U.S. Universities Underreport Donations from Hostile Regimes by Over $1.5 Billion

Elite colleges received billions in undisclosed donations from China, Qatar, and Russia

 
 
 

Yale University / Twitter screenshot

Chrissy Clark - AUGUST 31, 2020 2:05 PM

New data from the Department of Education show that several top-tier universities, including Yale and Cornell, failed to report more than $3 billion in foreign gifts and funds—many of which come from anti-American regimes such as China and Qatar.

According to a new study from the Clarion Project, American colleges and universities inaccurately disclosed foreign funding to the Department of Education. Between 2014 and 2019, they reported a total of $11 billion in foreign funds. But the Clarion Project's data show that the true number is over $14 billion. Some of the biggest discrepancies involve Cornell University, Texas A&M University, the University of Colorado Boulder, and Yale University.

Cornell initially reported taking $340 million in foreign funding, but the real number is closer to $1.3 billion—over $800 million of which came from Qatar. The University of Colorado Boulder initially reported $55 million in foreign funding, but the real number is closer to $345 million—61 percent of which came from the United Arab Emirates. Yale initially reported $128 million, but the real number is $496 million—almost $42 million of which came from China, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Russia.

Foreign influence is growing on college campuses, and universities seldom disclose their fiscal relationships with foreign actors. A Washington Free Beacon review of federal records found that over 100 U.S. universities have Confucius Institutes, a Chinese government-backed program that often pushes Chinese Communist Party propaganda on American students. The Department of Education has mandated that universities report all foreign money through a new online portal, which has unearthed previously hidden disparities.

In all, unreported contributions from China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the UAE, and Qatar totaled $1.59 billion between 2014 and 2019.

"If it wasn't for a crackdown by the Department of Education, this never would have been known. The universities still wouldn't feel the need to report this, they wouldn't feel under the microscope or any sense of urgency," said Clarion Project research analyst Alex VanNess. "We're seeing billions of dollars—much of which has strings attached—being used to influence U.S. students from countries that want to use a soft power against the United States."

Of the 211 universities that disclosed their foreign funding, only Yale refused to disclose where donations were coming from. A university typically reports whether a donation came in the form of a "monetary gift" or "contract," the gift's country origin, and the gifter's name. Yale disclosed whether the money came in the form of a gift or contract and the money's country of origin, but refused to disclose the gifters' names. The data do indicate that Yale accepted donations from China, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Russia.

VanNess told the Free Beacon that the lack of transparency is concerning. "It's not necessarily nefarious, but the idea that it's not being reported and not being disclosed and we're not being told what the money is paying for and who it's going to, that is a problem," VanNess said.

The Department of Education calls these discrepancies a "black hole" and claims that universities have failed to comply with disclosure laws. A Department of Education spokeswoman told the Free Beacon that universities have always been required to report foreign donations, but that previous department secretaries have been lax about enforcement.

"This is an issue of national security," the spokeswoman said. "Among other concerns, foreign money—from governments, government-run corporations, NGOs, and individuals—may come with ‘strings attached' that compromise academic freedom."

Texas A&M University said that it was investigating the discrepancies. Yale and Cornell did not respond to requests for comment.

Contact tracing app at Michigan college is a surveillance-state nightmare

The smartphone screen, seen in Tokyo, Japan, shows a trial version of the COVID-19 Contact Confirming Application, or COCOA, released Friday, June 19, 2020, by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. The notice says “There was no close contact.” ... more >

 By Cheryl K. Chumley - The Washington Times - Saturday, August 22, 2020

Make way for the U.S.S.A. — the United Surveillance States of America.

And it’s all due to COVID-19.

A contact tracing app that administrators at a college in Michigan forced on all students as a condition of their presence on campus not only identifies the app user by name — not only pinpoints the app user by geographic location — not only generates a specific code that labels the app user as either “certified” or “denied,” based on required coronavirus test results — but also sends an alert to school bureaucrats about “denied” students behaving against COVID-19 protocols. Administrators then, in turn, can lock these students’ identification cards remotely and prevent them from accessing certain buildings and campus facilities.

Think about that for a moment. An app that tattles; hmm, what could go wrong?

That means the college — Albion, a private liberal arts school tied to the United Methodist Church — is tracking students, monitoring students’ behaviors, and punishing students, long-distance, without regard for due process or, more figuratively speaking, trial by jury, for actions deemed in defiance of COVID-19 safety precautions.

