By:  Maxey                                             H.B. No. 628
       73R3320 SOS-F
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to student services fees at public institutions of higher
    1-3  education.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 54.503(b), Education Code, is amended to
    1-6  read as follows:
    1-7        (b)  The governing board of an institution of higher
    1-8  education may charge and collect from students registered at the
    1-9  institution fees to cover the cost of student services.  The fee or
   1-10  fees may be either voluntary or compulsory as determined by the
   1-11  governing board.  The total of all compulsory student services fees
   1-12  collected from a student at an institution of higher education
   1-13  <other than The University of Texas at Austin or a component
   1-14  institution of the University of Houston System> for any one
   1-15  semester or summer session shall not exceed $150.  All compulsory
   1-16  student services fees charged and collected under this section by
   1-17  the governing board of an institution of higher education, other
   1-18  than a public junior college, shall be assessed in proportion to
   1-19  the number of semester credit hours for which a student registers.
   1-20  No portion of the compulsory fees collected may be expended for
   1-21  parking facilities or services, except as related to providing
   1-22  shuttle bus services.
   1-23        SECTION 2.  Sections 54.5031(a), (b), and (g), Education
   1-24  Code, are amended to read as follows:
    2-1        (a)  A student fee advisory committee is established at each
    2-2  institution of higher education <except The University of Texas at
    2-3  Austin> to advise the governing board and administration of the
    2-4  institution on the type, amount, and expenditure of compulsory fees
    2-5  for student services under Section 54.503 of this code.
    2-6        (b)  Each committee is composed of the following <nine>
    2-7  members:
    2-8              (1)  at least five student members who are enrolled for
    2-9  not less than six semester credit hours at the institution and who
   2-10  are representative of all students enrolled at the institution,
   2-11  both graduate and undergraduate, selected under Subsection (c) of
   2-12  this section; and
   2-13              (2)  at least four members who are representative of
   2-14  the entire institution, appointed by the president of the
   2-15  institution, one of whom must be a faculty member of the
   2-16  institution and one of whom must be a nonfaculty employee of the
   2-17  institution.
   2-18        (g)  Before recommending the student fee budget to the
   2-19  governing board of the institution, the president of the
   2-20  institution shall consider the report and recommendations of the
   2-21  committee.  Not later than the 15th day after the date the report
   2-22  is submitted under Subsection (f) of this section, the president
   2-23  shall return the report to the committee with any suggested
   2-24  changes.  The committee shall adopt a final report and submit the
   2-25  report to the president.  The president shall forward the final
   2-26  report and recommendations of the committee to the governing board
   2-27  of the institution for adoption.  The board shall adopt the
    3-1  committee's recommended fee amount and allocation unless the amount
    3-2  or allocation violates a law.  If the board rejects the fee amount
    3-3  or allocation submitted by the committee, the board shall send to
    3-4  the committee a written explanation of the board's decision not
    3-5  later than the 30th day after the date of that decision, and the
    3-6  committee shall submit to the president a new report and
    3-7  recommendations under Subsection (f) of this section.  The board
    3-8  may adopt only a fee amount or allocation that is submitted by the
    3-9  committee <If the president's recommendations to the governing
   3-10  board are substantially different from the committee's
   3-11  recommendations to the president, the administration of the
   3-12  institution shall notify the committee not later than the last date
   3-13  on which the committee may request an appearance at the board
   3-14  meeting.  On request of a member of the committee, the
   3-15  administration of the institution shall provide the member with a
   3-16  written report of the president's recommendations to the board>.
   3-17        SECTION 3.  Sections 54.503(h), 54.5061, 54.5062, 54.513, and
   3-18  54.514, Education Code, are repealed.
   3-19        SECTION 4.  This Act applies beginning with the fall semester
   3-20  in 1993.
   3-21        SECTION 5.  The importance of this legislation and the
   3-22  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   3-23  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   3-24  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   3-25  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   3-26  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   3-27  passage, and it is so enacted.