By Leedom                                              S.B. No. 502
       74R3635 SMH-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to tuition rates for undergraduate programs at public
    1-3  institutions of higher education.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Sections 54.008(a) and (b), Education Code, are
    1-6  amended to read as follows:
    1-7        (a)  The tuition rates provided by Subchapter B of this
    1-8  chapter are minimum rates.  The governing board of each institution
    1-9  of higher education shall set tuition for undergraduate programs
   1-10  for that institution at a rate that is at least equal to that
   1-11  prescribed by Subchapter B of this chapter, but that is not more
   1-12  than 1-1/2 times the rate prescribed by Subchapter B of this
   1-13  chapter.  The governing board of each institution of higher
   1-14  education shall set tuition for graduate programs for that
   1-15  institution at a rate that is at least equal to that prescribed by
   1-16  Subchapter B of this chapter, but that is not more than twice the
   1-17  rate prescribed by Subchapter B of this chapter.  Between the
   1-18  maximum and minimum rates, the board may set the differential
   1-19  tuition among programs offered by an institution of higher
   1-20  education.
   1-21        (b)  The governing board of a university system is not
   1-22  required to set uniform tuition rates for <graduate> programs among
   1-23  the component institutions of the system.
   1-24        SECTION 2.  This Act applies beginning with tuition for the
    2-1  fall semester of 1995.
    2-2        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-3  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-4  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-5  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-6  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    2-7  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
    2-8  passage, and it is so enacted.