By Haley Cohen
Qatar is the top country donating foreign funds to American universities, and Cornell University is its leading recipient, according to a new dashboard from the Department of Education which displays foreign gifts and contracts provided to U.S. educational institutions.
According to the database, $2.3 billion out of the $3 billion total Cornell has received in foreign funding came from Qatar, which is a key financial supporter of Hamas. Qatar has provided $6.6 billion to universities overall, significantly more than the next leading countries, bolstering criticisms of the Gulf state’s influence over American higher education.
In a March interview with Jewish Insider, Cornell President Michael Kotlikoff defended the university’s decision to take funds from Qatar, saying that the “narrative that somehow Qatari funding coming to the university affects the university’s decisions or faculty courses could not be further from the truth.”
