1.   At some other institutes for Latin American research, professors said they have had to conduct informal background checks before even approaching foreign alumni and other potential donors abroad.

2.   Most colleges and universities that solicit gifts from alumni have been slow to seek money from foreign alumni.

3.   Universities are ranging farther and farther afield in raising money, increasingly looking abroad to tap foreign alumni they have long ignored.

4.   But now the foreign alumni are flooding back as the economy and research conditions climb in tandem.