By Barrientos S.B. No. 947
76R5829 KEL-D
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to the authority of the board of regents of The University
1-3 of Texas System to increase the student union fee at The University
1-4 of Texas at Austin.
1-5 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-6 SECTION 1. Section 54.530(a), Education Code, is amended to
1-7 read as follows:
1-8 (a) The board of regents of The University of Texas System
1-9 may levy and collect from each student a compulsory fee for
1-10 operating, maintaining, improving, equipping, and/or constructing
1-11 additions to the existing Texas Union building near Guadalupe
1-12 Street. Unless the board increases the amount as provided by this
1-13 subsection, the fee may not [to] exceed $33 for each regular
1-14 semester and $16.50 for each term of each summer session. The
1-15 money collected from the[, with such] fees shall [to] be deposited
1-16 to an account known as the Texas Union Fee Account. With the
1-17 concurrence of the Student Fees Advisory Committee, the board may
1-18 increase the amount of the [; this] fee [may be raised] to an
1-19 amount that is not more than 10 percent of the amount imposed in
1-20 the preceding academic year. The board may increase the amount of
1-21 the fee to an amount that is more than 10 percent of the amount
1-22 imposed in the preceding academic year [not to exceed $40 for each
1-23 regular semester and $20 for each term of each summer session] if
1-24 that increase in the fee is approved by a majority vote of those
2-1 students participating in a general election called for that
2-2 purpose. However, the board may not increase the amount of the fee
2-3 to an amount that is more than $40 for each regular semester and
2-4 $20 for each term of each summer session. The activities of said
2-5 Texas Union building financed in whole or in part by the [this] fee
2-6 shall be limited to those activities in which the entire student
2-7 body is eligible to participate, and in no event shall any of the
2-8 activities so financed be held outside of the territorial limits of
2-9 the campus of The University of Texas at Austin.
2-10 SECTION 2. This Act applies beginning with the 1999 fall
2-11 semester and applies to fees charged on or after that date. Fees
2-12 charged before the 1999 fall semester are governed by the law in
2-13 effect at the time the fees are charged, and that law is continued
2-14 in effect for that purpose.
2-15 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
2-16 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-17 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-18 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-19 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-20 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-21 passage, and it is so enacted.