U.S. Education Dept investigates UC Berkeley’s foreign funding disclosures

U.S. Education Dept investigates UC Berkeley’s foreign funding disclosures


Demonstrators at UC Berkeley rally to support the Freedom to Speak, Freedom to Teach, and Freedom to Learn, For Everyone, at Sproul Plaza in Berkeley, Calif. on Wednesday, March 19, 2025.

Santiago Mejia | Hearst Newspapers | Getty Images

The U.S. Department of Education launched an investigation into the University of California, Berkeley’s foreign funding disclosures, the department said on Friday.

The investigation, which is seeking records relating to foreign sources of funding to the university, was initiated after a review found Berkeley’s disclosures to the government may be “incomplete or inaccurate,” the department said in a statement.

The department cited 2023 media reports indicating that Berkeley failed to disclose hundreds of millions of dollars in funding from a foreign government.

The investigation comes two days after President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing his administration to enforce existing laws requiring universities to disclose specific details about foreign funding, including the source and purpose of the funds, amid worries by Trump of foreign influence at universities.

“Over the course of the last two years, UC Berkeley has been cooperating with federal inquiries regarding 117 reporting issues, and we will continue to do so,” Assistant Vice Chancellor Dan Mogulof said in an email to Reuters.

The department launched a similar investigation into Harvard University last week.

“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 U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon.

The Trump administration has launched a crackdown against top U.S. universities, over pro-Palestinian campus protests and a range of other topics like transgender rights and diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

Trump has threatened to withhold federal funding to those institutions. Rights advocates have condemned what they call an assault on free speech and academic freedom.



Source

Trump rips AT&T service weeks after Trump Mobile licensing deal announced
Politics

Trump rips AT&T service weeks after Trump Mobile licensing deal announced

US President Donald Trump holds an Apple Inc. iPhone during an executive order signing in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Friday, May 23, 2025. Samuel Corum | Bloomberg | Getty Images President Donald Trump criticized AT&T in consecutive Truth Social posts Monday, writing that the country’s third-largest wireless […]

Read More
Musk shreds Trump’s tax bill as ‘DEBT SLAVERY,’ vows to unseat Republicans who back it
Politics

Musk shreds Trump’s tax bill as ‘DEBT SLAVERY,’ vows to unseat Republicans who back it

Tesla CEO Elon Musk attends a cabinet meeting held by U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, D.C., on April 30, 2025. Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters He may have stopped openly feuding with President Donald Trump, but Elon Musk isn’t backing off his bid to kill Trump’s signature megabill. The Tesla and […]

Read More
Bush, Obama and a tearful Bono fault Trump’s gutting of USAID on agency’s last day
Politics

Bush, Obama and a tearful Bono fault Trump’s gutting of USAID on agency’s last day

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush delivered rare open criticism of the Trump administration — and singer Bono held back tears as he recited a poem — in an emotional video farewell on Monday with staffers of the U.S. Agency for International Development. Obama called the Trump administration’s dismantling of USAID “a colossal mistake.” […]

Read More