America’s Universities Have Chosen Foreign Interests Over Their Own Country

By David Randall

In March 2025, National Association of Scholars (NAS) President Peter Wood testified before the U.S. Senate on the pervasive and malign effects of foreign influence on America’s colleges and universities. He spoke about the effect of China’s Confucius Institutes, funding of American universities from Qatar, ideological capture of Middle East Studies Centers, the foreign role in the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, Iranian connections to American academia, the lack of university transparency about foreign gifts, and technology transfer risks. He recommended a variety of government actions to address these problems, and ended with this general conclusion:

Protecting academic freedom and international collaboration does not require closing American universities to the world. It does, however, require transparency, accountability, and clear safeguards to ensure that foreign funding and partnerships do not undermine the national interests of the United States.

The fundamental problem is that America’s educational institutions no longer pursue the nation’s interests—and no longer much want to.

Over the past half-century, America’s educational institutions have steadily forfeited public goodwill by drifting away from their commitment to the nation’s interests and the welfare of its citizens. Politicization has narrowed their mission from serving the country as a whole to advancing the agenda of a small, radical faction. Equally damaging has been their growing financial dependence on foreign governments and students, whose tuition now sustains many struggling institutions. Some, such as those hosting Chinese-funded Confucius Institutes, have traded independence for money, becoming conduits of foreign influence. Their unwillingness to confront the wave of anti-Jewish intimidation following Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre stems in no small part from this same dependence on tuition from foreign students and donations from governments hostile to Jews and to Israel.

There is a sad irony in this development…

READ FULL ARTICLE HERE… (mindingthecampus.org)

 

---

Home | Caravan to Midnight (zutalk.com) Live Stream + Chat (zutalk.com)

We Need Your Help To Keep Caravan To Midnight Going,

Please Consider Donating To Help Keep Independent Media Independent