President Trump is expected to sign a memorandum on Thursday requiring colleges to submit admissions data to the federal government to verify compliance with a 2023 Supreme Court decision that ended race-conscious policies, according to a senior White House official.
The presidential action also requires Linda McMahon, the education secretary, to increase the number of accuracy checks on the data provided by the schools and to take action against universities that submit untimely or inaccurate information.
The memorandum will also require the Education Department to revamp its process for collecting higher education data, known as the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, which includes details about admissions, enrollment and financial aid. That information will be made more accessible to the public, according to a fact sheet.
Admissions data has increasingly become a focus of the Trump administration as part of its effort to change the ideological balance of the higher education system, which the president views as hostile to conservatives.
The government’s recent agreements with Brown and Columbia gave the Trump administration access to the standardized test scores and grade point averages of all applicants, as well as information about their race, a measure that could profoundly alter the competitive college admissions process.
Harvard’s compliance with the 2023 Supreme Court decision is also a major focus of the Trump administration’s negotiations to release billions of dollars in halted research funding for the university.
The release of such data has been on the wish list of conservatives who are searching for evidence that universities are dodging the Supreme Court decision, which barred the consideration of race in college admissions.
Michael C. Bender is a Times correspondent in Washington.
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