II 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 943 

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 

MARCH 28, 2019 

Mr. SCHATZ (for himself, Mr. JONES, Mr. BLUMENTHAL, Ms. HARRIS, Ms. 

KLOBUCHAR, and Mr. WYDEN) 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. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘College Equity Act 

5 of 2019’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 

2 It is the sense of Congress that institutions of higher 

3 education should examine institutional policies related to 

4 admissions, financial aid, remedial education, support 

5 services, coursework, faculty, and staff that may have dif6 ferential impacts on historically underrepresented stu7 dents. 

8 SEC. 3. EQUITY GRANTS. 

9 Title VII of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 

10 U.S.C. 1133 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end 

11 the following: 

12 ‘‘PART F—EQUITY GRANTS 

13 ‘‘SEC. 791. EQUITY PLANNING GRANTS. 

14 ‘‘(a) AUTHORIZATION.— 

15 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall award 

16 planning grants to institutions of higher education 

17 to encourage institutions to conduct equity audits. 

18 ‘‘(2) DURATION.—A grant award under this 

19 section shall be 2 years in duration. 

20 ‘‘(3) MINIMUM GRANT AWARD.—A grant award 

21 under this section shall be in an amount that is not 

22 less than $100,000. 

23 ‘‘(b) APPLICATIONS.—An institution of higher edu24 cation that desires to receive a planning grant under this 

25 section shall submit an application to the Secretary at 

26 such time, in such form, and containing such information, 


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1 as the Secretary may require, including not less than the 

2 following: 

3 ‘‘(1) A narrative statement with sufficient detail 

4 regarding how the institution intends to conduct the 

5 equity audit and that provides examples of certain 

6 policies, practices, and trends the institution intends 

7 to examine. 

8 ‘‘(2) A description of all relevant offices and 

9 staff who will be involved in implementing the equity 

10 audit. 

11 ‘‘(3) A description of what specific data and 

12 outcome measures the institution will examine and 

13 for which student populations. 

14 ‘‘(c) USE OF GRANT FUNDS.—An institution of high15 er education that receives a planning grant under this sec16 tion to conduct an equity audit shall undertake a thorough 

17 internal review of the institution’s policies, practices, and 

18 resources to identify areas that might produce gaps in out19 comes by gender, race, ethnicity, national origin, income, 

20 criminal justice background, military service history, or 

21 for first-generation students, students with disabilities, 

22 student parents, and transfer students. The equity audit 

23 shall examine, with respect to the institution of higher 

24 education, the following: 


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1 ‘‘(1) Admissions policies, including the demo2 graphics of the State or region where the institution 

3 is located, the demographics of communities where 

4 the institution recruits, the makeup of students ad5 mitted through early admissions, early decision, 

6 demonstrated interest, athletic preference admis7 sions, and legacy admissions, and the treatment and 

8 admission of transfer students and credit transfer 

9 policies. 

10 ‘‘(2) Outreach, communication, and other inter11 actions with students who accept admission to the 

12 institution to ensure they officially enroll when the 

13 school term begins. 

14 ‘‘(3) The financial aid awarding policies and 

15 processes, including presentation of offer letters to 

16 students, handling student accounts if funds are de17 layed due to verification, and institutional grant aid 

18 policies, including the distribution of need-based and 

19 non-need-based grants, which students receive insti20 tutional support and which students lose institu21 tional support and when that occurs. 

22 ‘‘(4) Access to, and participation in, pre-college 

23 and first-year experience offerings, such as orienta24 tion and bridge programs. 


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1 ‘‘(5) Educational supports, such as remedial 

2 placement and success, academic resource center 

3 usage, advisor to student ratios, and how students 

4 are differentially affected by satisfactory academic 

5 progress policies. 

6 ‘‘(6) Student support services, including demo7 graphics of staff and students served by academic or 

8 career advising, child care centers, mentoring pro9 grams, and mental health and counseling services. 

10 ‘‘(7) Access to, and participation in, small aca11 demic programs, STEM programs, study abroad, 

12 and undergraduate research opportunities. 

13 ‘‘(8) Diversity among administrators, advisers, 

14 faculty overall, adjunct faculty, and teachers of core 

15 and introductory-level courses, and the demographics 

16 of faculty teaching historically underrepresented stu17 dents. 

18 ‘‘(9) Physical accessibility on the grounds of the 

19 institution and programmatic accessibility of campus 

20 services, activities, and programs. 

21 ‘‘(10) Demographics of students hired by em22 ployers who recruit on campus or that the institu23 tion has partnerships with in work-based programs. 


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1 ‘‘(11) Any other policy, practice, or trend the 

2 institution deems relevant to identify areas that 

3 might produce gaps in access or outcomes. 

4 ‘‘(d) REPORTING REQUIREMENT.—An institution of 

5 higher education that receives a grant under this section 

6 shall submit a report to the Secretary detailing findings 

7 of the equity audit not later than 90 days after the date 

8 that the grant period ends. 

9 ‘‘SEC. 792. EQUITY IMPLEMENTATION GRANTS. 

10 ‘‘(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

11 ‘‘(1) EDUCATIONAL AND RELATED EXPENDI12 TURES.— 

13 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘educational 

14 and related expenditures’ means, with respect 

15 to an institution of higher education for an aca16 demic year, the total amount that is equal to 

17 the sum of— 

18 ‘‘(i) the amount expended by the insti19 tution of higher education in the academic 

20 year for instruction and student services; 

21 and 

22 ‘‘(ii) the amount determined under 

23 subparagraph (B) with respect to the insti24 tution of higher education for the academic 

25 year. 


