shall undertake a thorough internal review of the institution's policies, practices, and resources to identify areas that might produce gaps in outcomes by gender, race, ethnicity, national origin, income, criminal justice background, military service history, or for first-generation students, students with disabilities, student parents, and transfer students. The equity audit shall examine, with respect to the institution of higher education, the following: (1) Admissions policies, including the demographics of the State or region where the institution is located, the demographics of communities where the institution recruits, the makeup of students admitted through early admissions, early decision, demonstrated interest, athletic preference admissions, and legacy admissions, and the treatment and admission of transfer students and credit transfer policies. (2) Outreach, communication, and other interactions with students who accept admission to the institution to ensure they officially enroll when the school term begins. (3) The financial aid awarding policies and processes, including presentation of offer letters to students, handling student accounts if funds are delayed due to verification, and institutional grant aid policies, including the distribution of need-based and non-need-based grants, which students receive institutional support and which students lose institutional support and when that occurs. (4) Access to, and participation in, pre-college and first-year experience offerings, such as orientation and bridge programs. (5) Educational supports, such as remedial placement and success, academic resource center usage, advisor to student ratios, and how students are differentially affected by satisfactory academic progress policies. (6) Student support services, including demographics of staff and students served by academic or career advising, child care centers, mentoring programs, and mental health and counseling services. (7) Access to, and participation in, small academic programs, STEM