President Donald Trump will sign a memorandum to expand requirements for colleges to report their admissions data, according to a senior White House official.
The memo, which the president is expected to approve on Aug. 7, will direct Education Secretary Linda McMahon to revamp higher education data collection, broaden the scope of reporting requirements from the federal government and double down on punishments for schools that submit erroneous information.
The move will make the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, or IPEDS – the main national repository for information on colleges and universities – more easily accessible and digestible for students, according to the White House. The timeline for implementing those reforms is unclear. The
According to the White House, the action will ensure that colleges submit the data required to verify they aren’t engaging in race-based admissions in the wake of a 2023 Supreme Court ruling outlawing the practice.
Over the past six months, critics have suggested the Trump administration has exaggerated that decision as part of a broader campaign to end diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, programs on school campuses.
“There is an effort to rhetorically overstate the holding,” Jonathan Feingold, a legal scholar at Boston University, told USA TODAY in March, “so that institutions are overcomplying.”
Read more: At selective colleges, fewer students are disclosing race in their applications
The Trump administration says the effort will ultimately provide the public with a better understanding of the factors schools consider in the admissions process.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump to order colleges to hand over more admissions data
