By Wilson                                              H.B. No. 144

      75R1940 CAG-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to required multicultural course credit at certain public

 1-3     institutions of higher education.

 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-5           SECTION 1.  Subchapter F, Chapter 51, Education Code, is

 1-6     amended by adding Section 51.309 to read as follows:

 1-7           Sec. 51.309.  MULTICULTURAL COURSES.  (a)  A general academic

 1-8     teaching institution may not grant a baccalaureate degree to a

 1-9     student unless the student has received credit for at least three

1-10     semester hours, or the equivalent, in multicultural courses at the

1-11     institution or, if allowed by the governing board of the

1-12     institution, at another accredited institution of higher education.

1-13           (b)  The governing board of a general academic teaching

1-14     institution may adopt rules to grant credit for multicultural

1-15     courses toward other degree requirements at the institution.

1-16           (c)  In this section:

1-17                 (1)  "General academic teaching institution" has the

1-18     meaning assigned by Section 61.003.

1-19                 (2)  "Multicultural course" means a course that focuses

1-20     either on two or more cultures or on a specific culture within

1-21     United States society.

1-22           SECTION 2.  Section 51.309, Education Code, as added by this

1-23     Act, applies only to a student who initially enrolls at a general

1-24     academic teaching  institution for the 1997-1998 academic year or

 2-1     thereafter.

 2-2           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

 2-3     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

 2-4     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

 2-5     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

 2-6     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

 2-7     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

 2-8     passage, and it is so enacted.