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1 ‘‘(B) EDUCATION SHARE.—With respect to 

2 an institution of higher education for an aca3 demic year, the amount determined under this 

4 subparagraph is equal to the product of— 

5 ‘‘(i) the percentage that is equal to— 

6 ‘‘(I) the amount expended by the 

7 institution of higher education in the 

8 academic year for instruction and stu9 dent services; divided by 

10 ‘‘(II) the amount expended by 

11 the institution of higher education in 

12 the academic year for instruction, stu13 dent services, research, and public 

14 service; and 

15 ‘‘(ii) the amount expended by the in16 stitution of higher education in the aca17 demic year for instruction, student serv18 ices, and operation maintenance. 

19 ‘‘(2) ELIGIBLE ENTITY.—The term ‘eligible en20 tity’ means an institution of higher education that 

21 has received an equity planning grant under section 

22 791. 

23 ‘‘(3) FULL-TIME EQUIVALENT UNDER24 GRADUATE STUDENTS.—The term ‘full-time equiva25 lent undergraduate students’ means the sum of the 


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1 number of undergraduate students enrolled full time 

2 at an institution of higher education, plus the full3 time equivalent of the number of undergraduate stu4 dents enrolled part time (determined on the basis of 

5 the quotient of the sum of the credit hours of all 

6 part-time students divided by 12) at such institu7 tion. 

8 ‘‘(b) AUTHORIZATION OF GRANTS.— 

9 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall award, 

10 on a competitive basis, implementation grants to en11 able eligible entities to develop and execute an im12 provement plan to address the findings of the equity 

13 audit. 

14 ‘‘(2) DETERMINATION OF GRANT SIZE.—The 

15 Secretary shall award implementation grants under 

16 this section in an amount based on— 

17 ‘‘(A) the eligible entity’s enrollment size; 

18 and 

19 ‘‘(B) the severity of equity audit findings, 

20 including low overall performance outcomes or 

21 large performance gaps between groups of stu22 dents. 

23 ‘‘(3) DURATION.—A grant award under this 

24 section shall be 5 years in duration. 

25 ‘‘(c) APPLICATION.— 


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1 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—An eligible entity that de2 sires to receive an implementation grant under this 

3 section shall submit an application to the Secretary 

4 at such time, in such form, and containing such in5 formation, as the Secretary may require. 

6 ‘‘(2) CONTENTS.—Each application submitted 

7 under paragraph (1) shall include the following: 

8 ‘‘(A) Demographic information and data 

9 about the eligible entity, including a description 

10 of the entity’s mission, history, enrollment size, 

11 the student population it serves, and edu12 cational and related expenditures. 

13 ‘‘(B) A description of equity audit find14 ings, including the gaps in outcomes identified 

15 and for which group of students. 

16 ‘‘(C) An improvement plan that includes a 

17 description of the specific activities the eligible 

18 entity will carry out with the funds made avail19 able by such grant to address the specific gaps 

20 or problems identified by the equity audit. 

21 ‘‘(D) A description of how the eligible enti22 ty will annually monitor and assess its progress 

23 in closing achievement gaps. 

24 ‘‘(E) A description of the level of institu25 tional commitment and which institutional leadVerDate Sep 11 2014 22:13 Apr 02, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S943.IS S943

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1 ers and offices will be involved in the planning, 

2 improvement, and assessment process. 

3 ‘‘(3) PRIORITY.—An application submitted 

4 under paragraph (1) shall receive priority based on 

5 the following: 

6 ‘‘(A) The average educational and related 

7 expenditures per full-time equivalent under8 graduate student of the eligible entity is low in 

9 comparison with the average educational and 

10 related expenditures per full-time equivalent un11 dergraduate student of institutions that offer 

12 similar instruction. 

13 ‘‘(B) The eligible entity demonstrates low 

14 overall performance outcomes or large perform15 ance gaps between groups of students and sub16 mits additional written statements from select 

17 executive-level institutional leaders, including 

18 members of any governing board of trustees, to 

19 demonstrate their interest and commitment to 

20 executing the improvement plan. 

21 ‘‘(C) The eligible entity has an enrollment 

22 of students not less than 30 percent of whom 

23 are eligible to receive a Federal Pell Grant. 

24 ‘‘(d) REPORTING REQUIREMENTS.— 


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1 ‘‘(1) PROGRESS REPORTS.—An eligible entity 

2 awarded an implementation grant under this section 

3 shall submit a report detailing progress on its im4 provement plan to the Secretary not later than 3 

5 years after being awarded the grant and again not 

6 later than 5 years after being awarded the grant. 

7 ‘‘(2) FINAL REPORT.—Not later than 90 days 

8 after the date a grant period awarded under this 

9 section ends, the Secretary shall submit to Congress 

10 a report detailing the grantee’s initial equity audit 

11 findings and progress in addressing identified equity 

12 gaps. 

13 ‘‘SEC. 793. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 

14 ‘‘There are authorized to be appropriated to carry out 

15 this part such sums as may be necessary for fiscal year 

16 2019 and each succeeding fiscal year.’’. 

17 SEC. 4. ACCREDITATION. 

18 Section 496(a) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 

19 (20 U.S.C. 1099b(a)) is amended— 

20 (1) in paragraph (7), by striking ‘‘and’’ after 

21 the semicolon; 

22 (2) in paragraph (8), by striking the period at 

23 the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 

24 (3) by adding at the end the following: 

25 ‘‘(9) such agency or association shall— 


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1 ‘‘(A) assess findings from an equity audit 

2 conducted under section 791 of any institution 

3 of higher education the agency or association 

4 accredits; and 

5 ‘‘(B) provide ongoing feedback and tech6 nical assistance to help such institutions ad7 dress the findings from the equity audit and 

8 share best practices from the equity audits.’’. 

Æ 


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