By:  Barrientos                                       S.B. No. 1763
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                       AN ACT
 1-1     relating to certain fees charged at certain institutions of higher
 1-2     education.
 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-4           SECTION 1.  Section 54.50891, Education Code, is amended by
 1-5     amending Subsections (a) and (b) and adding Subsections (e) and (f)
 1-6     to read as follows:
 1-7           (a)  The board of regents of The University of Texas System
 1-8     may charge each student registered at a component institution of
 1-9     The University of Texas System a medical services fee not to exceed
1-10     $70 [$55] for each semester of the regular term [or 12-week summer
1-11     session and not to exceed $25 for each six-week or shorter term of
1-12     the summer session].
1-13           (b)  Before charging a medical services fee, the board must
1-14     give students and administrators an opportunity to offer
1-15     recommendations to the board as to the type and scope of medical
1-16     services that should be provided.  Before increasing the medical
1-17     services fee at The University of Texas at Austin, the medical
1-18     services fee committee at The University of Texas at Austin, a
1-19     majority of which must be students, must approve the fee increase.
1-20           (e)  If in an academic year the fee charged each student
1-21     under this section is more than 10 percent higher than the previous
1-22     year's fee, the increase is not effective unless approved by a
1-23     majority vote of the students voting in an election held for that
1-24     purpose or by a majority vote of the duly elected student
 2-1     government.
 2-2           (f)  The board of regents shall prorate the fee allowed under
 2-3     this section based on the length of the semester or term for which
 2-4     the student is enrolled.
 2-5           SECTION 2.  Subsection (a), Section 54.536, Education Code,
 2-6     is amended to read as follows:
 2-7           (a)  The board of regents of The University of Texas System
 2-8     may charge each student enrolled in The University of Texas at
 2-9     Austin a fee not to exceed $8 a semester or 12-week summer session,
2-10     $6 a nine-week summer session, or $4 a six-week summer session.
2-11     The fee may be used only for financing the renovation, improvement,
2-12     operation, maintenance, or replacement of the student health center
2-13     building at the university.
2-14           SECTION 3.  Subsection (a), Section 54.537, Education Code,
2-15     is amended to read as follows:
2-16           (a)  The board of regents of The University of Texas System
2-17     may charge each student enrolled at The University of Texas at
2-18     Austin a fee not to exceed $1.10 per registered semester hour.  The
2-19     fee may be used only for financing the construction, repair,
2-20     operation, maintenance, renovation, improvement, or replacement of
2-21     a student services building at the university.
2-22           SECTION 4.  This Act applies beginning with fees due for the
2-23     fall semester, 1999.
2-24           SECTION 5.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-25     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-26     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 3-1     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 3-2     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
 3-3     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
 3-4     passage, and it is so enacted.