Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania received $19,772,237 in donations from Qatari and Saudi entities over the past two years, including from both nation's governments, according to data collected by the Department of Education.
Under federal law, colleges and universities that receive donations from foreign sources that total at least $250,000 must disclose such transactions to the Department of Education.
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According to each college's self-reported data, which was reviewed by the Washington Examiner, Harvard and UPenn received a combined $13,442,954 from Saudi sources in 2022 and 2023, including from its government. Harvard received the bulk of the donations, receiving $10,919,274 over the past two years, including a $2,208,928 donation from the Middle Eastern nation's government that it reported in June and which lasts through the rest of the year.
UPenn, meanwhile, received $2,523,680 from Saudi sources but has only received one donation from the nation's government, a $1,247,323 donation given to the school in February 2022.
The Qatari government donated $6,329,283 to Harvard over the past two years, including a $1,104,180 donation in May of this year. Harvard also received a donation of $379,119 in April. UPenn did not receive any funding from Qatari sources.
The issue of foreign donations from Middle Eastern sources and the influence of Arab donors on colleges and universities has drawn renewed scrutiny amid an increase in antisemitic incidents on college campuses in the weeks following the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks by Hamas against Israel that killed more than 1,200 people. Hamas is still holding a number of hostages it took during the attacks.
Qatar has come under fire during the Israel-Hamas war due to its friendly relationship with Hamas terrorist leaders.
It is not clear how the colleges used their Arab donations. Most universities do not share details about precisely how they use specific donations.
A May 2023 report from the Jewish Virtual Library analyzed 10,000 donations from Middle Eastern sources to U.S. colleges and found that only three were explicitly labeled as political. Brown University, for example, took $643,000 from a Palestinian source in 2020 who funded a professorship in Palestinian Studies, the Jewish Virtual Library reported.
The issue of campus antisemitism took center stage at a congressional hearing on Tuesday, which featured testimony from UPenn President Liz Magill, Harvard President Claudine Gay, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Sally Kornbluth, who were invited to testify about the growing problem of antisemitism on college campuses. All three presidents, under questioning by Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), refused to say if "calling for the genocide of Jews" amounted to harassment that violated their schools' codes of conduct.
In the wake of the hearing, the House Education and Workforce Committee announced that it would be opening an investigation into the campus environments and disciplinary policies of all three schools.
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"The testimony we received earlier this week from Presidents Gay, Magill, and Kornbluth about the responses of Harvard, UPenn, and MIT to the rampant antisemitism displayed on their campuses by students and faculty was absolutely unacceptable," Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) said in a statement announcing the investigation. "Committee members have deep concerns with their leadership and their failure to take steps to provide Jewish students the safe learning environment they are due under law."
The Washington Examiner reached out to Harvard and UPenn for comment but did not receive a response.