By:  West                                              S.B. No. 585
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to assistance by certain public institutions of higher
    1-2  education relating to admissions, financial aid, and testing.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Subchapter Z, Chapter 51, Education Code, is
    1-5  amended by adding Section 51.935 to read as follows:
    1-6        Sec. 51.935.  ASSISTANCE RELATING TO UNDERGRADUATE
    1-7  ADMISSIONS, FINANCIAL AID, AND TESTING.  (a)  The governing board
    1-8  of each general academic teaching institution shall establish an
    1-9  office at the institution to assist applicants, potential
   1-10  applicants, high school guidance counselors, and other interested
   1-11  persons requesting assistance relating to:
   1-12              (1)  applying for admission to a bachelor's degree
   1-13  program at the institution;
   1-14              (2)  applying for financial aid offered by or through
   1-15  the institution or by an office or agency of this state or the
   1-16  United States for attendance as an undergraduate student at the
   1-17  institution;
   1-18              (3)  registering for an examination to be taken in
   1-19  connection with admission to a bachelor's degree program at the
   1-20  institution; or
   1-21              (4)  registering for an examination that may be taken
   1-22  to receive undergraduate course credit at the institution or to
   1-23  determine the skill or placement level of an applicant to or
   1-24  student enrolled in a bachelor's degree program at the institution.
    2-1        (b)  The office may be operated in connection with the
    2-2  admissions office or another existing office of the institution.
    2-3        (c)  This section does not require an institution to assist a
    2-4  person in preparing to take an examination.
    2-5        (d)  In this section, "general academic teaching institution"
    2-6  has the meaning assigned by Section 61.003.
    2-7        SECTION 2.  A general academic teaching institution shall
    2-8  establish the  office required by Section 51.935, as added by this
    2-9  Act, not later than January 1, 1996.
   2-10        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-11  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-12  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-13  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-14  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-15  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-16  passage, and it is so enacted.