Georgia ensures state universities aren’t for sale to foreign governments
Credit: Photo Illustration: Philip Robibero / AJC | Source: Getty, Plexels
American universities have a foreign-funding problem.
A Network Contagion Research Institute study two years ago found that more than 200 universities accepted a total of $13 billion in reported contributions from foreign governments over the five-year span from 2014 to 2019.
On top of that, universities accepted another $4.7 billion in unreported donations — flagrantly violating federal law, which requires universities to disclose any foreign gift valued at $250,000 or more.
Earlier this spring, for example, the U.S. Department of Education launched an investigation into the University of California, Berkeley, for failing to disclose hundreds of millions of dollars in overseas funds, including $220 million from Chinese entities to build a joint institute in Shenzhen.
When a department or research center is backed by a hostile regime, course offerings and guest speakers often skew toward its preferred narrative, nudging students into a filtered worldview.
The study cited above found that universities receiving money from Middle Eastern donors recorded three times as many antisemitic incidents as those that did not. Campaigns to silence academics were also more prevalent at institutions that accepted foreign cash.
How Georgia’s new law against foreign influence works
Foreign influence also gives adversaries dangerous access to university research and intellectual property.
The exposure extends further to American national security writ large — American universities are deeply connected with defense, biotech, AI, semiconductors and other sensitive industries.
Georgia is helping stop this destructive trend. In May, Gov. Brian Kemp signed a bill into law (House Bill 150) ordering the University System of Georgia to file public reports twice a year listing every gift, grant or investment over $1,000 that comes from any government, company or individual tied to a federally designated foreign adversary.
The law targets hostile regimes as identified by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, including China, Iran and North Korea. It does not affect law-abiding foreign students who are studying in our state.
The law gives Georgia’s legislative and executive branch leaders greater ability to identify and expose nefarious funding and is a smart way for state legislatures to plug recognized holes in federal reporting rules.
While additional help may come from Washington — U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has proposed a 300% excise tax on any foreign-adversary funds a university fails to report — states should step up to expose foreign influence.
Universities should not be centers of propaganda or indoctrination
Governors and state legislators are closer, both politically and personally, to universities through appropriations, alumni ties, private donations and board appointments. That proximity makes them uniquely positioned to uncover any funding that seeks to undermine the American way of life.
Our colleges must be places of learning, not centers of propaganda or indoctrination.
We are grateful to Gov. Kemp for signing this bill and to state Sen. Clint Dixon, R-Gwinnett (District 45) and state Rep. Tim Fleming, R-Covington (District 114), for steering it to passage.
Georgia has sent a clear message to hostile foreign regimes: Our universities and their students are not for sale.
Joe Gebbia Sr. is founder and CEO of State Shield, a nonpartisan organization that helps state and local leaders counter hostile foreign influence threatening America’s security, supply chains and core values. Before starting State Shield, Gebbia served two terms on the inaugural City Council of Brookhaven in northern DeKalb County.
