The U.S. Department of Education announced on Friday that it had sent a Notice of Investigation and Records Request to the University of California, Berkeley after “a review of the university’s foreign funding disclosures to the department may be incomplete or inaccurate” under Section 117 of the Higher Education Act of 1965.
It comes one week after the department initiated the same regarding Harvard University.
Media sources reported in 2023 that Berkeley failed to disclose “hundreds of millions of dollars in funding from a foreign government,” which the university acknowledged, according to the department.
The investigation will now be overseen by the Office of General Counsel, stated Linda McMahon, the U.S. secretary of education; she redirected the OGC to resume enforcement of disclosures of foreign gifts and contracts, a task formerly overseen by the Office of Federal Student Aid under the Biden administration.
“The Biden-Harris administration turned a blind eye to colleges and universities’ legal obligations by deprioritizing oversight and allowing foreign gifts to pour onto American campuses,” said McMahon. “Despite widespread compliance failures, no new Section 117 investigations were initiated for four years, and ongoing investigations were closed prematurely.”
“I have great confidence in my Office of General Counsel to investigate these matters fully, and they will begin by thoroughly examining UC Berkeley’s apparent failure to fully and accurately disclose significant funding received from foreign sources,” she added.
In February, the department opened a Title VI investigation into Berkeley for alleged Jew-hatred.