Feds issue 'information requests' on University of Chicago international students, admissions practices
The U.S. Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security have requested information on the University of Chicago’s admissions practices and international students, according to bond issuance documents.
Bloomberg first reported the news Friday.
In the more than 200 pages of documents dated July 11, the university wrote that the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security had issued information requests regarding “admissions practices and international students.”
“There may be prospective investigations or inquiries,” the documents said. “While the immediate financial impact on the University is not material at this time, these and other developments involving the federal government may, directly or indirectly, have a material adverse effect on the financial profile and operating performance of the University.”
The University of Chicago, Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The documents say about a third of the university’s student body is made up of international students, and that restrictions that would reduce its ability to enroll international students “would have a materially adverse impact on the financial condition of the University.”
About 18% of the school’s revenue for the last school year came from the $543 million in federal funding it receives, according to the documents.
The school has already lost several federal grants, including from the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation, though the school has appealed the decisions and has not yet lost out on any money, according to the documents.
It comes a month after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the government would revise visa criteria “to enhance scrutiny” of student applications from China and Hong Kong going forward. Rubio said the U.S. would target visa-holding students studying in “critical fields” and “those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party.”
In March, the school and 45 others were put under investigation by the Department of Education Office of Civil Rights for alleged Title VI violations over its participation in a conference to “enhance opportunities for doctoral students.”
A month later, the Department of Justice took a victory lap over its purported ending of the Diversifying Higher Education Faculty in Illinois Scholarship, which it had deemed “DEI,” and name-dropped the University of Chicago among other schools it claimed reached out to confirm they no longer took part in it.
The university said it hadn’t participated in the scholarship since 2023, the Chicago Maroon reported.
“This Department of Justice is committed to rooting DEI out of American institutions, including in the education system," Attorney General Pamela Bondi said. "This latest victory illustrates that the threat of legal action can be enough to force bad actors into dissolving harmful practices that disregard merit and divide Americans based on race.”