1-1  By:  West                                              S.B. No. 585
    1-2        (In the Senate - Filed February 16, 1995; February 16, 1995,
    1-3  read first time and referred to Committee on Education;
    1-4  May 3, 1995, reported favorably by the following vote:  Yeas 7,
    1-5  Nays 0; May 3, 1995, sent to printer.)
    1-6                         A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-7                                AN ACT
    1-8  relating to assistance by certain public institutions of higher
    1-9  education relating to admissions, financial aid, and testing.
   1-10        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
   1-11        SECTION 1.  Subchapter Z, Chapter 51, Education Code, is
   1-12  amended by adding Section 51.935 to read as follows:
   1-13        Sec. 51.935.  ASSISTANCE RELATING TO UNDERGRADUATE
   1-14  ADMISSIONS, FINANCIAL AID, AND TESTING.  (a)  The governing board
   1-15  of each general academic teaching institution shall establish an
   1-16  office at the institution to assist applicants, potential
   1-17  applicants, high school guidance counselors, and other interested
   1-18  persons requesting assistance relating to:
   1-19              (1)  applying for admission to a bachelor's degree
   1-20  program at the institution;
   1-21              (2)  applying for financial aid offered by or through
   1-22  the institution or by an office or agency of this state or the
   1-23  United States for attendance as an undergraduate student at the
   1-24  institution;
   1-25              (3)  registering for an examination to be taken in
   1-26  connection with admission to a bachelor's degree program at the
   1-27  institution; or
   1-28              (4)  registering for an examination that may be taken
   1-29  to receive undergraduate course credit at the institution or to
   1-30  determine the skill or placement level of an applicant to or
   1-31  student enrolled in a bachelor's degree program at the institution.
   1-32        (b)  The office may be operated in connection with the
   1-33  admissions office or another existing office of the institution.
   1-34        (c)  This section does not require an institution to assist a
   1-35  person in preparing to take an examination.
   1-36        (d)  In this section, "general academic teaching institution"
   1-37  has the meaning assigned by Section 61.003.
   1-38        SECTION 2.  A general academic teaching institution shall
   1-39  establish the  office required by Section 51.935, as added by this
   1-40  Act, not later than January 1, 1996.
   1-41        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-42  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-43  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-44  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-45  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   1-46  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   1-47  passage, and it is so enacted.
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