The federal government is investigating the University of Pennsylvania over “inaccurate and untimely foreign financial disclosures,” the U.S. Department of Education said on Thursday.
Under the Higher Education Act of 1965, colleges and universities that receive federal funding must disclose foreign gifts and contracts that are $250,000 or more annually to the Education Department, the department said.
Penn has a “troubling” history of complying with that part of the law, “having failed to disclose any foreign funding until February of 2019, despite a decades-long statutory obligation to do so,” stated Tom Wheeler, the department’s acting general counsel.
“Although the previous administration degraded the department’s enforcement of universities’ legal obligations to disclose foreign gifts and contracts, the Trump administration will vigorously uphold the law and ensure universities are transparent with their foreign gifts and investments,” he said.
Wheeler’s office “will investigate this matter thoroughly, ensuring that universities cannot conceal the infiltration of our nation’s campuses by foreign governments and other foreign interests,” per the acting general counsel. “The American people and Congress have a right to know the impact of foreign funding on our universities, including some of our critically important research universities.”
The Education Department asked Penn to turn over tax records dating back to Jan. 1, 2017; copies of each written academic agreement with a foreign government or entity dating back to the same period; and information identifying people involved in faculty or staff visas, work permits or international travel.
It also asked, among other things, for a list of all partnerships or other collaborations with foreign governments since the beginning of 2017, in addition to a “complete list” of foreign gifts, grants or contracts between Penn and any foreign sources in the same period.
The department gave Penn 30 days to turn the materials over.