II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 880
To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to prohibit institutions of
higher education participating in Federal student assistance programs
from giving preferential treatment in the admissions process to legacy
students or donors.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MARCH6, 2025
Mr. M
ERKLEY(for himself, Mr. KENNEDY, and Mr. PADILLA) 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 prohibit
institutions of higher education participating in Federal
student assistance programs from giving preferential
treatment in the admissions process to legacy students
or donors.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Fair College Admis-4
sions for Students Act’’. 5
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•S 880 IS
SEC. 2. BAN ON LEGACY OR DONOR PREFERENCES IN AD-1
MISSIONS. 2
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 487(a) of the Higher 3
Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1094(a)) is amended 4
by adding at the end the following: 5
‘‘(30) The institution will not provide any man-6
ner of preferential treatment in the admission proc-7
ess to applicants on the basis of their relationships 8
to— 9
‘‘(A) donors to the institution; or 10
‘‘(B) alumni of the institution.’’. 11
(b) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—The amendment made by 12
subsection (a) shall take effect on the first day of the sec-13
ond award year (as defined in section 481(a) of the Higher 14
Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1088(a))) that begins 15
after the date of enactment of this Act. 16
Æ
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