By Goolsby, et al.                                     H.B. No. 858

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to providing for open enrollment for a portion of those

 1-3     persons admitted as undergraduates at certain public institutions

 1-4     of higher education.

 1-5           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-6           SECTION 1.  Chapter 51, Education Code, is amended by adding

 1-7     Subchapter S to read as follows:

 1-8                          SUBCHAPTER S.  ADMISSIONS

 1-9           Sec. 51.761.  DEFINITIONS.  The definitions provided by

1-10     Section 61.003 apply to this subchapter.

1-11           Sec. 51.762.  OPEN ENROLLMENT FOR UNDERGRADUATES.  (a) Each

1-12     general academic teaching institution, except upper-level

1-13     institutions, shall admit a portion of the undergraduate students

1-14     admitted to the institution in each academic year through open

1-15     enrollment as provided by this section.

1-16           (b)  The portion of the undergraduates admitted each academic

1-17     year that must be admitted to an institution through open

1-18     enrollment is determined as follows:

1-19                 (1)  for an institution with a total enrollment for the

1-20     preceding academic year of 30,000 or more, one percent of the

1-21     undergraduates admitted must be admitted through open enrollment;

1-22                 (2)  for an institution with a total enrollment for the

1-23     preceding academic year of 10,000 or more but less than 30,000, two

1-24     percent of the undergraduates admitted must be admitted through

 2-1     open enrollment; and

 2-2                 (3)  for an institution with a total enrollment for the

 2-3     preceding academic year of less than 10,000, two percent of the

 2-4     undergraduates admitted must be admitted through open enrollment.

 2-5           (c)  The institution shall admit through open enrollment each

 2-6     applicant who has earned a high school diploma or the equivalent

 2-7     and who is not admitted under another category or process.  If the

 2-8     number of applicants who have earned a high school diploma or the

 2-9     equivalent and who are not admitted under another category or

2-10     process exceeds the number of available spaces for admission, the

2-11     institution by lot shall select the appropriate number of

2-12     applicants to admit under this subsection.  The institution may

2-13     require a student admitted under this subsection to enter the

2-14     institution in a summer term.

2-15           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997, and

2-16     applies to admissions for academic years beginning with the

2-17     1998-1999 academic year.

2-18           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

2-19     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

2-20     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

2-21     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

2-22     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.