So, who is giving money to US universities and where is it going?
$3.5 billion in gifts unreported
More than 80 percent of all Arab funding comes from three countries: Qatar ($4.3 billion), Saudi Arabia ($2.1 billion) and the United Arab Emirates ($1.1 billion). Of the top 25 largest donations, all but two (from the UAE) came from Qatar. The largest was a $151 million contract reported in July 2020 to cover the budget for the establishment and operation of the Weill Cornell Medicine in Qatar.
Some 258 institutions in at least 46 states (missing Alaska, Hawaii, Maine and Nevada) and the District of Columbia have received Arab money. The top 15 recipients, however, received 30 percent of the gifts and 68 percent of the funds. Cornell is by far the largest beneficiary with 127 transactions worth more than $1.5 billion. It is followed by Georgetown with $725 million, Carnegie Mellon with nearly $674 million, Northwestern with $561 million and Texas A&M with more than $580 million.
Only 17 percent of all gifts list a purpose. Of those, 86 percent were for some type of financial aid or scholarships for students. A total of 65 gifts were for unspecified research activity. Some of the others include training of dental residents and a custom educational program funded by the Saudis, a medical residency for a Qatari national, a neurorecovery therapeutic program supported by the UAE, and an endowed chair for new approaches in neurodiseases funded by a donor from Lebanon.
Only two of the foreign gifts had a political purpose—two contributions to Brown for the Palestinian Studies professorship. Given the high percentage of contributions for tuition and fees, it is likely that many of the unreported and unidentified gifts are for similar purposes.
At least $3.5 billion in gifts have gone unreported, so we don’t have a full picture of the situation. According to the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP), most of those donations support American universities with campuses in Gulf states. In addition, ISGAP reported that Middle East Studies Centers have received nearly $1.2 billion from Gulf nations. This information is not in the foreign-gifts report.
Biden administration has taken a giant step backward
As I’ve documented, these centers, which educate high school teachers, are often highly politicized and use non-academic materials from sources such as Aramco and the Saudi Arabian Cultural Mission. Ironically, some of the most problematic faculty receives money from the U.S. government through the Title VI program to support these centers.
The bottom line is that there is virtually no transparency for the public to know the sources or purposes of foreign funding for colleges and universities making it difficult to assess the impact on campus culture, course instruction or national security. The DoE’s own investigation warned of the danger from the solicitation of foreign money and the lack of documentation.
The Biden administration has taken a giant step backward by withholding information it collects on donors and raises questions about whether it will enforce compliance with the reporting requirements.