College Anti-Harassment Bill Mandates Tech-Specific Policies and Authorizes $50M Annually for Prevention Grants

The Tyler Clementi Higher Education Anti-Harassment Act of 2025 is tackling campus safety by forcing colleges to update their paperwork and, more importantly, put their money where their mouth is when it comes to harassment. This bill targets institutions that receive federal funding, requiring them to significantly beef up their annual reports and policies around harassment based on protected characteristics like race, sex, disability, and religion.

The Policy Upgrade: Tech Harassment Is Now On The Books

Think of this as a mandatory policy patch for every college handbook. Under Section 2, schools must now explicitly ban harassment that occurs not just physically on campus, but also through electronic communication. That means texts, emails, and any electronic messaging service tied to the school or used during a school activity are now officially covered. If you’re a student, this means your university must have a clear policy on cyberbullying and harassment using school resources—finally dragging these policies into the 21st century. For the colleges, this means a new administrative burden: they must designate a specific contact person or office responsible for tracking every single report of harassment made against students, faculty, or staff, and they must detail every time a “pattern of harassment” occurs and what they did about it.

Accountability and Support Services

This bill doesn’t just focus on the ban; it’s about making the process transparent. The new rules require schools to inform both the accuser and the accused about the outcome of any disciplinary proceedings. More crucially, the policy must clearly list where students can find support—counseling, mental health services, etc.—both on and off campus. This is a crucial step for students who are often left scrambling for resources after an incident. While the intent is clear, the requirement to track a “pattern of harassment” is a little vague. Colleges will need clear guidance on what constitutes a “pattern” to ensure consistent reporting, otherwise, this could lead to different standards at different schools.

$50 Million for Prevention, Not Just Reaction

Perhaps the biggest practical change is the creation of a new Anti-Harassment Competitive Grant program (Section 3). Congress authorized $50 million annually from 2026 through 2031 to fund this. Colleges can apply for these grants to pay for proactive measures: student training, faculty training on prevention, and providing counseling services for those who have been harassed or even those accused. This is federal money earmarked specifically to help schools get ahead of the problem, rather than just reacting to it. For taxpayers, this means a potential $50 million annual cost, but it’s dedicated to improving campus climate and safety. The Secretary of Education gets to decide who receives these grants, which means they have significant power to shape which prevention models get adopted nationally.

Your Existing Rights Are Safe

Section 4 is the fine print that actually matters: this new Act doesn’t replace any existing protections. If you have rights under Title IX (sex-based discrimination), the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), or the Civil Rights Act, you still have them. This bill simply adds new requirements and obligations on colleges, making them supplementary to existing civil rights law. Ultimately, this legislation aims to standardize how colleges handle a serious, often technology-driven problem, ensuring that every student has clear recourse and access to support, while also funding the prevention programs that can stop the harassment before it starts.