House Approves Bill Requiring Universities to Disclose Sizeable Gifts from Foreign Donors

The House of Representatives approved a Higher Education bill that would require colleges and universities receiving federal aid to disclose sizeable gifts from foreign donors. Similar legislation is expected to come before the Senate in 1986.

The House legislation, passed last week, was introduced by Rep. Robert Matsui (D. Calif.). Based on a proposal drafted by American Jewish Congress lawyers, the bill is designed to discourage intrusions on academic freedom by foreign sources that attempt to tie politi- cal or propaganda strings to such gifts or obtain exclusive rights to university research findings. Theodore Mann, AJCongress president, who hailed the passage of the legislation, pointed out that this measure “is not designed to prohibit gifts from any sources, including foreign donors. But it does require that any college or university that is a beneficiary of federal grants or contracts report to the Secretary of Education gifts or contracts of $100,000 or more in any 12-month period, as well as all conditions attached to the use of the funds.”

Mann stated that the attempt by foreign donors to tie political or propaganda strings to such gifts “is an unacceptable breach of academic autonomy” and “represents a threat to institutional integrity and standards.”

He noted that the urgency in passing disclosure legislation on a national scale “has been quickened by the knowledge that certain Arab governments have financed the establishment on major university campuses of so-called ‘research’ institutes on condition that final approval of appointments, curricula or other academic policies be vested in the donor.”

In addition, Mann said, “There is also the very real danger that foreign companies and governments are able to invest secretly in university research done by American universities and gain exclusive use of the results of the discoveries. Such arrangements have become increasingly common in recent years.”