College Equity Act of 2021
Bill: S.2301 | Sponsor: Sen. Schatz, Brian (D-HI)
Policy area: Education

Summary:
College Equity Act of 2021
This bill requires the Department of Education (ED) to establish grant programs for reviewing and addressing inequities in student recruitment, admissions, and support at institutions of higher education (IHEs).
Specifically, ED must award grants to IHEs to conduct equity audits that review IHEs' policies, practices, and resources (e.g., admission policies, financial aid, and faculty diversity) to identify areas that might produce gaps in access and outcomes by certain factors. These factors include, among others, gender, race, ethnicity, national origin, and age.
In addition, ED must award grants to IHEs for executing improvement plans that address inequities.
Finally, higher education accrediting agencies and associations must assess the findings from the audits and assist IHEs in addressing inequities.

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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