[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2301 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
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117th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. 2301
To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to provide capacity-building
assistance to institutions of higher education to examine and address
inequities in college student access and success, and for other
purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
June 24, 2021
Mr. Schatz (for himself, Mr. Blumenthal, and Ms. Klobuchar) introduced
the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee
on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to provide capacity-building
assistance to institutions of higher education to examine and address
inequities in college student access and success, and for other
purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``College Equity Act of 2021''.
SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS.
It is the sense of Congress that institutions of higher education
should examine institutional policies related to admissions, financial
aid, remedial education, support services, coursework, faculty, and
staff that may have differential impacts on historically
underrepresented students.
SEC. 3. EQUITY GRANTS.
Title VII of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1133 et
seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following:
``PART F--EQUITY GRANTS
``SEC. 791. EQUITY PLANNING GRANTS.
``(a) Authorization.--
``(1) In general.--The Secretary shall award planning
grants to institutions of higher education to encourage
institutions to conduct equity audits.
``(2) Duration.--A grant award under this section shall be
2 years in duration.
``(3) Minimum grant award.--A grant award under this
section shall be in an amount that is not less than $100,000.
``(b) Applications.--A institution of higher education that desires
to receive a planning grant under this section shall submit an
application to the Secretary at such time, in such form, and containing
such information, as the Secretary may require, including not less than
the following:
``(1) A narrative statement with sufficient detail
regarding how the institution intends to conduct the equity
audit and that provides examples of certain policies,
practices, and trends the institution intends to examine.
``(2) A description of all relevant offices, staff, and
student representation who will be involved in implementing the
equity audit, including demographic makeup of staff who will be
involved in implementing the equity audit, disaggregated by
race, gender, tenure status, and rank.
``(3) A description of what specific data, enrollment data,
and outcome measures the institution will examine and for which
student populations, disaggregated by gender, race, ethnicity,
national origin, income, criminal justice background, military
service history, age, first-generation student status, students
with disabilities, student parents, and transfer students.
``(c) Use of Grant Funds.--An institution of higher education that
receives a planning grant under this section to conduct an equity audit
shall undertake a thorough internal review of the institution's
policies, practices, and resources to identify areas that might produce
gaps in access and outcomes by gender, race, ethnicity, national
origin, income, criminal justice background, military service history,
or age, or for first-generation students, students with disabilities,
student parents, and transfer students. The equity audit shall examine,
with respect to the institution of higher education, the following:
``(1) Admissions policies, including the demographics of
the State or region where the institution is located, the
demographics of communities where the institution recruits, the
secondary schools from which enrolled students have graduated,
the makeup of students admitted through early admissions, early
decision, demonstrated interest, athletic preference
admissions, and legacy admissions, the use of race,
standardized tests, questions about citizenship status, and
questions about criminal convictions in admissions processes,
the use of application fees and waivers, and the treatment and
admission of transfer students and credit transfer policies,
including articulation agreements.
``(2) Outreach, communication, and other interactions with
students who accept admission to the institution to ensure they
officially enroll when the school term begins, including
interactions to encourage students to accept their offer of
admission.
``(3) The financial aid awarding policies and processes,
including presentation of offer letters that clearly state the
cost of attendance and make clear the difference between types
of aid to students, the financial aid appeal process, the
process of handling student accounts if funds are delayed due
to verification, institutional grant aid policies (including
the distribution of need-based and non-need-based grants), the
process of distribution of campus-based aid, the availability
and distribution of emergency aid, the availability or usage of
in-kind assistance programs, and the process of which students
receive institutional support and which students lose
institutional support and when that occurs.
``(4) Access to, and participation in, pre-college and
first-year experience offerings, such as orientation and bridge
programs and advising.
``(5) Educational supports, such as remedial placement and
success, gateway and intro course placement and success,
academic resource center usage, advisor to student ratios, and
how students are differentially affected by satisfactory
academic progress policies.
``(6) Student support services, including demographics of
staff and students served by academic or career advising, child
care centers, mentoring programs, and mental health and
counseling services.
``(7) Access to, and availability of, identity-based
centers, staff, academic departments, and extracurricular
organization for students of color, LGBTQ students, veterans,
and other students.
``(8) Access to, and participation in, small academic
programs, STEM programs, study abroad, undergraduate research
opportunities, internships, volunteer programs, and civic
service programs.
``(9) Diversity among administrators, advisers, faculty
overall, adjunct faculty, and teachers of core and
introductory-level courses, including pay equity, career
advancement, and tenure, and the demographics of faculty
teaching historically underrepresented students.
``(10) Hiring processes for administrators, advisers,
faculty overall, adjunct faculty, and teachers of core and
introductory-level courses.
``(11) Physical accessibility on the grounds of the
institution and programmatic accessibility of campus services,
activities, and programs.
``(12) Demographics of students hired by employers who
recruit on campus for internships or employment or that the
institution has partnerships with in work-based programs.
``(13) Any other policy, practice, or trend the institution
deems relevant to identify areas that might produce gaps in
access or outcomes, such as disciplinary fines and billing
practices that lead to institutional holds or preventing
students from enrolling.
