79R5860 KEL-D
By: Barrientos S.B. No. 1546
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the admission of students to general academic teaching
institutions.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 51.803, Education Code, is amended to
read as follows:
Sec. 51.803. AUTOMATIC ADMISSION: ALL INSTITUTIONS. (a)
Except as permitted by Section 51.8035, 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:
(1) 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; and
(2)[. 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, the applicant is [must be] a Texas
resident under Section 54.052 or is [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.
(b) 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.
(c) After admitting an applicant under this section, the
institution shall review the applicant's record and any other
factor the institution considers appropriate to determine whether
the applicant may require additional preparation for college-level
work or would benefit from inclusion in a retention program. The
institution may require a student so identified to enroll during
the summer immediately after the student is admitted under this
section to participate in appropriate enrichment courses and
orientation programs. This section does not prohibit a student who
is not determined to need additional preparation for college-level
work from enrolling, if the student chooses, during the summer
immediately after the student is admitted under this section.
SECTION 2. Subchapter U, Chapter 51, Education Code, is
amended by adding Section 51.8035 to read as follows:
Sec. 51.8035. ALTERNATIVE AUTOMATIC ADMISSIONS PROCEDURE.
(a) A general academic teaching institution that fills more than 70
percent of the institution's freshman enrollment capacity in an
academic year through admissions under Section 51.803 may elect to
admit first-time freshman students for the following academic year
under this section and may make admissions under this section in any
other academic year immediately following an academic year for
which the institution makes admissions under this section. Section
51.803 does not apply to an academic year for which the institution
makes admissions under this section.
(b) For an academic year for which an institution elects to
make admissions under this section, the institution may admit
automatically only a percentage of students that the institution
estimates in good faith will result in a total number of automatic
admissions under this section in that academic year that is equal to
65 percent of the institution's freshman enrollment capacity for
that year.
(c) After making admissions under Subsection (b), the
institution shall consider any remaining applicants eligible for
automatic admission under Section 51.803 in the same manner as
other applicants for admission as first-time freshman students in
accordance with Section 51.805.
(d) The governing board of a university system that includes
more than one component general academic teaching institution shall
adopt a policy under which an application for automatic admission
under this subchapter to a component general academic teaching
institution making admissions under this section is treated as an
additional application for admission as a first-time freshman
student to another component general academic teaching institution
selected by the applicant. Under the policy, the university system
must offer to an applicant described by Subsection (c) who is not
admitted to the component institution making admissions under this
section alternative admission, as selected by the applicant, to
another component general academic teaching institution making
admissions under Section 51.803. 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 alternative general academic teaching institutions
in the system to which the applicant prefers to be admitted under
this subsection if the applicant is not admitted to the applicant's
first choice of a component institution under this subchapter; and
(2) require a component general academic teaching
institution making admissions under this section to give an
applicant for transfer who was rejected for admission as a
first-time freshman student by the institution under this
subchapter and who enrolled in another component institution under
this subsection priority over other applicants for transfer who
have an equal or lower undergraduate grade point average.
(e) A general academic teaching institution that rejects a
student described by Subsection (c) for admission as a first-time
freshman student under this subchapter may not, for purposes of
admissions to a graduate, postgraduate, or professional degree
program of the institution, discount or otherwise adjust downward
any grade point average of the student that is based on
undergraduate course work completed at another public or private
institution of higher education.
SECTION 3. (a) The change in law made by this Act in adding
Section 51.8035, Education Code, applies beginning with admissions
to general academic teaching institutions for the 2007-2008
academic year. Admissions to a general academic teaching
institution before that academic year are covered by the law in
effect before the effective date of this Act, and the former law is
continued in effect for that purpose.
(b) Not later than September 1, 2006, the governing board of
a university system including more than one component general
academic teaching institution shall adopt the policy required by
Section 51.8035(d), Education Code, as added by this Act. The
university system shall provide to the board of trustees of each
school district in the state reasonable notice of the policy not
later than November 1, 2006.
SECTION 4. This Act takes effect September 1, 2005.