Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) this week introduced the Tyler Clementi Higher Education Anti-Harassment Act of 2010, a proposed federal law that would require American colleges and universities to enact rules against the harassment of their students by students, faculty, or staff. The bill is named for a gay Rutgers student who killed himself this September following a campaign of online harassment by his dorm roommate.

The Clementi bill would mandate that all higher education institutions receiving federal funds create policies for the reporting, adjudication, and punishments of acts of harassment, as well as anti-harassment programs on campus. It specifically targets harassment “based on a student’s actual or perceived race, color, national origin, sex, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, or religion” and gives specific attention to internet-based harassment.

In addition, the bill would authorize the Secretary of Education to award grants to institutions in support of anti-harassment campaigns on campus.

The text of the bill can be found here, on Senator Lautenberg’s website.