Colleges and Universities Fail to Report Billions in Foreign Donations

COLLEGES AND universities previously failed to report upward of $6.5 billion in gifts from China, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and other foreign countries, an ongoing investigation by the Trump administration uncovered.

Ten schools, including Cornell University, Yale University, the University of Colorado Boulder, the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Chicago, the University of Pennsylvania, Boston University, Texas A&M University, and Carnegie Mellon University, accounted for half of that figure, disclosing $3.6 billion in previously unreported foreign gifts.

An investigation opened by the Education Department in July triggered the disclosures, which were first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

"This is about transparency," Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said in a statement. "If colleges and universities are accepting foreign money and gifts, their students, donors, and taxpayers deserve to know how much and from whom. Moreover, it's what the law requires."