From The Verge: “In addition to having to install the app, students were told they are not allowed to leave campus for the duration of the semester without permission over fears that contact with the wider community might bring the virus back to campus. If a student leaves campus without permission, the app will alert the school, and the student’s ID card will be locked and access to campus buildings will be revoked.”

Are you freaking kidding?

Or, put another way: What is this, freaking communist China?

And here’s the real kick in the teeth moment: TechCrunch found the app, called Aura, is a privacy leak just waiting to happen. In an analysis of the app, TechCrunch discovered that it was easy-peasy to reconfigure the student codes generated by the app and tap into other users’ personal, private data. Err, make than personal, not-so-private data.

Technology being what it is — technology — contact tracing apps are hardly 100 percent safe and secure from hacks. But Aura goes above the unsafe, flies right past the hack fears and jumps, head first, right into surveillance state darkness.

“I think [this app is] more creepy than anything and has caused me a lot of anxiety about going back,” one Albion College student told TechCrunch, as cited by Ars Technica.

There’s an understatement.

The bigger worry is what’s coming.

“Alabama college students encouraged to download COVID-19 contact tracing app,” an NBC affiliate reported in mid-August.

“Contact Tracing App Launches, College Students Highly Recommended to Utilize,” WAAY TV 31 reportedin early August.

“How to Get People to Actually Use Contact Tracing Apps,” Harvard Business Review wrote in July.

On that last, here’s a thought: Don’t let the apps be used to lock people out of buildings because they disobeyed a bureaucrat’s order. That’d be an idea. That’d be one idea.

But anyone who still thinks contact tracing is being developed and pushed as a best interest for the people is living with blinders.

This technology, in the hands of abusers — in the hands of government, any form of government — is a surveillance nightmare. And it’s one Pandora’s Box that just shouldn’t be opened, not in a free country like America, anyway. On contact tracing apps, just say no.

• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter by clicking HERE.

Sterilizing thought on campus.

Fordham University Sent Cops To Investigate A Student For Criticizing Communist China And ‘Black Lives Matter’ On Instagram

https://thefederalist.com/2020/08/20/fordham-university-sent-cops-to-investigate-a-student-for-criticizing-communist-china-and-black-lives-matter-on-instagram/AUGUST 20, 2020 By Jordan Davidson

Fordham University is under investigation from the U.S. Department of Education for allegedly violating a student’s free speech after administrators called the cops on him for Instagram posts. On his personal account, Austin Tong posted pictures with a legally obtained gun and criticized China’s handling of the Tiananmen Square massacre. Tong also posted about the death of St. Louis Police Captain David Dorn, who died trying to stop rioters from looting a friend’s pawn shop. 

While the school’s website suggests that students enrolled at the university will have “the freedom of inquiry required by rigorous thinking and the quest for truth,” its reaction to Tong’s posts shows otherwise. Fordham officials reportedly considered the social media posts “grotesque” and “racist,” and sent “two uniformed public safety officers” to the Tong family home in Long Island, New York to  “discuss the Instagram posts” and evaluate whether Tong “presented a danger to himself and others,” according to the U.S. DOE investigation.

After the visit, the university called Tong “a security threat,” despite the fact that officers “very quickly determined Mr. Tong posed no such threat” and that his weapon had been legally obtained. The university, however, shifted its focus to targeting Tong for “several posts on social media related to the current racial issues in the country and political issues in China.”

During its investigation, the school claimed that “members of the Fordham community felt threatened by the social media posts,” and that they violated “University Regulations relating to Bias and/or Hate Crimes,” and created “Threats/Intimidation, and Disorderly Conduct” because the posts were “alarming” and “racist.”

Due to these factors, the university decided to give Tong a penalty without appeal, barring him from campus and campus-related activities, mandating a “bias training,” and requiring him to write an apology letter.

According to the Department of Education, these actions by Fordham warrant an investigation into not only the university’s treatment of Tong, but also their ability to maintain and uphold their own policies about free speech and freedom of expression.

“These facts raise obvious questions regarding the integrity of Fordham’s disciplinary process and the possibility Fordham’s official animus toward the content of Mr. Tong’s constitutionally protected political speech was a motivating factor in the actions taken against him,” the letter read.

