1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to the name of a public junior or community college.
1-3 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-4 SECTION 1. Subchapter A, Chapter 130, Education Code, is
1-5 amended by adding Section 130.0051 to read as follows:
1-6 Sec. 130.0051. OTHER CHANGE OF NAME BY JUNIOR COLLEGE
1-7 DISTRICT. (a) The board of trustees of a junior college district
1-8 by resolution may change the name of the district or a college
1-9 within the district by eliminating the words "community" or
1-10 "junior" from the name of the district or college, unless the
1-11 change would cause the district or college to have the same or
1-12 substantially the same name as an existing district, college, or
1-13 other public or private institution of higher education in this
1-14 state.
1-15 (b) The board of trustees shall file with the Texas Higher
1-16 Education Coordinating Board a copy of a resolution adopted under
1-17 Subsection (a) that is certified by the secretary of the board of
1-18 trustees. The name change is effective on the date the resolution
1-19 is filed with the coordinating board. After a name change is filed,
1-20 the college or district shall use the new name in all official
1-21 actions, communications, or records.
1-22 SECTION 2. Section 130.082(c), Education Code, is amended to
1-23 read as follows:
1-24 (c) The official name of a junior college district shall be
2-1 the "__________ Junior College District" unless the board of
2-2 trustees of the district elects to call the district a community
2-3 college district, in which event the official name of the junior
2-4 college district shall be the "________ Community College
2-5 District." The [and the] board shall designate an appropriate and
2-6 locally pertinent descriptive word or words to be filled in the
2-7 appropriate [aforesaid] blank (and may change such designation when
2-8 deemed advisable) by resolution or order; provided that no two
2-9 districts shall have the same or substantially similar names. A
2-10 district may change its name under Section 130.005 or 130.0051. All
2-11 resolutions or orders designating or changing names shall be filed
2-12 immediately with the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board[,
2-13 Texas College and University System,] and the first name filed
2-14 shall have priority, and the district shall be advised of any
2-15 previous filing of any identical or substantially similar name.
2-16 The name of any junior college district existing on September 1,
2-17 1997, [the effective date of this code] shall remain the same until
2-18 and unless it is changed under this chapter [pursuant hereto], and
2-19 any change in the name of a junior college district made before
2-20 that date is validated and is deemed to have been properly made.
2-21 Another [no other] district may not [shall] use the name of any
2-22 [such existing] district whose name change is validated under this
2-23 subsection.
2-24 SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.
2-25 SECTION 4. The importance of this legislation and the
2-26 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-27 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
3-1 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-2 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
_______________________________ _______________________________
President of the Senate Speaker of the House
I certify that H.B. No. 1460 was passed by the House on April
11, 1997, by a non-record vote.
_______________________________
Chief Clerk of the House
I certify that H.B. No. 1460 was passed by the Senate on May
19, 1997, by the following vote: Yeas 31, Nays 0.
_______________________________
Secretary of the Senate
APPROVED: _____________________
Date
_____________________
Governor