Sec. 8. Students against violent extremism
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In this section: The term ISIS means the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The term participating student means a student participating in— a course under the program implemented under subsection (b); or another similar course at an institution of higher education. The term target audience means an individual or group selected for influence, whose selection is not made solely due to race, religion, or ethnic background. The Secretary of Homeland Security, acting through the Office for Partnerships Against Violent Extremism, may implement a program that facilitates groups of students at institutions of higher education throughout the world in designing, piloting, implementing, and measuring the success of a social or digital initiative, product, or tool that counters the messaging of international or domestic terrorist organizations communications and narratives as part of, or in addition to, existing countering violent extremism efforts.
The program implemented under paragraph
(1)shall— be administered by a professor, part time, full time, or adjunct, or other instructor at a participating institution of higher education who is selected by the institution of higher education; include the production of peer-appropriate social and digital media campaigns; be renewed on an annual basis at each participating institution of higher education; and require that each participating institution of higher education adhere to all policies of the program, as determined by the Office for Partnerships Against Violent Extremism, including— the provision of a faculty mentor for the program; and the reporting of program metrics to the Office for Partnerships Against Violent Extremism, as requested. The Office for Partnerships Against Violent Extremism shall coordinate with the Officer for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties of the Department of Homeland Security to ensure that participants in the program implemented under paragraph
(1)receive training in order to respect the privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties of all individuals in the program's target audiences and eschew notions of racial and ethnic profiling. Beginning in the first fiscal year beginning after the date of enactment of this Act and each fiscal year thereafter until the program described in subsection
(b)is implemented, the Office for Partnerships Against Violent Extremism shall submit to the appropriate congressional committees a report on the status of the implementation of the program. Beginning in the first fiscal year beginning after the date on which the program described in subsection
(b)is implemented and in each of the 4 fiscal years thereafter, the Office for Partnerships Against Violent Extremism shall submit to the appropriate congressional committees a report evaluating the program, which shall include— the number of students participating in the program; the number and names of institutions of higher education that are hosting the program in the United States and internationally; an evaluation, using empirical evidence, of the effectiveness of the program in empowering university students to develop digital content that counters violent extremist messaging; the metrics used to evaluate the effectiveness of the program in reducing violent extremism; recommendations for improving or expanding existing training opportunities and training participation; the criteria used by participating students to select target audiences; and the raw data reported by the institutions of higher education to the Office for Partnerships Against Violent Extremism under subsection (b)(2)(D)(ii). This section shall expire on the date that is 5 years after the date of enactment of this Act.