By: Ogden S.B. No. 806
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
1-1 relating to the use of student fees and certain other funds to
1-2 support intercollegiate athletics at a public institution of higher
1-3 education.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Subchapter A, Chapter 54, Education Code, is
1-6 amended by adding Section 54.009 to read as follows:
1-7 Sec. 54.009. USE OF FEES TO SUPPORT INTERCOLLEGIATE
1-8 ATHLETICS. (a) Except as provided by Subsections (b) and (c), the
1-9 governing board of an institution of higher education may not use
1-10 any revenue derived from any student fee or general use fee or any
1-11 money collected from students from any other source, including
1-12 rentals, rates, charges, or fees to support intercollegiate
1-13 athletics.
1-14 (b) An institution may use, to support intercollegiate
1-15 athletics, funds from:
1-16 (1) the noncompulsory sale of tickets or passes to
1-17 intercollegiate athletic events; or
1-18 (2) the receipts from an intercollegiate athletic
1-19 event, including a charge for admission to an event or for the
1-20 purchase of food, drinks, or other merchandise.
1-21 (c) The governing board of an institution of higher
1-22 education may use a student fee, general use fee, or revenue
1-23 derived from a fee to support intercollegiate athletics if:
2-1 (1) the institution informs its students at least once
2-2 a year of the amount of fees and revenue derived from fees that
2-3 will be used to support intercollegiate athletics; and
2-4 (2) the ballot expressly states the amount of the fee
2-5 that will be used to support intercollegiate athletics, if the fee
2-6 is subject to approval at an election of the student body.
2-7 (d) The total amount of student fees and general use fees
2-8 that may be used to support intercollegiate athletics may not
2-9 exceed $100 per student for a semester or 12-week summer term or
2-10 $35 per student for a summer term shorter than 12 weeks.
2-11 (e) This section applies to all student fees and general use
2-12 fees, including fees adopted or approved before the date this
2-13 section became law, except that a fee approved at an election of
2-14 the student body before the date this section became law is subject
2-15 to Subsection (c)(2) only if the amount of the fee is increased.
2-16 (f) In this section:
2-17 (1) "Student fee" means a fee charged under Subchapter
2-18 E.
2-19 (2) "General use fee" means a fee charged under
2-20 Section 55.16.
2-21 (g) A capital improvement project that uses auxiliary funds
2-22 at an institution of higher education to finance, in whole or in
2-23 part, the project is exempt from the restrictions of this section
2-24 if the project was approved by the Texas Higher Education
2-25 Coordinating Board before September 1, 1997.
3-1 SECTION 2. (a) This Act takes effect September 1, 1997, and
3-2 applies, except as provided by Subsection (b) of this section,
3-3 beginning with any fees charged to a student of an institution of
3-4 higher education for the spring semester of 1998.
3-5 (b) If, in the fall semester of 1997, an institution of
3-6 higher education is charging a total amount of student fees and
3-7 general use fees to support intercollegiate athletics in excess of
3-8 the amount allowed under Section 54.009, Education Code, as added
3-9 by this Act, the institution shall comply with the provisions of
3-10 Section 54.009, Education Code, as added by this Act, not later
3-11 than the fall semester of 1998.
3-12 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
3-13 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
3-14 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
3-15 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-16 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.