Jordan Davidson is a staff writer at The Federalist. She graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism. 

Photo Robert Ashworth / Flickr

Photo Eden, Janine, and Jim / Flickr

DOJ finds that Yale admissions policies discriminate against Asian and white students

Yale responds with a defiant statement 

Image Source: Yana Paskova/Getty Images 

 CARLOS GARCIA

The Department of Justice accused Yale University of discriminating against Asian and white students in its enrollment policies and demanded a plan to address the disparities.

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The DOJ announced the findings of a two-year investigation in a news release Thursday. The investigation was in response to complains from Asian American groups, the DOJ said. 

"The Department of Justice today notified Yale University of its findings that Yale illegally discriminates against Asian American and white applicants in its undergraduate admissions process in violation of Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act," the statement said.

The DOJ recognized that the Supreme Court has allowed colleges to consider race in limited circumstances, but said Yale exceeded those limits. 

"Yale uses race at multiple steps of its admissions process resulting in a multiplied effect of race on an applicant's likelihood of admission, and Yale racially balances its classes," the statement claimed. 

The report found that Asians and whites have only one-10th to one-fourth the possibility of gaining admission to the university as similarly qualified African American applicants.

"Unlawfully dividing Americans into racial and ethnic blocs fosters stereotypes, bitterness, and division. It is past time for American institutions to recognize that all people should be treated with decency and respect, and without unlawful regard to the color of their skin," said Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband for the Civil Rights Division. 

The statement from the DOJ concluded by demanding a plan from university administrators to address the discriminatory practices. 

'A meritless, hasty accusation'

Yale University rejected the findings of the report in a statement and accused the DOJ of drawing a conclusion from incomplete evidence. 

"Yale has cooperated fully with the DOJ's investigation of Yale's admissions practices. We have produced a substantial amount of information and data, and we are continuing to do so," the statement read. 

"Given our commitment to complying with federal law, we are dismayed that the DOJ has made its determination before allowing Yale to provide all the information the department requested thus far. Had the department fully received and weighed this information, it would have concluded that Yale's practices absolutely comply with decades of Supreme Court precedent," the statement continued. 

The statement went on to say Yale is proud of its admissions policies and refused to change them based on a "meritless, hasty accusation."

Here's a local news report about the findings:

Tulane: Campus Activists Demand Free Tuition and Reparations

Campus Activists Demand Free Tuition and Reparations

Tulane's Black Student Union presses administration to compensate the descendants of slaves who worked on campus grounds 

 
 
 

Tulane University / Screenshot from Twitter

Chrissy Clark - JULY 28, 2020 5:00 AM

Tulane University activists are demanding that the school offer reparations to the descendants of slaves who worked on the plantation that became campus grounds nearly 200 years ago.

Before the school's establishment in 1834—created as a medical university in response to the cholera, yellow fever, and smallpox epidemics—the land was used as a plantation. The school's Black Student Union (BSU) asked administrators to identify the descendants of the enslaved people who once worked on the plantation and offer them full tuition and more, according to a list of demands posted online.

"We demand that Tulane allocates funding to track down the descendants of the enslaved people who labored at the Tulane plantation and offer them full tuition and room and board scholarships that include a living stipend each semester of attendance at Tulane," the post reads. "Tulane must first acknowledge the trauma it has inflicted on black community members. It is Tulane's responsibility to recognize their longstanding history of racism and take actionable steps to reconcile those practices."

The Black Student Union did not return a request for comment.

The demands were not limited to the descendants of slaves. The group also said the university must offer financial assistance to students who suffered "emotional damage and trauma" by the on-campus presence of the "Victory Bell" after the university discovered in February that it was used to direct the movement of enslaved Africans in 1825. The 1960s-era campus landmark—dubbed the McAlister slave bell by activists—was removed after the university discovered its ties to slavery. The group now demands reparations and apologies from past Tulane presidents—dead or alive—who allowed the bell to represent the campus.

"We demand reparations for the emotional damage and trauma of the McAlister slave bell due to racist tradition of touching the bell for ‘good luck' for generations," the post reads. "We demand every living president of Tulane University since the bell was obtained, or a relative of the presidents if deceased, apologize to their black alumni and current student body for their negligence in addressing the slave bell's history."

