By:  Truan                                            S.B. No. 1287
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to Texas A&M University--Kingsville.
    1-2        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-3        SECTION 1.  Section 87.302, Education Code, is amended by
    1-4  amending Subsection (b) and adding Subsection (e) to read as
    1-5  follows:
    1-6        (b)  Except as provided by Subsection (e) of this section, a
    1-7  <A> new department, school, or degree program may not be instituted
    1-8  without the prior approval of the Texas Higher Education
    1-9  Coordinating Board.
   1-10        (e)  At a minimum, the board shall offer:
   1-11              (1)  baccalaureate programs in anthropology,
   1-12  gerontology, restaurant or food service management, international
   1-13  business, agribusiness, horticulture, fashion merchandising,
   1-14  fashion design, and criminal justice;
   1-15              (2)  master's programs in social work, communication
   1-16  disorders, fine arts, English as a second language, political
   1-17  science, history, mass communications, botany, and regional
   1-18  planning; and
   1-19              (3)  doctoral programs in engineering, wildlife,
   1-20  biology, environmental engineering, curriculum and instruction in
   1-21  education, and adult and vocational education.
   1-22        SECTION 2.  Section 61.055, Education Code, is amended to
   1-23  read as follows:
    2-1        Sec. 61.055.  Initiation of New Departments, Schools, and
    2-2  Programs.  Except as otherwise provided by law, a <No> new
    2-3  department, school, or degree or certificate program approved by
    2-4  the board or its predecessor, the Texas Commission on Higher
    2-5  Education, may not be initiated by any institution of higher
    2-6  education until the board has made a written finding that the
    2-7  department, school, or degree or certificate program is adequately
    2-8  financed by legislative appropriation, by funds allocated by the
    2-9  board, or by funds from other sources.
   2-10        SECTION 3.  Not later than the beginning of the fall semester
   2-11  in 1995, the board of regents of the Texas A&M University System
   2-12  shall begin offering the courses and degrees required by Section
   2-13  87.302(e), Education Code, as added by this Act.
   2-14        SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-15  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-16  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-17  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-18  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-19  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-20  passage, and it is so enacted.