Matt Lamb, associate editor for The College Fix, says his main concerns about the American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise's findings are transparency issues and how these foreign governments might be influencing American universities.
"About one-fourth of all donations from foreign countries that have gone to American universities in the past four decades have come from Arabic countries," he relays from the report. "There can be concerns because many of these Arabic countries are hostile to Israel."
Mitchell Bard, who authored the report, tells The College Fix that "funding can be an incentive/disincentive to take a particular position." Faculty, for example, may teach skewed versions of history, downplaying things like terrorism.
Lamb suggests that could be contributing to the hostile climate on college campuses.
"This report is another part of the story of why there might be some problems on college campuses with antisemitism and hostility towards Israel," he submits.
So, while he recognizes that funds might not be used to directly or indirectly promote the donors' viewpoints – as there are some neutral or positive reasons why foreign countries donate to American universities – Lamb encourages further transparency in foreign donation reporting.
The top four recipients of Arab donations since 1981 are all prestigious research universities – Cornell University ($2.1 billion), Georgetown University ($934 million), Texas A&M University ($910 million), and Carnegie Mellon University ($900 million).
