By Greenberg H.B. No. 3292
Line and page numbers may not match official copy.
Bill not drafted by TLC or Senate E&E.
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to certain fees charged at certain institutions of higher
1-3 education.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Chapter 54, Education Code, is amended by adding
1-6 Section 54.011 to read as follows:
1-7 Sec. 54.011. AUTHORITY TO PRORATE FEES. A governing board
1-8 of an institution of higher education will prorate any fee that it
1-9 is authorized by this chapter to charge a student based on the
1-10 length of the semester of term for which the student is enrolled.
1-11 SECTION 2. Section 54.50891, Education Code is amended by
1-12 amending Subsection (a) and adding Subsection (e) to read as
1-13 follows:
1-14 (a) The board of regents of The University of Texas System
1-15 may charge each student registered at a component institution of
1-16 The University of Texas System a medical services fee not to exceed
1-17 $70 [$55] for each semester of the regular term [or 12-week summer
1-18 session and not to exceed $25 for each six-week or shorter term of
1-19 the summer session].
1-20 (b) Before charging a medical services fee, the board must
1-21 give students and administrators an opportunity to offer
2-1 recommendations to the board as to the type and scope of medical
2-2 services that should be provided. Before increasing the medical
2-3 services fee at the University of Texas at Austin, the medical
2-4 services fee committee at the University of Texas at Austin, a
2-5 majority of which must be students, must approve the fee increase.
2-6 (e) If, in an academic year, the fee charged each student
2-7 under this section is more than 10 percent higher than the previous
2-8 year's fee, the increase is not effective unless approved by a
2-9 majority vote of the students voting in an election held for that
2-10 purpose or by a majority vote of the duly elected student
2-11 government.
2-12 (f) The Board of Regents shall prorate the fee allowed under
2-13 this section based on the length of semester or term for which the
2-14 student is enrolled.
2-15 SECTION 3. Section 54.536(a), Education Code, is amended to
2-16 read as follows:
2-17 (a) The board of regents of The University of Texas System
2-18 may charge each student enrolled in The University of Texas at
2-19 Austin a fee not to exceed $8 a semester or 12-week summer session,
2-20 $6 a nine-week summer session, or $4 a six-week summer session.
2-21 The fee may be used only for financing the renovation, improvement,
2-22 operation, maintenance, or replacement of the student health center
2-23 building at the university.
2-24 SECTION 4. Section 54.537(a), Education Code, is amended to
2-25 read as follows:
3-1 (a) The board of regents of The University of Texas System
3-2 may charge each student enrolled at The University of Texas at
3-3 Austin a fee not to exceed $1.10 per registered semester hour. The
3-4 fee may be used only for financing the construction, repair,
3-5 operation, maintenance, renovation, improvement, or replacement of
3-6 a student services building at the university.
3-7 SECTION 5. This Act applies beginning with fees due for the
3-8 fall semester, 1999.
3-9 SECTION 6. The importance of this legislation and the
3-10 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
3-11 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
3-12 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-13 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
3-14 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
3-15 passage, and it is so enacted.