S.B. No. 786
AN ACT
1-1 relating to the student fee for the university center at the
1-2 University of Houston.
1-3 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-4 SECTION 1. Section 54.526, Education Code, is amended to
1-5 read as follows:
1-6 Sec. 54.526. STUDENT FEES FOR UNIVERSITY CENTERS; THE
1-7 UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON <Houston-University Park>. (a) The board of
1-8 regents of the University of Houston System may levy a student
1-9 union fee, not to exceed $35 <$15> per student for each regular
1-10 semester and not to exceed $17.50 <$7.50> per student for each term
1-11 of the summer session. The<, for the> sole purpose of the fee is
1-12 financing, constructing, operating, maintaining, and improving a
1-13 Student Union Building for the University of Houston. The fees
1-14 herein authorized to be levied are in addition to any use or
1-15 service fee now or hereafter authorized to be levied.
1-16 (b) Such fees shall be deposited to an account known as "The
1-17 University of Houston Center Fee Account" and shall be placed under
1-18 the control of and subject to the order of the student fees
1-19 advisory committee established under Section 54.5062 <Student
1-20 Service Fee Planning and Allocations Committee>. The committee
1-21 shall annually submit to the president of the University of Houston
1-22 <board of regents> a complete and itemized budget to be accompanied
1-23 by a full and complete report of all activities conducted during
1-24 the past year and all expenditures made incident thereto. The
2-1 board of regents shall make such changes in the budget as it deems
2-2 necessary before approving the budget <but may only levy a student
2-3 union fee or increase an existing student union fee after a student
2-4 referendum has been called on the levying or increase in such a
2-5 fee, and the majority of the students voting in the referendum
2-6 approve>. The board shall then levy the fees, within the limits
2-7 herein fixed, in such amounts as will be sufficient to meet the
2-8 budgetary needs of the University Center Building. An increase in
2-9 the fee from one academic year to the next must be approved by a
2-10 majority vote of the students voting in an election called for that
2-11 purpose or by a majority vote of the student government.
2-12 Expenditures from "The University of Houston Center Fee Account"
2-13 shall be made solely for the purposes set forth in this section,
2-14 and in compliance with the budget approved by the board of regents.
2-15 SECTION 2. This Act applies beginning with fees due for the
2-16 fall semester of 1995.
2-17 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
2-18 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-19 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-20 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-21 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-22 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-23 passage, and it is so enacted.