U.S. Education Department (DeVos) continues scrutiny of gifts to universities

Although the Trump administration has refused to meet with colleges and universities who have sought clarification on compliance with Section 117 Foreign Gifts and Contracts reporting requirements, Betsy DeVos announced as a new report was released that, "We found pervasive noncompliance by higher ed institutions and significant foreign entanglement with America's colleges and universities... Our initial investigations catalyzed disclosure of approximately $6.5 billion previously unreported foreign funds." Since 2019, the Education Department has launched investigations into 12 institutions, four of which are partners with Qatar in establishing their branch campuses in Doha. The scrutiny of foreign gifts has not been welcome by higher education institutions and resulted in the American Council on Education objecting to the DeVos intrusions. Nevertheless, House Republicans continued to press concerns about China and research security.

The Education Department report raises particular concern about anonymized gifts, which likely should be investigated. It also reported that there is "risk posed by colleges accepting gifts or entering into contracts with governments or nongovernmental entities, including business, in countries with adversarial relationships with the United States, including China, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates."

WHAT!!! Characterizing China (where Trump does business and pays taxes), Qatar (which brokers diplomatic meetings for the U.S. and hosts the largest U.S. military base in the Arabian Gulf), Russia (who actively supported Trump in his 2016 POTUS bid and is continuing to do so in 2020), Saudi Arabia (the first "partner" to whom Trump sold arms in the early days of his administration and whose ruler was exonerated by Trump for murdering a journalist unfavorable to the King), and the UAE (the first Arab/Islamic world partner to Jared Kushner's "Middle East Peace" plan) as "adversarial" reflects not only a complete disconnect with Trump's "foreign policy" but completely insane assumptions.

From an informed perspective of having worked with the four institutions under scrutiny for their Qatar connections, I can attest that the funds paid to these institutions are not "gifts" but are instead fees for services granted to them for siting their branches in the country. The Education Department report claims that the "gifts" from foreign entities are a form of soft power that compromises relationships. When was soft power determined as a malignant form of engagement, especially since this is exactly what the six U.S. universities that are on the Education City campus in Qatar have proudly professed for the last approximately 20 years?