House Republicans narrowly passed the End Woke Higher Education Act (H.R. 3724), which aims to safeguard free speech on college campuses and prohibit political litmus tests in higher ed accreditation.

H.R. 3724 combines two bills that were passed by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, chaired by Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), earlier this year: the Accreditation for College Excellence Act and the Respecting the First Amendment on Campus Act.

Key Provisions

  • Public and private colleges would have to disclose speech policies to students, faculty, and the U.S. Department of Education (ED) on an annual basis and allow single-sex social organizations.
  • Public institutions would not be able to prevent any person from “freely engaging in noncommercial expressive activity on campus,” so long as their conduct is lawful, content- and viewpoint-neutral, and in a publicly accessible and outdoor area of campus.

    Public institutions would also not be able to consider “anticipated reaction by students or the public” when charging security fees, which some conservative students said restricts their ability to host more controversial speakers on campus, thus hindering their speech.
  • The bill would codify a Trump-era “free inquiry” rule that protected the right of religious student organizations to set their own membership standards. The Biden administration proposed rolling back this rule, arguing that it allowed religious student groups to discriminate against vulnerable student populations and that it was “unduly burdensome” for ED and institutions to enforce. [Inside Higher Ed]
  • Institutions that do not comply with the above would be ineligible to receive any Title IV funding—including student financial aid—for a year.
  • Finally, the bill would ban accreditors from requiring or encouraging higher ed institutions adopt partisan or ideological viewpoints on social, cultural, or political issues as a condition for receiving federal funding. Rep. Burgess Owens (R-UT) said of accreditation: “Institutions of higher learning are facing immense pressure from accreditors to conform to the anti-American, Marxist doctrine of DEI and critical race theory… this is not the education our founders envisioned.”

Higher Ed Pushback: The Biden administration and organizations including the American Council on Education (ACE), the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU), the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU), and the Association of American Universities oppose the bill, saying that it spawns a “regulatory quagmire” and hamstrings institutions’ efforts to make their campuses welcoming for all students.

What’s next: The bill now advances to the Democrat-controlled Senate, where it is not expected to pass. However, the bill certainly sends a political message and is indicative of House Republicans’ desire to exert greater control over U.S. colleges and universities.