By West                                                S.B. No. 585
       74R1291 JSA-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to assistance by certain public institutions of higher
    1-3  education relating to admissions, financial aid, and testing.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Subchapter Z, Chapter 51, Education Code, is
    1-6  amended by adding Section 51.935 to read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 51.935.  ASSISTANCE RELATING TO UNDERGRADUATE
    1-8  ADMISSIONS, FINANCIAL AID, AND TESTING.  (a)  The governing board
    1-9  of each general academic teaching institution shall establish an
   1-10  office at the institution to assist applicants, potential
   1-11  applicants, high school guidance counselors, and other interested
   1-12  persons requesting assistance relating to:
   1-13              (1)  applying for admission to a bachelor's degree
   1-14  program at the institution;
   1-15              (2)  applying for financial aid offered by or through
   1-16  the institution or by an office or agency of this state or the
   1-17  United States for attendance as an undergraduate student at the
   1-18  institution;
   1-19              (3)  registering for an examination to be taken in
   1-20  connection with admission to a bachelor's degree program at the
   1-21  institution; or
   1-22              (4)  registering for an examination that may be taken
   1-23  to receive undergraduate course credit at the institution or to
   1-24  determine the skill or placement level of an applicant to or
    2-1  student enrolled in a bachelor's degree program at the institution.
    2-2        (b)  The office may be operated in connection with the
    2-3  admissions office or another existing office of the institution.
    2-4        (c)  This section does not require an institution to assist a
    2-5  person in preparing to take an examination.
    2-6        (d)  In this section, "general academic teaching institution"
    2-7  has the meaning assigned by Section 61.003.
    2-8        SECTION 2.  A general academic teaching institution shall
    2-9  establish the  office required by Section 51.935, as added by this
   2-10  Act, not later than January 1, 1996.
   2-11        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-12  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-13  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-14  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-15  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-16  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-17  passage, and it is so enacted.