Under a state law approved on May 29 by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Florida public colleges will not be able to accept any grant from or enter into any “partnership or agreement” with China or any other “foreign country of concern” without permission from state oversight bodies. Other nations targeted by the law are Russia, Iran, Cuba, North Korea, Syria and Venezuela, all of which have authoritarian or communist governments. Colleges cannot partner with those nations without approval from boards that lead the State University System of Florida or the Florida College System. Public colleges and their employees also can’t solicit or accept gifts from those “countries of concern.”
The law, known as SB 846, defines a “partnership” as a “faculty or student exchange program, a study abroad program, an articulation program, a recruiting program, or a dual degree program” and an “agreement” as a “written statement of mutual interest in academic or research collaboration.”
To conduct business with one of the seven covered countries, public colleges must demonstrate to the State Board of Education that “such partnership or agreement is … valuable to students and the state college and … not detrimental to the safety or security of the United States or its residents,” according to the new law.
State funding to colleges that violate this law can be taken away from them and returned to Florida’s “General Revenue fund.”
“The law, which begins taking effect July 1, also dictates that Florida’s two higher ed systems provide lawmakers and the governor a summary of grant programs, agreements or contracts with foreign entities by December 2024,” according to Higher Ed Dive.
This report must include information on “any grant program, agreement, partnership, or contract between a state university or state college and any college or university based in a foreign country of concern, or with a foreign principal,” according to the new law.
It requires information on “any office, campus, or physical location used or maintained by a state university or state college in a foreign country of concern, or with a foreign principal,” and the “date on which any such grant program, agreement, partnership, or contract.”
This law follows warnings from former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos that Chinese money is “flooding into American higher education” and similar warnings by House Education Committee Chair Virginia Foxx, who reopened Congressional investigations into the funding in 2023.
