By:  Alonzo                                            H.B. No. 982
       73R4764 SOS-F
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the uses of the student deposit fund of public
    1-3  institutions of higher education.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 54.5021, Education Code, is amended to
    1-6  read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 54.5021.  Student Deposit Fund; Composition and Uses.
    1-8  (a)  The student deposit fund consists of the income from the
    1-9  investment or time deposits of general property deposits and of
   1-10  forfeited general property deposits.  Any general property deposit
   1-11  which remains without call for refund for a period of four years
   1-12  from the date of last attendance of the student making the deposit
   1-13  shall be forfeited and become a part of the student deposit fund.
   1-14  Nothing in this section shall be construed to prohibit refund of
   1-15  any balance remaining in a general property deposit when made on
   1-16  proper demand and within the four-year limitation period.  The
   1-17  governing board of the institution may require that no student
   1-18  withdraw his deposit until he has been graduated or has apparently
   1-19  withdrawn from school.
   1-20        (b)  The student deposit fund shall be used, at the
   1-21  discretion of the governing board, for <any of the following
   1-22  purposes:>  making scholarship awards to needy and deserving
   1-23  students<, the support of a general student union program, or for
   1-24  the establishment of an institutional loan program for students.
    2-1  Loans made under this subsection shall bear a nominal interest
    2-2  rate, be secured by a promissory note from the student to the loan
    2-3  fund, require no collateral, and be of a duration not more than 12
    2-4  months.  A student obtaining a loan under this subsection may have
    2-5  no more than two such loans outstanding at any time>.  The
    2-6  governing board shall administer the scholarship awards for the
    2-7  institution, including the selection of recipients and the amounts
    2-8  and conditions of the awards.  The recipients of the scholarships
    2-9  must be residents of the state as defined for tuition purposes.
   2-10  <Any use of the funds for the support of student union programs
   2-11  shall be approved as to amount and purpose by the board.  The
   2-12  student deposit funds for The University of Texas at Austin, Texas
   2-13  A & M University, and Texas Tech University shall be available for
   2-14  scholarship purposes only.  Direct expenses for the administration
   2-15  of the funds shall be paid from the funds.>
   2-16        (c)  Not later than August 31 of each fiscal year, each
   2-17  institution of higher education that has an unobligated and
   2-18  unexpended balance in its student deposit fund that exceeds 150
   2-19  percent of the total deposits to that fund during that year shall
   2-20  remit to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board the amount
   2-21  of that excess.  The coordinating board shall allocate on an
   2-22  equitable basis amounts received under this subsection to
   2-23  institutions of higher education that do not have an excess
   2-24  described by this subsection for deposit in their student deposit
   2-25  fund.  The amount allocated under this subsection may be used only
   2-26  for making scholarship awards to needy and deserving students under
   2-27  this section.
    3-1        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993.
    3-2        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
    3-3  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    3-4  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    3-5  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    3-6  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.