[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3232 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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118th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 3232

To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to require the standards for 
   accreditation of an institution of higher education to assess the 
   institution's adoption of admissions practices that refrain from 
     preferential treatment in admissions based on an applicant's 
relationship to alumni of, or donors to, the institution, to authorize 
    a feasibility study on data collection, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            November 7, 2023

 Mr. Young (for himself and Mr. Kaine) 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 require the standards for 
   accreditation of an institution of higher education to assess the 
   institution's adoption of admissions practices that refrain from 
     preferential treatment in admissions based on an applicant's 
relationship to alumni of, or donors to, the institution, to authorize 
    a feasibility study on data collection, 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 ``Merit-based Educational Reforms and 
Institutional Transparency Act'' or the ``MERIT Act''.

SEC. 2. ASSESSMENT OF ADMISSIONS PRACTICES.

    (a) In General.--
            (1) Standards for accreditation.--Section 496(a)(5) of the 
        Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1099b(a)(5)) is 
        amended--
                    (A) by redesignating subparagraphs (G), (H), (I), 
                and (J), as subparagraphs (H), (I), (J), and (K), 
                respectively;
                    (B) by inserting after subparagraph (F) the 
                following:
                    ``(G) adoption of admissions practices that refrain 
                from any manner of preferential treatment in the 
                admission process to applicants on the basis of the 
                applicant's relationship to--
                            ``(i) alumni of the institution; or
                            ``(ii) donors to the institution;'';
                    (C) in subparagraph (H), as redesignated under 
                subparagraph (A), by striking ``and admissions''; and
                    (D) in the flush matter at the end, by striking 
                ``subparagraphs (A), (H), and (J)'' and inserting 
                ``subparagraphs (A), (I), and (K)''.
            (2) Preferential treatment definition.--Section 496 of the 
        Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1099b) is amended by 
        adding at the end the following:
    ``(r) Preferential Treatment.--For the purpose of subsection 
(a)(5)(G), the term `preferential treatment' means making an admissions 
decision or awarding tangible education benefits where an applicant's 
relationship with an alumni of, or donor to, the deciding institution 
serves as the determinative factor.''.
    (b) Rule of Construction.--Section 496(p) of the Higher Education 
Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1099b(p)) is amended--
            (1) by redesignating paragraphs (1) and (2) as 
        subparagraphs (A) and (B), respectively, and moving the margins 
        of such subparagraphs (as so redesignated) 2 ems to the right;
            (2) by striking ``Nothing in subsection (a)(5) shall be 
        construed to restrict the ability of'' and inserting the 
        following:
            ``(1) In general.--Nothing in subsection (a)(5) shall be 
        construed to restrict the ability of''; and
            (3) by adding at the end of the following:
            ``(2) Demonstrated interest.--Nothing in subparagraph (G) 
        of subsection (a)(5) shall be construed to prevent institutions 
        from considering the demonstrated interest of an applicant as a 
        factor in admissions decisions if--
                    ``(A) the criteria for assessing demonstrated 
                interest are clearly defined and made publicly 
                available;
                    ``(B) the applicant is provided the opportunity to 
                explain why they have a demonstrated interest in the 
                institution, which may be informed by lived 
                experiences, values, attributes, and faith; and
                    ``(C) the opportunities to demonstrate interest are 
                equally accessible to all applicants, regardless of 
                their financial resources, alumni affiliation, or donor 
                affiliation.
            ``(3) Faith-based institutions.--Nothing in subparagraph 
        (G) of subsection (a)(5) shall be construed to inhibit the 
        right of a religious institution to make admissions decisions 
        consistent with the institution's faith-based values.''.
    (c) Report.--
            (1) In general.--Not later than 180 days after the date of 
        completion of the negotiated rulemaking process under section 
        492 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1098a) with 
        respect to the amendments made by this section, and biennially 
        thereafter, the Secretary of Education shall submit to the 
        Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions of the 
        Senate and the Committee on Education and the Workforce of the 
        House of Representatives a report that identifies the efforts 
        taken to ensure compliance with the requirements of this 
        section and the amendments made by this section, including--
                    (A) any technical assistance the Secretary has 
                provided;
                    (B) any regulatory guidance the Secretary has 
                issued; and
                    (C) any compliance monitoring the Secretary has 
                conducted.
            (2) Public availability.--Each report described under 
        paragraph (1) shall be made available to the public.

SEC. 3. FEASIBILITY STUDY TO IMPROVE DATA COLLECTION.

    (a) In General.--Not later than 2 years after the date of enactment 
of this Act, the Secretary of Education shall explore the feasibility 
of working with the National Student Clearinghouse to establish a 
third-party method to collect and produce institution-level analysis of 
data on the impact of an admissions decision based on an applicant's 
relationship with an alumni of, or donor to, the deciding institution, 
and how such data reported to the National Student Clearinghouse could 
be secured, while considering the following:
            (1) Whether data reported to the National Student 
        Clearinghouse can accurately capture the impact and prevalence 
        of admitting students with alumni or donor affiliations at 
        various institutions.
            (2) Whether institutions have clear and defined policies 
        regarding admitting students with alumni or donor affiliations 
        that can be transparently reported to the National Student 
        Clearinghouse.
            (3) Whether this new data stream can be integrated with 
        reporting to the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System 
        (IPEDS) while ensuring that the quality of data remains 
        consistent or improves compared to the data provided through 
        IPEDS.
            (4) Whether reporting this new data might alter the current 
        interaction between institutions and the National Student 
        Clearinghouse.
            (5) Whether reporting such data can maintain 
        confidentiality, especially regarding private donations and 
        donor identities, while still producing accurate measures of 
        institutional practices.
            (6) Whether the National Student Clearinghouse can satisfy 
        data reporting requirements without transferring any 
        disaggregated data that would be personally identifiable to the 
        Department of Education.
            (7) Whether the data can be reported in such a way that it 
        separates students with familial ties to alumni from those 
        admitted due to direct donor affiliations.
            (8) Whether there's a distinction in admissions criteria 
        for legacy and donor-affiliated applicants compared to 
        traditional applicants.
    (b) Rule of Construction.--Nothing in this section shall be 
construed to authorize the development of a nationwide database of 
personally identifiable information on individuals involved in studies 
or other collections of data under this Act or an amendment made by 
this Act.
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