1-1  By:  Ellis                                             S.B. No. 786
    1-2        (In the Senate - Filed February 27, 1995; February 28, 1995,
    1-3  read first time and referred to Committee on Education;
    1-4  March 29, 1995, reported favorably by the following vote:  Yeas 9,
    1-5  Nays 0; March 29, 1995, sent to printer.)
    1-6                         A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-7                                AN ACT
    1-8  relating to the student fee for the university center at the
    1-9  University of Houston.
   1-10        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
   1-11        SECTION 1.  Section 54.526, Education Code, is amended to
   1-12  read as follows:
   1-13        Sec. 54.526.  STUDENT FEES FOR UNIVERSITY CENTERS; THE
   1-14  UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON <Houston-University Park>.  (a)  The board of
   1-15  regents of the University of Houston System may levy a student
   1-16  union fee, not to exceed $35 <$15> per student for each regular
   1-17  semester and not to exceed $17.50 <$7.50> per student for each term
   1-18  of the summer session.  The<, for the> sole purpose of the fee is
   1-19  financing, constructing, operating, maintaining, and improving a
   1-20  Student Union Building for the University of Houston. The fees
   1-21  herein authorized to be levied are in addition to any use or
   1-22  service fee now or hereafter authorized to be levied.
   1-23        (b)  Such fees shall be deposited to an account known as "The
   1-24  University of Houston Center Fee Account" and shall be placed under
   1-25  the control of and subject to the order of the student fees
   1-26  advisory committee established under Section 54.5062 <Student
   1-27  Service Fee Planning and Allocations Committee>.  The committee
   1-28  shall annually submit to the president of the University of Houston
   1-29  <board of regents> a complete and itemized budget to be accompanied
   1-30  by a full and complete report of all activities conducted during
   1-31  the past year and all expenditures made incident thereto.  The
   1-32  board of regents shall make such changes in the budget as it deems
   1-33  necessary before approving the budget <but may only levy a student
   1-34  union fee or increase an existing student union fee after a student
   1-35  referendum has been called on the levying or increase in such a
   1-36  fee, and the majority of the students voting in the referendum
   1-37  approve>.  The board shall then levy the fees, within the limits
   1-38  herein fixed, in such amounts as will  be sufficient to meet the
   1-39  budgetary needs of the University Center Building.  An increase in
   1-40  the fee of more than 10 percent from one academic year to the next
   1-41  must be approved by a majority vote of the students voting in an
   1-42  election called for that purpose or by a majority vote of the
   1-43  student government.  Expenditures from "The University of Houston
   1-44  Center Fee Account" shall be made solely for the purposes set forth
   1-45  in this section, and in compliance with the budget approved by the
   1-46  board of regents.
   1-47        SECTION 2.  This Act applies beginning with fees due for the
   1-48  fall semester of 1995.
   1-49        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-50  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-51  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-52  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-53  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   1-54  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   1-55  passage, and it is so enacted.
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