79R354 KSD-D

By:  Eissler                                                      H.B. No. 37 



A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to the automatic admission of undergraduate students to a 
general academic teaching institution that is a component 
institution of a university system.
	BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:                        
	SECTION 1.  Section 51.803, Education Code, is amended by 
amending Subsection (a) and adding Subsections (c) and (d) to read 
as follows:
	(a)  Except as provided by Subsection (c), each [Each] 
general academic teaching institution shall admit an applicant for 
admission to the institution as an undergraduate student if the 
applicant graduated with a grade point average in the top 10 percent 
of the student's high school graduating class in one of the two 
school years preceding the academic year for which the applicant is 
applying for admission and the applicant graduated from a public or 
private high school in this state accredited by a generally 
recognized accrediting organization or from a high school operated 
by the United States Department of Defense.  To qualify for 
admission under this section, an applicant must submit an 
application before the expiration of any application filing 
deadline established by the institution and, if the applicant 
graduated from a high school operated by the United States 
Department of Defense, must be a Texas resident under Section 
54.052 or be entitled to pay tuition fees at the rate provided for 
Texas residents under Section 54.058(d) for the term or semester to 
which admitted.
	(c)  The governing board of a university system that includes 
more than one general academic teaching institution may adopt a 
policy under which an application for admission under this section 
to one or more of those institutions by a person eligible for 
automatic admission under Subsection (a) is treated as an 
application for admission as an undergraduate student to any 
general academic teaching institution in the system.  A university 
system that adopts a policy under this subsection must offer an 
eligible applicant admission to at least one component general 
academic teaching institution of the system.  A policy adopted 
under this subsection must:
		(1)  include a process through which the university 
system requests each eligible applicant to list in order of 
preference the general academic teaching institutions in the system 
to which the applicant prefers to be admitted under this section; 
and
		(2)  require the system to make a reasonable effort to 
offer the applicant admission to the institution of the applicant's 
highest preference possible consistent with the enrollment needs of 
the system.
	(d)  A university system that adopts a policy under 
Subsection (c) shall provide to the board of trustees of each school 
district in the state reasonable notice of the policy not later than 
November 1 of the academic year immediately preceding each academic 
year to which the policy applies.
	SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect immediately if it receives 
a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as 
provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution.  If this 
Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this 
Act takes effect September 1, 2005.