The Education Department said in a statement on its website Friday that it is seeking school records as part of the probe, saying that an earlier review had raised questions about the university’s funding disclosures.
The move is the latest by Trump targeting some of the country’s elite academic institutions and it comes days after the president signed a number of executive actions on education, including a measure aimed at cutting off funding for colleges that do not disclose sources of foreign money.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon is directing the Office of General Counsel to re-assume her department’s enforcement functions relating to the disclosure of gifts and contracts from foreign sources under federal law.
McMahon, in a statement, claimed the administration of Trump’s predecessor, former President Joe Biden, “turned a blind eye to colleges and universities’ legal obligations by deprioritizing oversight and allowing foreign gifts to pour onto American campuses.”
She said the OGC “will begin by thoroughly examining UC Berkeley’s apparent failure to fully and accurately disclose significant funding received from foreign sources.”
The administration similarly demanded information from Harvard University last week over its foreign donations and contracts. Harvard says it has complied with the law, reporting gifts and contracts from foreign sources valued at more than $250,000 a year.
Trump has moved to overhaul higher education in the US, including demands that schools change many of their policies, part of an effort the president and his advisers have cast as necessary to address antisemitism on campuses. Some schools have resisted that effort, claiming the demands made by the administration are unconstitutional and would undercut their academic missions.
Harvard is suing the Trump administration after officials froze billions of dollars in federal funding. Trump has called for the school to lose its tax-exempt status after it rejected the administration’s demands.
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President Donald Trump, investigation, University of California, Berkeley, foreign funding
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