1-1     By:  Naishtat (Senate Sponsor - Bivins)               H.B. No. 3138
 1-2           (In the Senate - Received from the House May 5, 1999;
 1-3     May 6, 1999, read first time and referred to Committee on
 1-4     Education; May 14, 1999, reported favorably by the following vote:
 1-5     Yeas 5, Nays 1; May 14, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-7                                   AN ACT
 1-8     relating to the authority of a governing board of a public
 1-9     institution of higher education to reduce tuition or prorate fees
1-10     charged to a student at that institution.
1-11           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-12           SECTION 1.  Subchapter A, Chapter 54, Education Code, is
1-13     amended by adding Section 54.010 to read as follows:
1-14           Sec. 54.010.  REDUCTION IN TUITION.  (a)  The governing board
1-15     of an institution of higher education may reduce the amount of
1-16     tuition charged to a student under this chapter to an amount less
1-17     than the amount otherwise required by this chapter if the board:
1-18                 (1)  offers the tuition reduction to the student as
1-19     part of an institutional policy adopted by the board to:
1-20                       (A)  increase the average semester credit hour
1-21     course load of students enrolled at the institution; or
1-22                       (B)  improve the retention and graduation rate of
1-23     students enrolled at the institution; and
1-24                 (2)  determines that the student is:
1-25                       (A)  enrolled in, and making satisfactory
1-26     progress toward completion of, a degree program offered at the
1-27     institution; and
1-28                       (B)  enrolled in at least 15 semester credit
1-29     hours at the institution during the semester or term for which the
1-30     reduction is offered.
1-31           (b)  The governing board may offer a tuition reduction under
1-32     this section in a fixed dollar amount, a percentage amount, or any
1-33     other manner that the board considers appropriate.
1-34           (c)  The amount of tuition reduction offered to a student
1-35     under this section for a semester or term may not exceed the amount
1-36     of tuition that would have been charged to the student under this
1-37     chapter for enrollment in three semester credit hours during that
1-38     semester or term.
1-39           (d)  For a tuition reduction offered to a student under this
1-40     section, the governing board may prorate the amount of the
1-41     reduction based on:
1-42                 (1)  the number of semester credit hours in which the
1-43     student is enrolled; or
1-44                 (2)  the length of the semester or term for which the
1-45     student is enrolled.
1-46           (e)  The governing board is not required to offer a tuition
1-47     reduction under this section to all institutions of higher
1-48     education under its governance or to all degree programs offered at
1-49     an institution of higher education under its governance.
1-50           SECTION 2.  Subchapter E, Chapter 54, Education Code, is
1-51     amended by adding Section 54.5025 to read as follows:
1-52           Sec. 54.5025.  PRORATION OF FEES.  Based on the length of the
1-53     semester or term for which a student is enrolled, the governing
1-54     board of an institution of higher education may prorate the amount
1-55     of any fee charged to the student under this chapter.
1-56           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect beginning with tuition and
1-57     fees charged for the 1999 fall semester.
1-58           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-59     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-60     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-61     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-62     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-63     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-64     passage, and it is so enacted.
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