1-1     By:  Sibley                                           S.B. No. 1861
 1-2           (In the Senate - Filed April 13, 1999; April 14, 1999, read
 1-3     first time and referred to Committee on Education; April 29, 1999,
 1-4     reported favorably by the following vote:  Yeas 7, Nays 0;
 1-5     April 29, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-7                                   AN ACT
 1-8     relating to defining a private or independent institution of higher
 1-9     education.
1-10           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-11           SECTION 1.  Subdivision (15), Section 61.003, Education Code,
1-12     is amended to read as follows:
1-13                 (15)  "Private or independent institution of higher
1-14     education" includes only a private or independent college or
1-15     university that is:
1-16                       (A)  organized under the Texas Non-Profit
1-17     Corporation Act (Article 1396-1.01 et seq., Vernon's Texas Civil
1-18     Statutes);
1-19                       (B)  exempt from taxation under Article VIII,
1-20     Section 2, of the Texas Constitution and Section 501(c)(3) of the
1-21     Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (26 U.S.C. Section 501); and
1-22                       (C)  accredited by the Commission on Colleges of
1-23     the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools or the Liaison
1-24     Committee on Medical Education [a recognized accrediting agency].
1-25           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-26     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-27     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-28     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-29     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-30     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-31     passage, and it is so enacted.
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