Sunshine in Academic Admissions Act

Summary: Sunshine in Academic Admissions Act This bill requires each institution of higher education that participates in a program under title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965 to submit an annual report to the Department of Education that states whether the institution gives weight to race, color, or national origin in the admissions process and, if yes, provides certain additional disclosures.  The institution must make the report publicly available. 

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Sunshine in Academic Admissions 
Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Citizens and taxpayers have a right to know whether 
        federally funded institutions of higher education are treating 
        student applications differently depending on the student's 
        race, color, or national origin, and, if so, the way in which 
        these factors are weighted and the consequences to students and 
        prospective students of these decisions.
            (2) Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 codified this 
        right, forbidding in statute discrimination on the basis of 
        race, color, or national origin by federally funded 
        institutions, which includes nearly all colleges and 
        universities.
            (3) This prohibition has largely been ignored by the 
        Supreme Court, which has allowed racially discriminatory 
        admissions.
            (4) However, in Fisher v. University of Texas, the United 
        States Supreme Court in 2013 affirmed that strict scrutiny 
        should be applied to university admissions programs to ensure 
        diversity is not defined as ``mere racial balancing,'' but has 
        a compelling state interest to achieve diversity. The Fisher 
        case clarified that any such discrimination is only permitted 
        if it is necessary to achieve the educational benefits of a 
        racially diverse student body.
            (5) Therefore, colleges and universities must reevaluate 
        their use of racially selective admissions policies. The costs 
        of such policies cannot outweigh the supposed benefits. If a 
        less discriminatory means could achieve similar results, the 
        discrimination is not permissible.
            (6) In order to ensure that these limitations are followed, 
        colleges and federally funded institutions of higher education 
        must make public through annual reports their use of race, 
        color, and national origin, for admissions decisions so that 
        Federal and State enforcement agencies and interested persons 
        can monitor the schools.
            (7) Additionally, college and universities must provide 
        evidence sufficient to demonstrate that any such discrimination 
        does not exceed the limits imposed by the Fisher case.
            (8) Academic ``mismatch'' refers to a significant 
        discrepancy in academic qualifications between various groups 
        within a student body, and is encouraged when universities 
        lower their academic standards to artificially achieve a 
        particular composition.
            (9) Mismatch works a harm because it sets particular 
        students up for lower than average achievement, higher dropout 
        rates, less competitive majors and, perhaps most damaging, a 
        disproportionately large student loan burden.

SEC. 3. REPORT ON CONSIDERATION OF RACE, COLOR, OR NATIONAL ORIGIN IN 
              STUDENT ADMISSIONS.

    (a) In General.--Not later than 180 days after the date of the 
enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter, each institution of 
higher education participating in programs under title IV of the Higher 
Education Act of 1965 shall submit to the Secretary of Education a 
report in accordance with this section.
    (b) Contents of Report.--
            (1) Disclosure of consideration of race, color, or national 
        origin in student admissions.--The report shall include a 
        statement indicating whether race, color, or national origin is 
        given weight in the student admissions process of the 
        institution or any department of the institution.
            (2) Additional disclosures.--If the disclosure under 
        paragraph (1) states that race, color, or national origin is 
        given weight in the student admissions process of an 
        institution or department, then the report shall include the 
        following information with respect to the institution or 
        department:
                    (A) The racial, color, and national origin groups 
                for which membership is considered a plus factor or a 
                minus factor and, in addition, how membership in a 
                group is determined for individual students.
                    (B) A description of how group membership is 
                considered, including the weight given to such 
                consideration and whether targets, goals, or quotas are 
                used.
                    (C) A statement explaining why group membership is 
                given weight, including the determination of the 
                desired level claimed and, with respect to the 
                diversity rationale, its relationship to the particular 
                educational mission of the institution or department.
                    (D) A description of the consideration that has 
                been given to racially neutral or less discriminatory 
                alternatives as a means for achieving the same goals 
                for which group membership is considered.
                    (E) A description of how frequently the need to 
                give weight to group membership is reassessed and how 
                that reassessment is conducted.
                    (F) An identification of the factors other than 
                race, color, or national origin that are collected in 
                the admissions process. If the factors described in the 
                preceding sentence include grades or class rank in high 
                school, scores on standardized tests (including the ACT 
                and SAT), legacy status, sex, State residency, economic 
                status, or other quantifiable criteria, then all raw 
                admissions data for applicants regarding these factors, 
                along with each individual applicant's race, color, and 
                national origin and the admissions decision made by the 
                school regarding that applicant, shall accompany the 
                report in computer-readable form, with the name of the 
                individual student redacted but with appropriate links, 
                so that it is possible for the Secretary of Education 
                or other interested persons to determine through 
                statistical analysis the weight being given to race, 
                color, and national origin, relative to other factors.
                    (G) An analysis, and also the underlying data 
                needed to perform an analysis, of whether there is a 
                correlation--
                            (i) between membership in a group favored 
                        on account of race, color, or national origin 
                        and the likelihood of enrollment in a 
                        remediation program, relative to membership in 
                        other groups;
                            (ii) between such membership and graduation 
                        rates, relative to membership in other groups; 
                        and
                            (iii) between such membership and the 
                        likelihood of defaulting on education loans, 
                        relative to membership in other groups.
    (c) Public Availability.--The institution shall make the report 
publicly available.

SEC. 4. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.

    Nothing in this Act shall be construed to allow or permit 
preference or discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national 
origin.

SEC. 5. DEFINITION.

    In this Act, the term ``institution of higher education'' has the 
meaning given the term in section 102 of the Higher Education Act of 
1965 (20 U.S.C. 1002), except that the term does not include an 
institution of higher education outside the United States.