1-1     By:  Barrientos                                       S.B. No. 1765
 1-2           (In the Senate - Filed March 12, 1999; March 15, 1999, read
 1-3     first time and referred to Committee on Education; April 6, 1999,
 1-4     reported favorably by the following vote:  Yeas 8, Nays 0;
 1-5     April 6, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-7                                   AN ACT
 1-8     relating to certain fees charged at certain institutions of higher
 1-9     education.
1-10           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-11           SECTION 1.  Subchapter E, Chapter 54, Education Code, is
1-12     amended by adding Section 54.5372 to read as follows:
1-13           Sec. 54.5372.  AQUATICS CENTER FEE; THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS
1-14     AT AUSTIN.  (a)  The board of regents of The University of Texas
1-15     System may charge each student enrolled at The University of Texas
1-16     at Austin a fee not to exceed 85 cents per credit hour per
1-17     semester.  The fee may be used for financing, constructing,
1-18     renovating, operating, maintaining, and improving an aquatics
1-19     center at the Gregory Gymnasium complex.
1-20           (b)  The board of regents shall prorate the fee allowed under
1-21     this section based on the length of the semester or term for which
1-22     the student is enrolled.
1-23           (c)  The university shall collect the fee imposed under this
1-24     section and use it only for the purposes described in this section.
1-25           (d)  A fee under this section may not be collected until the
1-26     semester in which the aquatics center has been substantially
1-27     completed and is made available for use.
1-28           (e)  The board of regents may pledge fees collected under
1-29     this section for the payment of obligations issued for authorized
1-30     purposes pursuant to the revenue financing system of The University
1-31     of Texas System.
1-32           (f)  The fees collected under this section shall not be
1-33     counted in determining the maximum student services fee which may
1-34     be charged to students of The University of Texas at Austin under
1-35     this subchapter.
1-36           SECTION 2.  This Act applies beginning with fees due for the
1-37     1999 fall semester.
1-38           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-39     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-40     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-41     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-42     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-43     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-44     passage, and it is so enacted.
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