By Ratliff                                       S.B. No. 840

      75R6667 JSA-F                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to The University of Texas at Tyler.

 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-4           SECTION 1.  Section 76.02, Education Code, is amended to read

 1-5     as follows:

 1-6           Sec. 76.02. ROLE AND SCOPE.  The [(a)  Except as otherwise

 1-7     provided in this section, the] institution shall offer [junior and

 1-8     senior] undergraduate programs and graduate programs, both of which

 1-9     are subject to the authority of the Texas Higher Education

1-10     Coordinating Board[, Texas College and University System].

1-11           [(b) If the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board

1-12     approves an engineering degree program at the institution, the

1-13     institution may offer lower division courses relating to that

1-14     program if such courses are offered as part of a partnership

1-15     agreement entered into under Subchapter N, Chapter 51 of this

1-16     code.]

1-17           SECTION 2.  Section 76.07, Education Code, is amended to read

1-18     as follows:

1-19           Sec. 76.07. PARTNERSHIPS WITH JUNIOR COLLEGES AND OTHER

1-20     INSTITUTIONS.  (a) The institution shall seek to build and expand

1-21     partnership agreements in the same manner as authorized by

1-22     Subchapter N, Chapter 51, of this code.  With the approval of the

1-23     Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, the institution may

1-24     enter into a partnership agreement with a private institution of

 2-1     higher education located in the same county as any campus of the

 2-2     institution, subject to the same provisions as provided by

 2-3     Subchapter N, Chapter 51, for a partnership agreement between an

 2-4     [the] institution  covered by that section and a public junior

 2-5     college.

 2-6           (b)  In developing programs and courses subject to a

 2-7     partnership agreement, the institution and any other party to an

 2-8     agreement shall take into account the need in the service region to

 2-9     recruit minority and lower-income students into degree-granting

2-10     programs of institutions of higher education.

2-11           (c)  [In deciding whether the institution may offer any lower

2-12     division courses pursuant to Section 76.02 of this code, the

2-13     institution and any other party to a partnership agreement shall

2-14     take into account, in addition to any other relevant factors, the

2-15     cost-effectiveness and other impact such courses will have on

2-16     students likely to enroll in the courses as well as any impact such

2-17     courses will have on the community as a whole.]

2-18           [(d)  If the institution offers lower division courses, the

2-19     Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board shall adopt a formula

2-20     pursuant to its duties and powers under this code that applies the

2-21     formula for four-year general academic teaching institutions to all

2-22     lower division semester credit hours offered at the institution in

2-23     addition to any other formula funding that the institution might be

2-24     entitled to receive for upper division credit hours that it offers.]

2-25           [(e)]  A nonresident student who is simultaneously enrolled

2-26     in the institution and another public institution of higher

2-27     education under a program offered jointly by the two institutions

 3-1     under a partnership agreement and who pays the fees and charges

 3-2     required of Texas residents at one of the institutions as provided

 3-3     by Section 54.064 because the student holds a competitive

 3-4     scholarship is entitled to pay the fees and charges required of

 3-5     Texas residents at each public institution of higher education in

 3-6     which the student is simultaneously enrolled under the program.

 3-7           (d) [(f)]  The institution and other parties to a partnership

 3-8     agreement may contract with any person to provide shuttle bus

 3-9     service or other transportation service for or among the campuses

3-10     of the institutions that are parties to the agreement and may

3-11     charge and collect a fee from students registered in courses at the

3-12     campuses of two or more of the institutions in the same semester or

3-13     term in an amount determined by the institutions to pay for all or

3-14     part of the costs of that service.

3-15           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

3-16     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

3-17     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

3-18     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

3-19     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

3-20     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

3-21     passage, and it is so enacted.