I 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 2006 

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 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

APRIL 1, 2019 

Ms. SHALALA introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 

Committee on Education and Labor 

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’’. 

6 SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 

7 It is the sense of Congress that institutions of higher 

8 education should examine institutional policies related to 


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1 admissions, financial aid, remedial education, support 

2 services, coursework, faculty, and staff that may have dif3 ferential impacts on historically underrepresented stu4 dents. 

5 SEC. 3. EQUITY GRANTS. 

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

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

8 the following: 

9 ‘‘PART F—EQUITY GRANTS 

10 ‘‘SEC. 791. EQUITY PLANNING GRANTS. 

11 ‘‘(a) AUTHORIZATION.— 

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

13 planning grants to institutions of higher education 

14 to encourage institutions to conduct equity audits. 

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

16 section shall be 2 years in duration. 

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

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

19 less than $100,000. 

20 ‘‘(b) APPLICATIONS.—An institution of higher edu21 cation that desires to receive a planning grant under this 

22 section shall submit an application to the Secretary at 

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

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

25 following: 


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

2 regarding how the institution intends to conduct the 

3 equity audit and that provides examples of certain 

4 policies, practices, and trends the institution intends 

5 to examine. 

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

7 staff who will be involved in implementing the equity 

8 audit. 

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

10 outcome measures the institution will examine and 

11 for which student populations. 

12 ‘‘(c) USE OF GRANT FUNDS.—An institution of high13 er education that receives a planning grant under this sec14 tion to conduct an equity audit shall undertake a thorough 

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

16 resources to identify areas that might produce gaps in out17 comes by gender, race, ethnicity, national origin, income, 

18 criminal justice background, military service history, or 

19 for first-generation students, students with disabilities, 

20 student parents, and transfer students. The equity audit 

21 shall examine, with respect to the institution of higher 

22 education, the following: 

23 ‘‘(1) Admissions policies, including the demo24 graphics of the State or region where the institution 

25 is located, the demographics of communities where 


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1 the institution recruits, the makeup of students ad2 mitted through early admissions, early decision, 

3 demonstrated interest, athletic preference admis4 sions, and legacy admissions, and the treatment and 

5 admission of transfer students and credit transfer 

6 policies. 

7 ‘‘(2) Outreach, communication, and other inter8 actions with students who accept admission to the 

9 institution to ensure they officially enroll when the 

10 school term begins. 

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

12 processes, including presentation of offer letters to 

13 students, handling student accounts if funds are de14 layed due to verification, and institutional grant aid 

15 policies, including the distribution of need-based and 

16 non-need-based grants, which students receive insti17 tutional support and which students lose institu18 tional support and when that occurs. 

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

20 and first-year experience offerings, such as orienta21 tion and bridge programs. 

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

23 placement and success, academic resource center 

24 usage, advisor to student ratios, and how students 


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1 are differentially affected by satisfactory academic 

2 progress policies. 

3 ‘‘(6) Student support services, including demo4 graphics of staff and students served by academic or 

5 career advising, child care centers, mentoring pro6 grams, and mental health and counseling services. 

7 ‘‘(7) Access to, and participation in, small aca8 demic programs, STEM programs, study abroad, 

9 and undergraduate research opportunities. 

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

11 faculty overall, adjunct faculty, and teachers of core 

12 and introductory-level courses, and the demographics 

13 of faculty teaching historically underrepresented stu14 dents. 

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

16 institution and programmatic accessibility of campus 

17 services, activities, and programs. 

18 ‘‘(10) Demographics of students hired by em19 ployers who recruit on campus or that the institu20 tion has partnerships with in work-based programs. 

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

22 institution deems relevant to identify areas that 

23 might produce gaps in access or outcomes. 

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

25 higher education that receives a grant under this section 


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1 shall submit a report to the Secretary detailing findings 

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

3 that the grant period ends. 

4 ‘‘SEC. 792. EQUITY IMPLEMENTATION GRANTS. 

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

6 ‘‘(1) EDUCATIONAL AND RELATED EXPENDI7 TURES.— 

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

9 and related expenditures’ means, with respect 

10 to an institution of higher education for an aca11 demic year, the total amount that is equal to 

12 the sum of— 

13 ‘‘(i) the amount expended by the insti14 tution of higher education in the academic 

15 year for instruction and student services; 

16 and 

17 ‘‘(ii) the amount determined under 

18 subparagraph (B) with respect to the insti19 tution of higher education for the academic 

20 year. 

