By Wilson                                             H.B. No. 1446
         76R6278 CAG-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to required multicultural course credit at certain public
 1-3     institutions of higher education.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Subchapter F, Chapter 51, Education Code, is
 1-6     amended by adding Section 51.309 to read as follows:
 1-7           Sec. 51.309.  MULTICULTURAL COURSES.  (a)  In this section:
 1-8                 (1)  "General academic teaching institution" has the
 1-9     meaning assigned by Section 61.003.
1-10                 (2)  "Multicultural course" means a course that focuses
1-11     either on two or more cultures or on a specific culture within
1-12     United States society.
1-13           (b)  A general academic teaching institution may not grant a
1-14     baccalaureate degree to a student unless the student has received
1-15     credit for at least three semester hours, or the equivalent, in
1-16     multicultural courses at the institution or, if allowed by the
1-17     institution, at another accredited institution of higher education.
1-18           (c)  A general academic teaching institution may adopt
1-19     policies governing the granting of credit for multicultural courses
1-20     toward other degree requirements at the institution.
1-21           SECTION 2.  Section 51.309, Education Code, as added by this
1-22     Act, applies only to a student who initially enrolls at a general
1-23     academic teaching  institution for the 1999-2000 academic year or
1-24     thereafter.
 2-1           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-2     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 2-3     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 2-4     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-5     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
 2-6     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
 2-7     passage, and it is so enacted.