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Donald Trump has accused leading US universities, including Harvard, of breaking federal laws on large-scale foreign donations and intensifying attacks on the country’s educational institutions.
The president signed an executive order on Wednesday directing federal agencies to enforce foreign gifts laws to American universities, but it was not immediately clear how or whether the school violated the rules.
“Currently, when accepting large-scale foreign gifts, there is a law in books that require specific disclosures from universities. For example, certain universities, including Harvard, believe that they are routinely violating this law.” “This law is not effective,” he added.
Action orders enforcement of Article 117 of the Higher Education Act of 1965. This requires disclosure of gifts of at least $250,000 a year from a single foreign source. “The true amount, source and purpose of foreign funds flowing to American campuses is unknown because Section 117 is not robustly enforced,” the executive order argues.
The directive will put pressure on the university by ordering the education and judicial department “to carry out audits and investigations as necessary.”
Harvard said: “As a standard practice, Harvard has submitted section 117 reports for decades as part of its continued compliance with the law.”
Trump has also signed an executive order that overhauls the university’s accreditation system. This is a move that threatens the school’s federal funds. Some eligible accreditation bodies require that “institutions engage in illegal discrimination” such as diversity, equity and comprehensive initiatives.
On the campaign trail, Trump promised to use such an order, calling it his “secret weapon,” and forced the university to align with his political ideology.
The accreditation sets the criteria that universities need to meet to unlock federal financial aid, including student loans and Pell grants, grants grants grants granted by third-party companies and eligible universities.
“Many of these third-party accreditors rely on a kind of eye awakening ideology to certify universities rather than certify them based on merit and performance,” Schaaf said he gave Trump an order to sign the matter.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon said: “The American Higher Education Accredited System is broken. A small number of institutional accreditors (private, non-governmental) decide which institutions and their programs are eligible to receive more than $100 million a year in Pell Grants, Federal Student Loans, and other taxpayer-subsidized higher education.”
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The order is the latest salvo in the regime’s attack on higher education. It has already frozen in funding for elite universities, which accused them of not tackling anti-Semitism, limiting indirect costs of research grants and canceling funds related to diversity and climate.
Cynthia Jackson Hammond, chairman of the Council on Accrediting Higher Education, which approves accreditation bodies, has pushed back criticism from the administration.
She said the group “applies very strict standards on accredited organizations. Our focus is academic guarantees and always requires academic guarantees.
The American Association of University Professors said: “Trump’s executive order on accreditation is another attempt to direct what is taught, learned and said by university students and instructors. These attacks aim to remove educational decisions from educators and to restructure higher education and adapt it to authoritarian political agendas.”
