More specifically, what jurisdiction, if any, does the Department of Education have over private institutions such as universities?
I’m going to be debating censorship on college campuses this weekend. . .at Bob Jones, oddly enough. My guess is that the department of education has little say in what colleges censor, but I’d rather not base a debate on a guess. Thanks in advance.
Well first here is the link to the Dept of Ed.
From what a quick glance (you can do your own research 
) the DOE doesn’t hold much sway over universities. They seem to more concered with getting you into college (loans, etc.) and public schools that are actually managed by local governments. Univ’s answer more directly to private (non governmental) national or regional accrediting agencies that determine whether or not a school has programs, faculty, and facilities that are “up to snuff” (see Accredidation in the DOE Index). And there are seperate accrediting agencies for professional program like med and law schools.
My guess is that that is where you will find any kind of social engineering. I can tell you from experiance though that they do influence school policy. When I was in school and was on the university student government my school created a new “multicultural” requirement that went into effect immediatley; that meant that even if you were a senior you had to fulfill the requirement or you didn’t graduate. Alot of students were plenty pissed. The reason they did it was that their accredidation agency said they had to do it. Period.
My WAG is that this gives uni’s the academic freedom they have have always held so precious. But I’ll leave it there. Don’t wanna get thrown to the GD dogs!
If you want the ‘letter of the law’ I highly suggest the Cornell Law site at http://www.law.cornell.edu. It’s really easy to use and just boggles my mind.
That and the Library of Congress ( http://www.loc.gov ) THOMAS site are just chock full of good stuff.
Good luck!!!