Northwestern University has taken at least $1 billion from foreign funders, including Qatar and Saudi Arabia, according to a report from Open the Books.
A report released Monday by federal spending watchdog Open the Books showed the school, which has seen massive pro-Palestinian protests on its campus, has been receiving large sums from Middle Eastern governments and setting up exclusive grant programs.
“Around the country, prestigious universities are succumbing to pressure from protestors who have damaged campuses, interfered with other students’ education and safety, and broadcast messages of hatred,” Adam Andrzejewski, Open the Books founder and CEO, said in a statement. “Deals like the one at Northwestern seem inexplicable — that is, until you follow the money. Qatar and others gave nearly $1 billion in foreign gifts since 2007.”
In total, the report found Northwestern took $689,586,983 from Qatar alone between 2007 and 2022, at least $173 million of which was set aside for “restricted gifts” to fund a satellite campus in-country. Some of the money was also used to fund Qatari students attending Northwestern, a practice Open the Books called “reserving seats.”
Qatar has also been identified as a major financial backer of Hamas, the terrorist organization that launched an attack on Israel in October of last year. Some estimates have put Qatar’s financial support for Hamas at $30 million per month.
The connection has some critics questioning whether university leadership’s decision to allow pro-Palestinian encampments to fester for so long is connected to foreign influence — especially considering that the student groups organizing the vast majority of the campus protests, such as Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace, are financially backed not just by left-wing donors but also possibly by donors with ties to terrorist organizations.
“The unlawful pro-terror encampment, dubbed the ‘Northwestern Liberated Zone,’ disrupted campus life and became a hotspot for pervasive anti-Semitic harassment and hostility,” Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) said in a letter calling for Northwestern President Michael Schill and Board of Trustees Chairman Peter Barris to testify before Congress. “Rather than enforcing University rules and disciplining those who violated them, Northwestern’s leaders surrendered to the violators in a shameful agreement.”
School leadership is set to testify before Foxx’s House Education and the Workforce Committee on Thursday.
Northwestern has also taken $24 million in Saudi money since 2007, with $2.2 million being set aside for grants and scholarships for Saudi students to attend the school.
In recent years, the school has also massively grown its endowment, for which it pays minimal taxes, and has received billions in U.S. taxpayer dollars since 2018, according to the report.
Northwestern’s status as a 501(c)(3) public education charity gives it an extremely favorable 1.4% tax rate on its nearly $15 billion endowment. Meanwhile, it has also received $4 billion in federal tax dollars, according to the report, primarily from the Departments of Health and Human Services ($2.63 billion) and Defense ($255.2 million), as well as $360.9 million from the National Science Foundation.
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“Taxpayers are stuck fueling the chaos through subsidies, grants, and preferential tax treatment. Not one taxpayer dollar should follow an institution that’s coddling bigotry, discrimination, and antisemitism,” Andrzejewski said. “Congress has another opportunity this week to hold higher education leaders accountable. Too often, university presidents lacked moral clarity in the face of antisemitism, incidents of violence or property damage, and encampments that ground campuses to a halt.”
Northwestern did not return a request for comment from the Washington Examiner.