``(d) Reporting Requirement.--An institution of higher education
that receives a grant under this section shall submit a report to the
Secretary detailing findings of the equity audit not later than 90 days
after the date that the grant period ends and make the report available
on the website of the institution.
``SEC. 792. EQUITY IMPLEMENTATION GRANTS.
``(a) Definitions.--In this section:
``(1) Educational and related expenditures.--
``(A) In general.--The term `educational and
related expenditures' means, with respect to an
institution of higher education for an academic year,
the total amount that is equal to the sum of--
``(i) the amount expended by the
institution of higher education in the academic
year for instruction and student services, and
``(ii) the amount determined under
subparagraph (B) with respect to the
institution of higher education for the
academic year.
``(B) Education share.--With respect to an
institution of higher education for an academic year,
the amount determined under this subparagraph is equal
to the product of--
``(i) the percentage that is equal to--
``(I) the amount expended by the
institution of higher education in the
academic year for instruction and
student services, divided by
``(II) the amount expended by the
institution of higher education in the
academic year for instruction, student
services, research, and public service,
and
``(ii) the amount expended by the
institution of higher education in the academic
year for instruction, student services, and
operation maintenance.
``(2) Eligible entity.--The term `eligible entity' means an
institution of higher education that has received an equity
planning grant under section 791.
``(3) Full-time equivalent undergraduate students.--The
term `full-time equivalent undergraduate students' means the
sum of the number of undergraduate students enrolled full time
at an institution of higher education, plus the full-time
equivalent of the number of undergraduate students enrolled
part time (determined on the basis of the quotient of the sum
of the credit hours of all part-time students divided by 12) at
such institution.
``(b) Authorization of Grants.--
``(1) In general.--The Secretary shall award, on a
competitive basis, implementation grants to enable eligible
entities to develop and execute an improvement plan to address
the findings of the equity audit.
``(2) Determination of grant size.--The Secretary shall
award implementation grants under this section in an amount
based on--
``(A) the eligible entity's enrollment size; and
``(B) the severity of equity audit findings,
including low overall performance outcomes or large
performance gaps between groups of students.
``(3) Duration.--A grant award under this section shall be
5 years in duration.
``(c) Application.--
``(1) In general.--An eligible entity that desires to
receive an implementation grant under this section shall submit
an application to the Secretary at such time, in such form, and
containing such information, as the Secretary may require.
``(2) Contents.--Each application submitted under paragraph
(1) shall include the following:
``(A) Demographic information and data about the
eligible entity, including a description of the
entity's mission, history, enrollment size, enrollment
by race or ethnicity, the student population it serves,
and educational and related expenditures.
``(B) A description of equity audit findings,
including the gaps in outcomes identified and for which
group of students, including by race or ethnicity.
``(C) An improvement plan that includes a
description of the specific activities the eligible
entity will carry out with the funds made available by
such grant to address the specific gaps or problems
identified by the equity audit.
``(D) A description of how the eligible entity will
annually monitor and assess its progress in closing
achievement gaps.
``(E) A description of the level of institutional
commitment and which institutional leaders and offices
will be involved in the planning, improvement, and
assessment process.
``(3) Priority.--An application submitted under paragraph
(1) shall receive priority based on the following:
``(A) The average educational and related
expenditures per full-time equivalent undergraduate
student of the eligible entity is low in comparison
with the average educational and related expenditures
per full-time equivalent undergraduate student of
institutions that offer similar instruction.
``(B) The eligible entity demonstrates low overall
performance outcomes or large performance gaps between
groups of students and submits additional written
statements from select executive-level institutional
leaders, including members of any governing board of
trustees, to demonstrate their interest and commitment
to executing the improvement plan.
``(C) The eligible entity has an enrollment of
students not less than 30 percent of whom are eligible
to receive a Federal Pell Grant.
``(d) Reporting Requirements.--
``(1) Progress reports.--An eligible entity awarded an
implementation grant under this section shall submit a report
detailing progress on its improvement plan to the Secretary not
later than 3 years after being awarded the grant and again not
later than 5 years after being awarded the grant.
``(2) Final report.--Not later than 90 days after the date
a grant period awarded under this section ends, the Secretary
shall submit to Congress a report detailing the grantee's
initial equity audit findings and progress in addressing
identified equity gaps.
``SEC. 793. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.
``There are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this part
such sums as may be necessary for fiscal year 2022 and each succeeding
fiscal year.''.
SEC. 4. ACCREDITATION.
Section 496(a) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C.
1099b(a)) is amended--
(1) in paragraph (7), by striking ``and'' after the
semicolon;
(2) in paragraph (8), by striking the period at the end and
inserting ``; and''; and
(3) by adding at the end the following:
``(9) such agency or association shall--
``(A) assess findings from an equity audit
conducted under section 791 of any institution of
higher education the agency or association accredits;
and
``(B) provide ongoing feedback and technical
assistance to help such institutions address the
findings from the equity audit and share best practices
from the equity audits.''.
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