The push for accountability legislation isn't going away. Rich Vedder outlines the most recent model legislation:

I was encouraged yesterday when the American Legislative Exchange Council brought two pieces of model legislation closer to adoption. They are proposing a Higher Education Sunshine Act and a Higher Education Accountability act. The first proposed law to be introduced into state legislatures would require universities to provide information as to the extent of intellectual diversity on campus and encourage universities to promote intellectual diversity in carrying out its mission. Colleges are more interested in skin color diversity than idea diversity, and the free flow of different ideas is critical to a vibrant university environment.

The accountability legislation would require universities to report in a consumer and legislator friendly manner all sorts of data on an easy to find web site --admission standards, data on costs, crime statistics, transfer policies, teaching loads, average time to degree, etc. -- the kinds of things parents and students want and need to know. Some states are already doing that, and legislators need to nudge others to do so.

But a look at the fine print of such legislation--I am thinking particularly of ACTA's--shows that it is designed expressly to protect academic freedom. And it's just bad faith for universities--which have willingly bloated themselves out of all proportion with their diversity bureaucracies--to whinge about the burdens of a little additional paperwork. Surely there are streamlined ways of architecting accountability reporting. Surely the intellectual diversity aspect of that reporting could grow naturally and economically out of campuses' existing diversity machinery. And surely it's worth it, for all involved.