More than 200 colleges across the country, including two in Maine, collectively received billions in funding from foreign powers, including authoritarian, Middle Eastern states, and failed to properly disclose the donations, according to a study conducted by the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI). The University of Maine in Orono and Bates College in Lewiston were both listed among institutions that received the funding and failed to report it to the U.S. Department of Education, as is required by federal law. “In 2019, the Department of Education developed an online portal and issued a call to institutions of higher learning to…