1-1 By: Delisi (Senate Sponsor - Fraser) H.B. No. 1460
1-2 (In the Senate - Received from the House April 14, 1997;
1-3 April 16, 1997, read first time and referred to Committee on
1-4 Education; May 8, 1997, reported favorably by the following vote:
1-5 Yeas 11, Nays 0; May 8, 1997, sent to printer.)
1-6 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-7 AN ACT
1-8 relating to the name of a public junior or community college.
1-9 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-10 SECTION 1. Subchapter A, Chapter 130, Education Code, is
1-11 amended by adding Section 130.0051 to read as follows:
1-12 Sec. 130.0051. OTHER CHANGE OF NAME BY JUNIOR COLLEGE
1-13 DISTRICT. (a) The board of trustees of a junior college district
1-14 by resolution may change the name of the district or a college
1-15 within the district by eliminating the words "community" or
1-16 "junior" from the name of the district or college, unless the
1-17 change would cause the district or college to have the same or
1-18 substantially the same name as an existing district, college, or
1-19 other public or private institution of higher education in this
1-20 state.
1-21 (b) The board of trustees shall file with the Texas Higher
1-22 Education Coordinating Board a copy of a resolution adopted under
1-23 Subsection (a) that is certified by the secretary of the board of
1-24 trustees. The name change is effective on the date the resolution
1-25 is filed with the coordinating board. After a name change is filed,
1-26 the college or district shall use the new name in all official
1-27 actions, communications, or records.
1-28 SECTION 2. Section 130.082(c), Education Code, is amended to
1-29 read as follows:
1-30 (c) The official name of a junior college district shall be
1-31 the "__________ Junior College District" unless the board of
1-32 trustees of the district elects to call the district a community
1-33 college district, in which event the official name of the junior
1-34 college district shall be the "________ Community College
1-35 District." The [and the] board shall designate an appropriate and
1-36 locally pertinent descriptive word or words to be filled in the
1-37 appropriate [aforesaid] blank (and may change such designation when
1-38 deemed advisable) by resolution or order; provided that no two
1-39 districts shall have the same or substantially similar names. A
1-40 district may change its name under Section 130.005 or 130.0051. All
1-41 resolutions or orders designating or changing names shall be filed
1-42 immediately with the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board[,
1-43 Texas College and University System,] and the first name filed
1-44 shall have priority, and the district shall be advised of any
1-45 previous filing of any identical or substantially similar name.
1-46 The name of any junior college district existing on September 1,
1-47 1997, [the effective date of this code] shall remain the same until
1-48 and unless it is changed under this chapter [pursuant hereto], and
1-49 any change in the name of a junior college district made before
1-50 that date is validated and is deemed to have been properly made.
1-51 Another [no other] district may not [shall] use the name of any
1-52 [such existing] district whose name change is validated under this
1-53 subsection.
1-54 SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.
1-55 SECTION 4. The importance of this legislation and the
1-56 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-57 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-58 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-59 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
1-60 * * * * *