivate a close relationship with and secure financial commitments from foreign government-controlled entities."

"Berkeley’s responses revealed a fundamental misunderstanding regarding its Section 117 reporting obligations."