By:  Barrientos                                       S.B. No. 1763
         Line and page numbers may not match official copy.
         Bill not drafted by TLC or Senate E&E.
                                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.  Chapter 54, Education Code, is amended by adding
 1-5     Section 54.011 to read as follows:
 1-6           Sec. 54.011.  AUTHORITY TO PRORATE FEES.  A governing board
 1-7     of an institution of higher education will prorate any fee that it
 1-8     is authorized by this chapter to charge a student based on the
 1-9     length of the semester of term for which the student is enrolled.
1-10           SECTION 2.  Section 54.50891, Education Code is amended by
1-11     amending subsection (a) and adding subsection (e) to read as
1-12     follows:
1-13           (a)  The board of regents of The University of Texas System
1-14     may charge each student registered at a component institution of
1-15     The University of Texas System a medical services fee not to exceed
1-16     $70 [$55] for each semester of the regular term [or 12 week summer
1-17     session and not to exceed $25 for each six week or shorter term of
1-18     the summer session].
1-19           (b)  Before charging a medical services fee, the board must
1-20     give students and administrators an opportunity to offer
1-21     recommendations to the board as to the type and scope of medical
1-22     services that should be provided.  Before increasing the medical
 2-1     services fee at the University of Texas at Austin, the medical
 2-2     services fee committee at the University of Texas at Austin, a
 2-3     majority of which must be students, must approve the fee increase.
 2-4           (e)  If, in an academic year, the fee charged each student
 2-5     under this section is more than 10 percent higher than the previous
 2-6     year's fee, the increase is not effective unless approved by a
 2-7     majority vote of the students voting in an election held for that
 2-8     purpose or by a majority vote of the duly elected student
 2-9     government.
2-10           (f)  The Board of Regents shall prorate the fee allowed under
2-11     this section based on the length of semester or term for which the
2-12     student is enrolled.
2-13           SECTION 3.  Section 54.536(a), Education Code, is amended to
2-14     read as follows:
2-15           (a)  The board of regents of The University of Texas System
2-16     may charge each student enrolled in The University of Texas at
2-17     Austin a fee not to exceed $8 a semester or 12-week summer session,
2-18     $6 a nine-week summer session, or $4 a six-week summer session.
2-19     The fee may be used only for financing the renovation, improvement,
2-20     operation, maintenance, or replacement of the student health center
2-21     building at the university.
2-22           SECTION 4.  Section 54.537(a), Education Code, is amended to
2-23     read as follows:
2-24           (a)  The board of regents of The University of Texas System
2-25     may charge each student enrolled at The University of Texas at
2-26     Austin a fee not to exceed $1.10 per registered semester hour.  The
 3-1     fee may be used only for financing the construction, repair,
 3-2     operation, maintenance, renovation, improvement, or replacement of
 3-3     a student services building at the university.
 3-4           SECTION 5.  This Act applies beginning with fees due for the
 3-5     fall semester, 1999.
 3-6           SECTION 6.  The importance of this legislation and the
 3-7     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 3-8     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 3-9     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-10     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
3-11     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
3-12     passage, and it is so enacted.