Foreign Influence in the Academy: How U.S. Adversaries are Reshaping Elite Universities

Mar 18, 2024, 1:00PM

Billions in foreign gifts and contracts flow to elite U.S. universities. Until recently, the Department of Education did little to enforce existing reporting requirements. Noncompliance investigations during the Trump Administration revealed that our adversaries use their financial influence to steal intellectual property, co-opt cutting-edge researchers, and reshape the campus marketplace of ideas to advance their own interests. This magnifies serious problems already in evidence, including rising antisemitism, the lack of viewpoint diversity, and weak protections for free speech. Join us in exploring these problems and solutions being proposed, including the DETERRENT Act, new federal legislation that would lower the reporting threshold for foreign gifts and prohibit partnerships with countries of concern.Join us for an informative panel with our distinguished guests.

General Mick Zais (ret.) - Senior Fellow, AFPI and Former Deputy Secretary, U.S. Department of Education

Ilya Shapiro - Director of Constitutional Studies Manhattan Institute

Joanne Florino - Adam Meyerson Distinguished Fellow in Philanthropic Excellence, Philanthropy Roundtable

Jonathan Pidluzny - Moderator & Director, Higher Education Reform Initiative, AFPI