Author Archive: Glenn Reynolds

THE ENEMY WITHIN: Higher Ed’s Secret Foreign Funding.

The Trump administration has made university accountability a signature issue, from combating discrimination to exposing foreign influence on campus. Now the higher-education lobby is trying to block the release of major foreign-donor names. The administration shouldn’t give in.

Universities receiving federal funds have been required by law since 1986 to report foreign gifts and contracts totaling $250,000 or more annually. They haven’t always done so. The first Trump administration uncovered nearly $6.5 billion in foreign gifts and contracts universities failed to disclose. The Biden administration failed to open any foreign-funding investigations, according to a September 2024 report from the House Select Committee on China. The second Trump administration restored enforcement and launched a public dashboard for reported foreign funding.

The disclosures show what’s at stake. In 2025 universities reported more than 8,300 foreign gifts and contracts, worth $5.2 billion, including $1.1 billion from Qatar and $528 million from China. The Education Department has identified roughly $380 million in historical university transactions with entities flagged by the U.S. government. That includes $158 million involving companies on the Defense Department’s Section 1286 list, which identifies foreign institutions and talent programs “confirmed to be engaging in activities that threaten U.S. national security interests.” Another $193 million involves entities on the Commerce Department’s Entity List, which restricts access to sensitive U.S. technology. Most of the flagged entities are Chinese, including organizations tied to Beijing’s military and nuclear program.

All foreign donors and contracting parties should be identified. In July the Education Department promised to publish “the names of all foreign sources from prior reporting cycles.” Yet it has repeatedly delayed doing so as higher-education groups press to keep those identities from public view.

Keep pushing. There’s no good reason for foreign influence-buying to be kept secret.

501(c)(3)s NEED TO BE REINED IN SHARPLY, OR JUST ABOLISHED:

OPEN THREAD: Monday, Monday.