The U.S. Department of Education on Aug. 19 proposed a rule that would require college accreditors to scrutinize faculty intellectual diversity, grading practices, graduate earnings and colleges’ enforcement of free speech. The rule could threaten the accreditation of colleges who have diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs, employ a faculty the government deems overly liberal or do not meet the Department’s earning goals.
“We propose to require a recognized accrediting agency to establish a policy that is designed to support, promote, and appropriately prioritize intellectual diversity and the free exchange of ideas amongst faculty,” according to the Federal Register notice announcing the proposal. The policy mandates measuring the range of students’ and faculty’s viewpoints on any particular campus.
The rule implements Executive Order 14279, “Reforming Accreditation to Strengthen Higher Education,” signed April 23, 2025, by President Donald Trump.
The stakes for the rule are financial, as colleges must be accredited by a Department of Education-recognized agency to be eligible for federal student aid, including Pell Grants and federal loans. Vassar College is currently accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE), and the College is preparing for its 2027 to 2028 reaccreditation cycle. That timeline could overlap with the new rule’s first year in effect.
The Vassar administration is not currently planning any changes in response to the proposed rule. “This proposal is still in the rule making stage, so it would be premature to speculate or make changes in response to it,” Associate Vice President of Institutional Research and Strategic Decision Support Biniam Tesfamariam wrote to The Miscellany News. He continued, “There could be substantial change to the proposal before the rules are finalized.”
However, Tesfamariam added, “If the proposed rule is finalized, we will review its requirements and MSCHE’s resulting standards, then make any changes required of Vassar.”
The public comment period for the proposed rule closed Sept. 21. The Department received more than 4,000 comments but as of publication had posted only around 2,800 publicly. If the Department reviews and responds to the concerns in the comments by Nov. 1, the rule could take effect as early as July 1, 2027.
Under the proposed policy, accreditors would have to confirm that colleges comply with federal and state law, including Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. “We propose a prohibition of preferential treatment based on protected characteristics, such as race-based scholarships or programs, and preferential hiring or promotion practices,” the proposal reads.
The proposal continues, “Some accrediting agencies have neglected their positions of public trust, improperly shifting their focus away from student achievement to compelling institutions to adopt illegal and discriminatory ideology and practices.”
Tesfamariam and Professor of Religion Christopher White co-chair Vassar’s reaccreditation effort. A team split into seven subgroups is preparing a self-study for MSCHE. “Our General Counsel [Shay Humphrey], Prof White, and I track accreditation rule changes and we work in coordination with organizational affiliates, like ACE [American Council on Education], to make comments,” Tesfarmariam wrote.
Vassar did not publish a public comment during the comment period. However, the American Council on Education, of which Vassar is a member, did file a public comment on the proposal opposing large parts of the rule. Administrators did not respond to questions about Vassar’s grade distribution or how the College might measure faculty intellectual diversity.
“All programs that Vassar currently operates comply with the law, and we do not discriminate based on protected classes,” Tesfamariam wrote.
The College’s mission statement reads, in part, “Founded in 1861 to provide women an education equal to that once available only to men, Vassar is now open to all and strives to pursue diversity, inclusion, and equity as essential components of a rich intellectual and cultural environment in which all members, including those from underrepresented and marginalized groups, are valued and empowered to thrive.”
“As for the emphasis on economic returns, though it is an important factor, focusing exclusively on economic returns can misconstrue what higher education contributes to students’ lives,” Tesfamariam stated. “We work to educate parents, families, and the public about the many contributions of a liberal arts degree to one’s life and to society at large.”
According to the Department of Education, median earnings for Vassar graduates are currently $61,818, roughly 1.5 times the average amount students pay for tuition.
Many worry the new rule will shift the role of accreditors into territory they were never meant to enter. “They’re not First Amendment police. Their job is to just determine whether or not a school has all its major curricular goals and everything,” Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science Maxwell Fuerderer, who specializes in constitutional law, told the Miscellany. “But as far as free speech, that’s a whole new realm. Leave that to the lawyers.”
Vassar’s own accreditor, MSCHE, echoed these concerns in a public statement, writing,“While we recognize the Department’s statements during negotiated rulemaking indicating that it has no intentions to make accreditors the enforcement mechanism for these legal concepts, the actual language of the proposed regulations seemingly do just that.”
Fuerderer pointed to the Supreme Court’s 2024 decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, which ended judicial deference to federal agencies’ readings of the law, as a way the Department’s rule might be taken to court. He further cited the Court’s 2023 Biden v. Nebraska decision, which struck down student loan forgiveness. The decision applied the major questions doctrine, requiring agency actions of vast economic significance to potentially require explicit approval from Congress.“This is billions of dollars here,” Fuerderer said. “This is a major economic question, and I don’t think anyone can deny that.”
Religious institutions, defined as those with a religiously oriented mission, would be exempt from the rule. “It’s arguably violating the 14th Amendment,” said Fuerderer of the exemption. “There will be no distinction according to diversity, equity, and inclusion, but they’re permitting it based on faith.”
Public comments have been overwhelmingly negative, but not entirely. Many conservative groups support the rule change. “For too long, accreditation has served the interests of a longstanding clique of agencies that have leveraged their Title IV gatekeeping authority to push woke criteria at the expense of academic quality,” wrote the conservative Defense of Freedom Institute’s president and co-founder Bob Eitel in a public statement of support for the new rule.
The rule’s emphasis on viewpoint neutrality raises questions for Vassar’s Engaged Pluralism program, which encourages discourse across identities and political boundaries. The program is described on the College’s website: “A set of practices that invite people into dialogue across differences using four tools to organize, create, and build cultures of mutual respect, peace, and accountability.”
“The main focus is that college campuses are more diverse than ever, and we want to celebrate that diversity,” Nathaniel Dozier ’27, an Engaged Pluralism intern, told The Miscellany News. Dozier acknowledged how the program could draw scrutiny should federal oversight expand. “[Engaged Pluralism] is very direct about diversity,” he stated.