H.R. 5486: Tyler Clementi Higher Education Anti-Harassment Act of 2025

H.R. 5486 would expand the campus safety disclosure rules in the Higher Education Act so colleges must address harassment more directly, not just crime. The bill is named for Tyler Clementi, whose death became a national symbol of the damage harassment and humiliation can cause, especially when technology is involved.

The text shown amends the federal section that already requires schools to publish annual campus security reports. It changes that section's title to include harassment, adds definitions for terms like "commercial mobile service," "electronic communication," and "electronic messaging services," and requires colleges to include a policy statement on harassment based on actual or perceived race, color, national origin, sex, disability, or religion. The sex category is defined broadly to include sexual orientation, gender identity, pregnancy, related medical conditions, sex stereotypes, and intersex traits.

Based on the structure of the amendment, the bill appears designed to make harassment policy part of the same public-facing information students and families already review about campus safety. That matters because many students do not know where the line is between offensive behavior and prohibited harassment, or what help is available if abuse happens in person or through phones and digital platforms.

This is both a civil rights bill and a transparency bill. It does not just tell schools to care more; it tells them to write it down, publish it, and define the problem in a way that reflects how harassment happens now — including electronically. The text provided is partial, so some enforcement details may appear later in the bill, but the core move is clear: tie anti-harassment expectations to federally funded colleges' reporting duties.