Since 1981 American universities have disclosed 62 billion dollars in foreign gifts and contracts under Section 117 of the Higher Education Act — 117,152 transactions at 528 institutions. A reading of the federal ledger: who received it, which countries and governments sent it, how it concentrates at the top, and what the disclosure regime does and does not reveal.
Writing · investigation series · 2 parts
Foreign Money in US Universities
Sixty-two billion disclosed dollars, and the statute that lets most of them stay nameless — the Section 117 ledger, read in two parts.
Section 117 requires American universities to disclose foreign gifts and contracts — but for most of the record, not who they came from. Computed from the federal file: 97 percent of the 62 billion disclosed dollars carry no source name, because the statute asks only for a country. The anonymity is not evasion; it is the design. What the law collects, what it hides, the 2019 enforcement spike, and what the DETERRENT Act fight would actually change.
The dataset behind the series: Section 117 Ledger — $62.4B disclosed foreign money, CC0, keyless JSON. All series: the writing index.