By Kamel, Telford, Yost, Ramsay, Sadler, et al.       H.B. No. 2187
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to coordination between The University of Texas at Tyler
    1-3  and other institutions of higher education.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 76.02, Education Code, is amended to read
    1-6  as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 76.02.  ROLE AND SCOPE.  (a)  Except as otherwise
    1-8  provided in this section, the <The> institution shall offer junior
    1-9  and senior undergraduate programs and graduate programs, both of
   1-10  which are subject to the authority of the Coordinating Board, Texas
   1-11  College and University System.
   1-12        (b)  If the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board
   1-13  approves an engineering degree program at the institution, the
   1-14  institution may offer lower division courses relating to that
   1-15  program if such courses are offered as part of a partnership
   1-16  agreement entered into under Subchapter N, Chapter 51 of this code.
   1-17        SECTION 2.  Section 76.05, Education Code, is amended to read
   1-18  as follows:
   1-19        Sec. 76.05.  GIFTS AND GRANTS.  (a)  The board may accept
   1-20  donations, gifts, and endowments for the institution. They are to
   1-21  be held in trust and administered by the board according to the
   1-22  purposes, directions, limitations, and provisions declared in
   1-23  writing in the donation, gift, or endowment.  The provisions of the
   1-24  donation, gift, or endowment shall be followed to the extent that
    2-1  they are not inconsistent with the laws of this state or with the
    2-2  objective and proper management of the institution.
    2-3        (b)  The board shall solicit and may accept donations, gifts,
    2-4  and endowments from private sources to provide equipment and other
    2-5  personal property for the engineering degree program, if one is
    2-6  established.  The board shall establish an account for the deposit
    2-7  of money accepted under this subsection.  Money in the account may
    2-8  be used only to provide and maintain equipment and other personal
    2-9  property used by the engineering degree program.
   2-10        SECTION 3.  Chapter 76, Education Code, is amended by adding
   2-11  Section 76.07 to read as follows:
   2-12        Sec. 76.07.  PARTNERSHIPS WITH JUNIOR COLLEGES AND OTHER
   2-13  INSTITUTIONS.  (a)  The institution shall seek to build and expand
   2-14  partnership agreements authorized by Subchapter N, Chapter 51 of
   2-15  this code.  With the approval of the Texas Higher Education
   2-16  Coordinating Board, the institution may enter into a partnership
   2-17  agreement with a private institution of higher education located in
   2-18  the same county as any campus of the institution, subject to the
   2-19  same provisions as provided by Subchapter N, Chapter 51, for a
   2-20  partnership agreement between the institution and a public junior
   2-21  college.
   2-22        (b)  In developing programs and courses subject to a
   2-23  partnership agreement, the institution and any other party to an
   2-24  agreement shall take into account the need in the service region to
   2-25  recruit minority and lower-income students into degree-granting
   2-26  programs of institutions of higher education.
   2-27        (c)  In deciding whether the institution may offer any lower
    3-1  division courses pursuant to Section 76.02 of this code, the
    3-2  institution and any other party to a partnership agreement shall
    3-3  take into account, in addition to any other relevant factors, the
    3-4  cost-effectiveness and other impact such courses will have on
    3-5  students likely to enroll in the courses as well as any impact such
    3-6  courses will have on the community as a whole.
    3-7        (d)  If the institution offers lower division courses, the
    3-8  Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board shall adopt a formula
    3-9  pursuant to its duties and powers under this code that applies the
   3-10  formula for four-year general academic teaching institutions to all
   3-11  lower division semester credit hours offered at the institution in
   3-12  addition to any other formula funding that the institution might be
   3-13  entitled to receive for upper division credit hours that it offers.
   3-14        (e)  A nonresident student who is simultaneously enrolled in
   3-15  the institution and another public institution of higher education
   3-16  under a program offered jointly by the two institutions under a
   3-17  partnership agreement and who pays the fees and charges required of
   3-18  Texas residents at one of the institutions as provided by Section
   3-19  54.064 because the student holds a competitive scholarship is
   3-20  entitled to pay the fees and charges required of Texas residents at
   3-21  each public institution of higher education in which the student is
   3-22  simultaneously enrolled under the program.
   3-23        (f)  The institution and other parties to a partnership
   3-24  agreement may contract with any person to provide shuttle bus
   3-25  service or other transportation service for or among the campuses
   3-26  of the institutions that are parties to the agreement and may
   3-27  charge and collect a fee from students registered in courses at the
    4-1  campuses of two or more of the institutions in the same semester or
    4-2  term in an amount determined by the institutions to pay for all or
    4-3  part of the costs of that service.
    4-4        SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
    4-5  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    4-6  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    4-7  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    4-8  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    4-9  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   4-10  passage, and it is so enacted.