The Department of Education is investigating the University of California, Berkeley to comply with a federal law requiring universities to disclose certain foreign gifts and contracts.
This is the first review since President Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday to increase transparency about “foreign influence of American universities.”
Notice of the investigation and corresponding record requests were sent to Berkeley on Friday morning after the department found that the university’s disclosure might be incomplete.
“In the past few years, very large amounts of media coverage in Berkeley have received funds from foreign governments (in hundreds of millions of dollars) in the past few years, especially in China,” a senior education official said in a news call on Friday. But while developments of “important technologies” have been shared with foreign countries, in Section 117 of the Higher Education Act, the funding “has not been reported to the department to the department as required by the law.”
Under Article 117, universities and universities must sign all grants and contracts with foreign entities worth more than $250,000 twice a year. The department held a similar review of Harvard University last week.
The UC Berkeley administrator will have 30 days to reply to the requested record. From there, the Department of Education’s general counsel worked with the Department of Justice and Treasury to “verify the degree of compliance at UC Berkeley.” (Unlike Harvard, the Department of Education did not disclose specific records required by Berkeley.)
“The Biden-Harris administration turned a blind eye by depriving oversight and allowing foreign gifts to be poured into American campuses,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a press release. “I am confident that my office of general counsel can fully investigate these things.”
Trump and Congressional Republicans have been working to crack down on the first Trump administration since the implementation of Article 117. This year, House Republicans have passed a bill known as the Deterrence Act that would lower the general threshold for reporting foreign donations from $250,000 to $50,000. No matter what value, gifts from some countries must be reported, such as China and Russia. The Senate has not yet introduced a bill.
When asked how Trump’s executive order distinguishes it from the Deterrence Act, department officials said the legislation would be “completely consistent with EO’s instructions” and that the department “has been very supportive” of the efforts of congressional Republicans.
“EO basically just says, vigorously enforcing the law, returning to law enforcement, stopping nonsense and working with other agencies,” the official explained. “So, regardless of the reporting requirement is a threshold of $250,000 or less per year, our approach is the same.”
Internal Advanced ED Asked if the department would conduct more investigations, but no response has been received.
