By Ellis                                               S.B. No. 786
       74R6615 SMH-F
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the student fee for the university center at the
    1-3  University of Houston.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 54.526, Education Code, is amended to
    1-6  read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 54.526.  STUDENT FEES FOR UNIVERSITY CENTERS; THE
    1-8  UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON <Houston-University Park>.  (a)  The board of
    1-9  regents of the University of Houston System may levy a student
   1-10  union fee, not to exceed $35 <$15> per student for each regular
   1-11  semester and not to exceed $17.50 <$7.50> per student for each term
   1-12  of the summer session.  The <, for the> sole purpose of the fee is
   1-13  financing, constructing, operating, maintaining, and improving a
   1-14  Student Union Building for the University of Houston. The fees
   1-15  herein authorized to be levied are in addition to any use or
   1-16  service fee now or hereafter authorized to be levied.
   1-17        (b)  Such fees shall be deposited to an account known as "The
   1-18  University of Houston Center Fee Account" and shall be placed under
   1-19  the control of and subject to the order of the student fees
   1-20  advisory committee established under Section 54.5062 <Student
   1-21  Service Fee Planning and Allocations Committee>.  The committee
   1-22  shall annually submit to the president of the University of Houston
   1-23  <board of regents> a complete and itemized budget to be accompanied
   1-24  by a full and complete report of all activities conducted during
    2-1  the past year and all expenditures made incident thereto.  The
    2-2  board of regents shall make such changes in the budget as it deems
    2-3  necessary before approving the budget <but may only levy a student
    2-4  union fee or increase an existing student union fee after a student
    2-5  referendum has been called on the levying or increase in such a
    2-6  fee, and the majority of the students voting in the referendum
    2-7  approve>.  The board shall then levy the fees, within the limits
    2-8  herein fixed, in such amounts as will  be sufficient to meet the
    2-9  budgetary needs of the University Center Building.  An increase in
   2-10  the fee of more than 10 percent from one academic year to the next
   2-11  must be approved by a majority vote of the students voting in an
   2-12  election called for that purpose or by a majority vote of the
   2-13  student government.  Expenditures from "The University of Houston
   2-14  Center Fee Account" shall be made solely for the purposes set forth
   2-15  in this section, and in compliance with the budget approved by the
   2-16  board of regents.
   2-17        SECTION 2.  This Act applies beginning with fees due for the
   2-18  fall semester of 1995.
   2-19        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-20  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-21  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-22  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-23  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-24  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-25  passage, and it is so enacted.