MMA H.B. 2933 75(R)BILL ANALYSIS HIGHER EDUCATION H.B. 2933 By: Coleman 4-11-97 Committee Report (Unamended) BACKGROUND The Urban Academic Village Program will attract 4,000 to 5,000 additional students to the campus residential environment at Texas Southern University which creates a demand for structured social and recreational activities to accommodate these students. The University's establishment of on-campus residency requirement for freshmen and sophomore students, beginning Fall 1998, will provide the impetus for the return to campus living. A recreational facility and its programs will create an academic and cultural "oasis" in the heart of Houston's inner city: a place where students live, study, work and play in a highly charged educational environment. PURPOSE H.B. 2933 would allow the board of regents of Texas Southern University to charge a fee for the construction, operation, maintenance, equipment and improvements of a recreational facility as part of the Urban Academic Village Program. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency or institution. SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS SECTION 1. Amends Subchapter E, Chapter 54, Education Code by adding Section 54.5221 to read as follows: Section 54.5221. RECREATIONAL FACILITY FEE; TEXAS SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY. (a) Authorizes the board of regents of Texas Southern University (board) to charge enrolled students a fee, not to exceed $50 for each regular or summer semester, for the sole purpose of constructing, operating, maintaining, improving and equipping a recreational facility. States that a fee collected under this section is in addition to any other use or service fee authorized to be levied. (b) Mandates that the fees collected under this section be deposited in an account known as the "Texas Southern University recreational facility fee account" and be under the control of the student fee advisory committee (committee). (c) Requires the committee to annually submit to the board a complete itemized budget for the recreational facility with a complete report of all activities conducted and expenditures made during the past year. Authorizes the board to make changes to the budget as it sees fit. Authorizes the board to levy the recreational facility fee for that year in amounts sufficient to meet budgetary needs after approving the budget and in accordance with this section. Authorizes the board to contract for the purpose of constructing a facility if the approved budget contains construction expenditures. (d) Prohibits the board from increasing the amount of the fee by more than 10 percent in any academic year unless the amount of the increase is approved by a majority of the students or of the student government. (e) Prohibits a fee levied under this section from being considered in determining the maximum student services fee that may be charged under Section 54.503(b). SECTION 2. Effective with a fee imposed for a semester or summer session that begins on or after the effective date of this Act. SECTION 3. Emergency clause.