Sponsors (3)
Introduced March 11, 2025 by Erin Houchin · Last progress March 11, 2025
The bill expands and enforces students' rights to form and fund campus organizations by imposing clear, viewpoint‑neutral rules and remedies at public institutions, but it does so by tying compliance to federal student aid and creating administrative and legal costs that could threaten funding and strain campuses.
Students at covered public colleges gain a clearer right to form and maintain student organizations without being denied recognition solely for lacking a faculty/staff advisor or national affiliation.
Students and campuses get clearer, published, viewpoint‑neutral rules for allocating mandatory student activity fees, improving transparency and predictable access to campus funds for recognized organizations.
Denied student organizations obtain stronger procedural and enforcement remedies—independent institutional appeals plus a private right of action that can lead to injunctions, damages, and attorney fees—making violations actionable and more likely to be corrected.
Students, campuses, and taxpayers face a heightened risk that institutions could lose federal HEA/Title IV funds or that students could temporarily lose access to Title IV aid if institutions fail to comply, which could reduce financial aid availability and disrupt services.
Schools and taxpayers may face increased litigation costs and liability exposure from the new private right of action, raising legal fees and potential payouts funded by institutions or public budgets.
Public institutions will incur operational and compliance burdens—revising policies, creating appeals bodies, and publishing neutral standards—that increase administrative workload and costs and could divert resources from other priorities.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Requires public colleges receiving federal student aid to adopt neutral recognition rules for student groups, objective standards for mandatory fee allocations, and independent appeals; ties compliance to Title IV participation.
Requires public colleges and universities that receive federal student aid to adopt and publish rules protecting student organizations: schools may not deny recognition just because a group lacks a faculty/staff advisor or is affiliated with a national group, and must give denied groups an independent appeals option. It also forces institutions that collect mandatory student activity fees to use clear, objective, viewpoint-neutral standards for how that money is pooled and allocated, provide written reasons when money is denied, and offer an appeals process for allocation decisions. Makes these policy rules an explicit, enforceable condition of participation in federal Title IV student aid programs for covered public institutions. The bill does not provide new funding and instead imposes policy and procedural requirements on covered public institutions that receive federal higher education funds.