$30 Million Gift To Yale Law School Is Part Of Government Probe Into Foreign Funding Of Universities

Karen Sloan (Law.com), $30M Gift to Yale Law Is Part of Government Probe Into Foreign Funding:

A $30 million donation from an executive at Chinese online retailer Alibaba to Yale Law School in 2016 appears to have helped spur a U.S. Department of Education investigation into the wider campus’ disclosure of foreign gifts.

The Education Department announced Wednesday that it is investigating Yale and Harvard University’s disclosure of contracts and donations from foreign entities—federal law requires colleges to report any such gift in excess of $250,000.

Department officials said this week that they believe Yale may have failed to report at least $375 million in foreign gifts and contracts in recent years, and that Harvard has also failed to fully disclose foreign gifts. ...

Education Department officials have requested a list of all gifts and contracts tied to Yale Law’s Paul Tsai Center—one of three programs across the New Haven campus singled out in a Feb. 11 letter from the department to Yale president Peter Salovey.