The activist's demands do not include suggestions for how to quantify "emotional damage and trauma" or for what reparations for students would look like. Rachel Altman, a rising senior at Tulane and a libertarian activist, told the Washington Free Beacon these demands, specifically asking relatives of deceased Tulane presidents to apologize, are indicative of authoritarian behavior.

"I think it would be very hard to find a consistent policy for offering reparations to the students for emotional trauma because it is so easy to falsify and it is so hard to quantify," Altman said. "Personally, I don't think that it's reasonable to expect the relatives of people who apparently were complicit in something to apologize for it. That's what's done in North Korea, not the United States. That is absolutely a culture of authoritarianism."

Within the long list of demands, Altman found agreement with student activists over the university's registered-protest policy. Tulane requires student groups to register protests with the university at least two days in advance. BSU's Instagram post claims the policy is "a form of censorship" and creates an unnecessary presence of police on campus.

"We should not need approval from the university nor TUPD presence to protest," the demands read. "It defeats the purpose, it is unnecessary policing, and it is a form of censorship. It should be up to the discretion of the organization whether TUPD presence is necessary." Altman agrees that universities should encourage more speech and activism, not less.

The group's demands include speech-censorship provisions. The student activists want the university to investigate current and incoming students who post "hate speech" on social media. The group also demands a zero-tolerance policy for "racist, sexist, misogynistic, or bigoted language." Altman fears left-wing groups that view capitalism as bigoted will use these terms for political benefit to silence conservatives and libertarians.

"We know that the left has a habit of calling things bigoted that is very subjective … and what they consider ‘bigoted' can change day to day," Altman said. "So, unless there's a consistent policy for how they're going to enforce that or how they're going to define bigotry, it can be used to suppress the speech of conservative and libertarian students. I've seen many of my peers sharing these graphics from social media saying that capitalism itself is racist and patriarchal and bigoted. I refuse to accept a policy that will shut down my speech if I'm advocating for capitalism."

Tulane University did not respond to a request for comment.

Rutgers Declares Grammar Racist bowing to the illiterate

Rutgers Declares Grammar Racist

English Department pledges to incorporate 'critical grammar' into program

 
 
 

Rutgers University / Wikimedia Commons

Chrissy Clark - JULY 24, 2020 4:00 PM

The English department at a public university declared that proper English grammar is racist.

Rutgers University's English department will change its standards of English instruction in an effort to "stand with and respond" to the Black Lives Matter movement. In an email written by department chairwoman Rebecca Walkowitz, the Graduate Writing Program will emphasize "social justice" and "critical grammar."

Walkowitz said the department would respond to recent events with "workshops on social justice and writing," "increasing focus on graduate student life," and "incorporating ‘critical grammar' into our pedagogy." The "critical grammar" approach challenges the standard academic form of the English language in favor of a more inclusive writing experience. The curriculum puts an emphasis on the variability of the English language instead of accuracy.

"This approach challenges the familiar dogma that writing instruction should limit emphasis on grammar/sentence-level issues so as to not put students from multilingual, non-standard ‘academic' English backgrounds at a disadvantage," Walkowitz said. "Instead, it encourages students to develop a critical awareness of the variety of choices available to them [with] regard to micro-level issues in order to empower them and equip them to push against biases based on ‘written' accents."

Additionally, the department said it will provide more reading to upper-level writing classes on the subjects of racism, sexism, homophobia, and related forms of "systemic discrimination."

Leonydus Johnson, a speech pathologist and libertarian activist, said the school's change makes the racist assumption that minorities cannot comprehend traditional English. Johnson called the change "insulting, patronizing, and in itself, extremely racist."

"The idea that expecting a student to write in grammatically correct sentences is indicative of racial bias is asinine," Johnson told the Washington Free Beacon. "It's like these people believe that being non-white is an inherent handicap or learning disability…. That's racism. It has become very clear to me that those who claim to be ‘anti-racist' are often the most racist people in this country."

Rutgers's new anti-racist language standard comes alongside a litany of changes at other universities. Princeton University's board of trustees voted to removeWoodrow Wilson's name from its public policy school and one of its residential colleges to denounce the former president's "racist thinking and policies." The James Madison residential college at Michigan State University is considering making a similar change. Activists at the University of Pittsburgh have called for the firing of any employee deemed racist or discriminatory by students, and the school said it will give the demands "serious consideration."