80R394 KSD-D

By: Eissler H.B. No. 415

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, 2007.