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

22 an institution of higher education for an aca23 demic year, the amount determined under this 

24 subparagraph is equal to the product of— 

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


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1 ‘‘(I) the amount expended by the 

2 institution of higher education in the 

3 academic year for instruction and stu4 dent services; divided by 

5 ‘‘(II) the amount expended by 

6 the institution of higher education in 

7 the academic year for instruction, stu8 dent services, research, and public 

9 service; and 

10 ‘‘(ii) the amount expended by the in11 stitution of higher education in the aca12 demic year for instruction, student serv13 ices, and operation maintenance. 

14 ‘‘(2) ELIGIBLE ENTITY.—The term ‘eligible en15 tity’ means an institution of higher education that 

16 has received an equity planning grant under section 

17 791. 

18 ‘‘(3) FULL-TIME EQUIVALENT UNDER19 GRADUATE STUDENTS.—The term ‘full-time equiva20 lent undergraduate students’ means the sum of the 

21 number of undergraduate students enrolled full time 

22 at an institution of higher education, plus the full23 time equivalent of the number of undergraduate stu24 dents enrolled part time (determined on the basis of 

25 the quotient of the sum of the credit hours of all 


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1 part-time students divided by 12) at such institu2 tion. 

3 ‘‘(b) AUTHORIZATION OF GRANTS.— 

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

5 on a competitive basis, implementation grants to en6 able eligible entities to develop and execute an im7 provement plan to address the findings of the equity 

8 audit. 

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

10 Secretary shall award implementation grants under 

11 this section in an amount based on— 

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

13 and 

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

15 including low overall performance outcomes or 

16 large performance gaps between groups of stu17 dents. 

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

19 section shall be 5 years in duration. 

20 ‘‘(c) APPLICATION.— 

21 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—An eligible entity that de22 sires to receive an implementation grant under this 

23 section shall submit an application to the Secretary 

24 at such time, in such form, and containing such in25 formation, as the Secretary may require. 


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

2 under paragraph (1) shall include the following: 

3 ‘‘(A) Demographic information and data 

4 about the eligible entity, including a description 

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

6 the student population it serves, and edu7 cational and related expenditures. 

8 ‘‘(B) A description of equity audit find9 ings, including the gaps in outcomes identified 

10 and for which group of students. 

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

12 description of the specific activities the eligible 

13 entity will carry out with the funds made avail14 able by such grant to address the specific gaps 

15 or problems identified by the equity audit. 

16 ‘‘(D) A description of how the eligible enti17 ty will annually monitor and assess its progress 

18 in closing achievement gaps. 

19 ‘‘(E) A description of the level of institu20 tional commitment and which institutional lead21 ers and offices will be involved in the planning, 

22 improvement, and assessment process. 

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

24 under paragraph (1) shall receive priority based on 

25 the following: 


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1 ‘‘(A) The average educational and related 

2 expenditures per full-time equivalent under3 graduate student of the eligible entity is low in 

4 comparison with the average educational and 

5 related expenditures per full-time equivalent un6 dergraduate student of institutions that offer 

7 similar instruction. 

8 ‘‘(B) The eligible entity demonstrates low 

9 overall performance outcomes or large perform10 ance gaps between groups of students and sub11 mits additional written statements from select 

12 executive-level institutional leaders, including 

13 members of any governing board of trustees, to 

14 demonstrate their interest and commitment to 

15 executing the improvement plan. 

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

17 of students not less than 30 percent of whom 

18 are eligible to receive a Federal Pell Grant. 

19 ‘‘(d) REPORTING REQUIREMENTS.— 

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

21 awarded an implementation grant under this section 

22 shall submit a report detailing progress on its im23 provement plan to the Secretary not later than 3 

24 years after being awarded the grant and again not 

25 later than 5 years after being awarded the grant. 


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

2 after the date a grant period awarded under this 

3 section ends, the Secretary shall submit to Congress 

4 a report detailing the grantee’s initial equity audit 

5 findings and progress in addressing identified equity 

6 gaps. 

7 ‘‘SEC. 793. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 

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

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

10 2019 and each succeeding fiscal year.’’. 

11 SEC. 4. ACCREDITATION. 

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

13 (20 U.S.C. 1099b(a)) is amended— 

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

15 the semicolon; 

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

17 the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 

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

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

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

21 conducted under section 791 of any institution 

22 of higher education the agency or association 

23 accredits; and 

24 ‘‘(B) provide ongoing feedback and tech25 nical assistance to help such institutions adVerDate Sep 11 2014 22:32 Apr 04, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00011 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2006.IH H2006

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1 dress the findings from the equity audit and 

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

Æ 


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