By:  Hernandez                                        H.B. No. 2363
       73R6592 SOS-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to authorizing public junior colleges to charge an
    1-3  endowment fee and to establish an endowment fund.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Subchapter A, Chapter 130, Education Code, is
    1-6  amended by adding Section 130.007 to read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 130.007.  ENDOWMENT FEES AND ENDOWMENT FUND.  (a)  The
    1-8  board of trustees of a public junior college may establish an
    1-9  endowment fund outside the state treasury in a depository selected
   1-10  by the board of trustees.
   1-11        (b)  The board of trustees may collect from each student
   1-12  enrolled at the junior college an endowment fee to be used only for
   1-13  the operation and maintenance of the junior college.
   1-14        (c)  An endowment fee collected under this section shall be
   1-15  deposited in the endowment fund.
   1-16        (d)  The board of trustees may accept gifts and grants from
   1-17  any public or private source for the fund.
   1-18        (e)  The endowment fund consists of endowment fees, gifts,
   1-19  grants, and income from investing the fund.
   1-20        (f)  The board of trustees may invest the endowment fund in
   1-21  securities, bonds, and other investments that the board considers
   1-22  prudent.  In making investments under this section, the board shall
   1-23  exercise the judgment and care under the circumstances then
   1-24  prevailing that a person of ordinary prudence, discretion, and
    2-1  intelligence exercises in the management of the person's own
    2-2  affairs.
    2-3        (g)  The board may not spend any money deposited in the fund
    2-4  as endowment fees, gifts, or grants but may spend any income from
    2-5  investing the fund.
    2-6        SECTION 2.  Section 130.007, Education Code, as added by this
    2-7  Act, applies beginning with the fall semester 1993.
    2-8        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-9  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-10  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-11  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-12  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-13  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-14  passage, and it is so enacted.