By Ogden                                         S.B. No. 806

      75R7453 CAG-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to compulsory student fees to support intercollegiate

 1-3     athletics at a public institution of higher 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)  The governing board of an institution of higher

 1-9     education may not use revenue derived from any student fee to

1-10     support intercollegiate athletics unless:

1-11                 (1)  the institution informs students of the amount

1-12     that will be used to support intercollegiate athletics; and

1-13                 (2)  if the fee is subject to approval at an election

1-14     of the student body, the ballot expressly states the amount of the

1-15     fee that will be used to support intercollegiate athletics.

1-16           (b)  The total amount of student fees that may be used to

1-17     support intercollegiate athletics may not exceed $75 for a semester

1-18     or 12-week summer term or $25 for a summer term shorter than 12

1-19     weeks.

1-20           (c)  This section applies to all student fees, including

1-21     student fees adopted or approved before the date this section

1-22     became law, except that a fee approved at an election of the

1-23     student body before the date this section became law is subject to

1-24     Subsection (a)(2) only if the amount of the fee is increased.

 2-1           (d)  In this section, "student fee" means a charge for a

 2-2     compulsory fee charged under Subchapter E.  The term does not

 2-3     include a voluntary student fee or receipts from athletic events,

 2-4     including a charge for admission to an event or for the purchase of

 2-5     food, drinks, or other merchandise.

 2-6           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997, and

 2-7     applies beginning with fees charged for the spring semester of

 2-8     1998.

 2-9           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

2-10     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

2-11     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

2-12     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

2-13     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.