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Campus leaders nationwide are reviewing an immediate demand by the Department of War to conduct foreign research security audits or risk losing federal funding.
Public responses to the Department of War’s Aug. 17 directive stating a “zero tolerance for academic partnerships that compromise our national security” include comments that there are no concerning ties or that currently established foreign academic collaborations are above board.
Administrators have less than two weeks from the Aug. 17 notification to submit complete findings by the end of the month, according to the Department of War’s instructions.
The University of North Carolina System noted in a letter to the Education Department on Aug. 18 to address a similar question that there are already policies that require faculty “to disclose actual or potential conflicts of interest and commitment.”
“At the same time, nationality or legitimate international scholarly contact should not be treated as evidence of wrongdoing,” system leaders stated. “The goal is not isolation. It is informed and secure collaboration that protects taxpayer-supported research, intellectual property, sensitive data, and the credibility of American science.”
A statement to The College Fix from a Pennsylvania State University spokesperson regarding the audit echoed similar sentiments: “The University greatly values its relationship with the Department of War and shares its commitment to maintaining the highest standards in national security, research security and scientific integrity.”
A spokesperson for Northeastern State University in Oklahoma said that a comprehensive review of its academic, financial, and research relationship with Guangzhou College of Technology and Business, including the potential exposure of sensitive data, confirmed it “is limited exclusively to undergraduate teaching and degree completion.”
The department’s order did not name the 30 campuses under scrutiny, but a U.S. official shared the full list of notified schools with DefenseScoop.
The list includes elite institutions such as Harvard, Cornell, Duke, Emory, Georgetown, Johns Hopkins, MIT and NYU. Public universities on the list include UC Berkeley, UCLA, UC San Diego, Penn State, UT Austin and UNC Chapel Hill.
Regional universities such as Oklahoma State, Portland State, the University of Cincinnati, University of Minnesota, and the University of Delaware are also on the list.
Harvard University has received over $600 million from China, according to a recent report released by the House Select Committee on China, which also found that a Harvard professor with publicly disclosed ties to a Chinese university also participated in Pentagon-funded research.
The Pentagon said it was targeting “organizations associated with rebranded Confucius Institutes” in its news release.
Confucius Institutes, established in the early 2000s by the People’s Republic of China, were branded as language and cultural exchange programs. However, Republican lawmakers warned that the institutes were fronts for influencing U.S. opinion and public policy and stealing research.
After laws were passed to curb their existence and Confucius Institutes were largely shut down, concerns continued that the partnerships still exist under rebranded programs.
The Department of War argued the audits would “protect American taxpayer-funded research investments from unauthorized technology transfer, intellectual property theft and adversarial exploitation.”
American Council on Education Vice President Sarah Spreitzer stated that the Pentagon’s order effectively accuses schools of wrongdoing without evidence, the Associated Press reported.
The DOW did not return The Fix’s request for comment.
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