Oklahoma colleges and universities would have to publicly report any foreign funding received and its purpose under legislation filed by state Sen. Micheal Bergstrom.

Senate Bill 349, by Bergstrom, would require all state and accredited private institutions of higher education in Oklahoma to submit a quarterly report detailing any contracts, gifts, grants, endowments, awards, or donations exceeding $50,000 received from foreign sources. The reports would be made publicly accessible under the Oklahoma Open Records Act.

“This bill is about transparency and accountability,” said Bergstrom, R-Adair. “The public has a right to know where significant funding for our higher education institutions is coming from, especially when it originates from foreign entities. SB 349 ensures that Oklahomans have visibility into these financial relationships.”

Foreign funding has generated numerous controversies at universities nationwide, including Oklahoma.

The University of Oklahoma was home to a “Confucius Institute” for several years. Confucius Institutes were once run by the Hanban, a Chinese government agency.

In August 2020, the U.S. Department of State declared that the Confucius Institute U.S. Center was a foreign mission of the People’s Republic of China, saying that designation recognized the Confucius Institute U.S. Center “for what it is: an entity advancing Beijing’s global propaganda and malign influence campaign on U.S. campuses and K-12 classrooms. Confucius Institutes are funded by the PRC and part of the Chinese Communist Party’s global influence and propaganda apparatus.”

In 2018, an OU spokesman said the university had received more than $1 million in funding for its Confucius Institute from the Hanban. Donations for the institute were directed to the OU Foundation, an independent not-for-profit corporation, making associated records exempt from the Oklahoma Open Records Act.

Although OU reports having shuttered its Confucius Institute, in 2022 researchers with the National Association of Scholars found that ties remained between OU and the Chinese government.

An OU spokesperson declined to comment on SB 349, saying, “The University does not generally comment on proposed legislation.”

OU officials have not always abided by that practice, however. In 2021, when lawmakers advanced legislation that banned colleges from requiring student participation in any “orientation or requirement that presents any form of race or sex stereotyping or a bias on the basis of race or sex,” OU President Joseph Harroz voiced opposition to the bill before it was signed into law, saying the legislation “runs contrary to the goals we have laid out for ourselves as part of our Strategic Plan” at OU.

Neetu Arnold, a Paulson Policy Analyst at the Manhattan Institute, recently noted that foreign funding at U.S. universities has at times benefited even the military forces of other countries that are often at odds with Americans.

“In September 2024, the House Education and Workforce Committee and the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party uncovered a troubling fact: federal agencies had inadvertently bolstered China’s military capabilities by funding researchers affiliated with American universities who partnered with Chinese universities,” Arnold wrote. “These research partnerships were also funded by defense- and security-linked Chinese universities and Chinese corporations, such as Huawei. While the partnerships were framed as academic cooperation, American researchers transferred sensitive knowledge on military technologies, including high-performance explosives and drone targeting systems—knowledge that was developed with funding from the U.S. Department of Defense. Blacklisted Chinese companies like Huawei disguised their funding by channeling money to American universities through intermediaries. The U.S. government lacked visibility into many of these collaborations because the universities involved had failed to report the funds, as required by federal law.”

Section 117 of the federal Higher Education Act requires universities to disclose foreign funding of $250,000 or more per year to the U.S. Department of Education. However, Section 117 does not include significant enforcement provisions and does not require colleges to report the purpose of donated funds or donor names.

Today, 13 states have foreign funds disclosure laws for universities, but Oklahoma is not one of them.

Oklahoma Schools Receive Foreign Funds

Data posted by Arnold showed that Oklahoma State University has received $39 million from foreign sources while the University of Oklahoma has received $82 million.

Similarly, OpenTheBooks.com, a project of the nonprofit group American Transparency, found that some Oklahoma colleges and universities have received millions from foreign sources for many years now. [Former OCPA trustee Dr. Tom Coburn was honorary chairman of OpenTheBooks.com.]

OpenTheBooks.com posts spending data for federal, state, and local governments. In 2022, the organization filed 50,000 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.

From 2018 to 2021, the site showed that Oklahoma State University received millions from a wide range of foreign sources, including entities in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, China, Jordan, Iraq, Yemen, the United Arab Emirates, Mexico, Zambia, Thailand, South Korea, Ethiopia, Estonia, Israel, Japan, India, the Netherlands, England, Norway, Germany, Ireland, Canada, and Vietnam.

OpenTheBooks similarly shows millions of dollars in funding has been provided to the University of Oklahoma from foreign sources, going back as far as 2005, including entities from China, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Nigeria, Angola, Columbia, Germany, the Bahamas, Peru, Canada, the Netherlands, Switzerland, England, Sweden, Australia, Italy, Spain, Israel, Canada, South Korea, France, Switzerland, India, Denmark, and South Africa.

According to OpenTheBooks, the University of Central Oklahoma received nearly $300,000 combined in 2019 and 2020 from Saudi Arabia.

From 2019 to 2022, OpenTheBooks found Northeastern State University received more than $1 million from Saudi Arabia.

SB 349 imposes penalties for universities that fail to report qualifying contributions, allowing for fines of up to $10,000 per incident, with the fine amount and any unreported funding being deposited into the state’s General Revenue Fund. Additionally, the attorney general is authorized to investigate institutions suspected of noncompliance.

SB 349 can be considered when the legislative session begins on February 3, 2025.

[For more stories about higher education in Oklahoma, visit AimHigherOK.com.]