1. How much money have U.S. universities failed to report having received from countries such as China and Saudi Arabia?

2. What groups are concerned about American universities’ reliance on foreign money, particularly from China?

3. How did the Department of Education describe higher-education institutions in the U.S. (in a document viewed by the Wall Street Journal)?

4. What information are universities required to disclose to the U.S. Department of Education regarding foreign money?

5. What accusation have officials made against universities’ solicitation of funds?

6. Who does not benefit from the hundreds of millions American universities are taking in from foreign governments?

7. a) What information did the Education Department request from Harvard University in a letter dated Tuesday (Feb. 11)?

b) What information did the Education Department request from Yale in a letter also dated Tuesday (Feb. 11)?

8. a) The government statute requiring universities to disclose all contracts and gifts from a foreign source totaling more than $250,000 is not new. What is the reason for the government investigation into funding disclosure now?
b) Knowing what you do about the communist government of China, (as well as the authoritarian governments of Saudi Arabia and others), what do you think of this concern?

9. Re-read some universities reactions in para. 13-14. What do you think of their response?

10. Students attending Harvard, Yale, etc. pay tuitions totaling well over $60,000 A YEAR. What do you think the universities do with the hundreds of millions of dollars they take in from foreign governments? (Where does it go? Who gets it?)
Opinion question. Answers vary.

11. The department says the unreported foreign funds discovered thus far are only a small portion of the donations from foreign countries that are pouring into U.S. campuses.

“We’re going to continue to raise the flag on this, and we think, just given what we’ve seen scratching the surface, there’s a lot there that has gone undetected,” said Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, according to a report at the Washington Examiner.

“We’re raising this issue and letting schools know that we’re going to be paying attention in ways that hasn’t happened before,” DeVos added, citing a national security issue.

Should American universities be wary of accepting money from foreign governments hostile to the U.S., such as China, Russia and Iran? Explain your answer.