tracking foreign donations to american colleges & universities
Our proposal asks Congress to amend Section 117 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 to include a directive for the Department of Education to conduct annual investigations into foreign donations to U.S. colleges and universities. In the past, there has been no regular investigation into these donations. We would like to see it codified that the Department of Education conduct similar investigations as the one sanctioned by Congress and released in October of 2020 by the Department of Education. These investigations shall be conducted on an annual basis, with the Department analyzing the donations reported by no less than 20% of colleges and universities with an endowment totaling over $1 billion, chosen at random, in a given year. Analysis of a college or university’s donations reported in one year shall not influence the probability of the same college or university being analyzed in the Department’s investigation the following year. These investigations shall be conducted following that year’s January 31 reporting deadline highlighted in Section 117. The reports from these investigations shall be completed in a timely and efficient manner, and delivered to the House Committee on Education and Labor and the Senate HELP committee.
