85R2927 KJE-D

By: Bettencourt S.B. No. 1888

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to limitations on the automatic admission of students to general academic teaching institutions and on the admission of nonresident students to The University of Texas at Austin.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

SECTION 1. Section 51.803, Education Code, is amended by amending Subsections (a-1), (a-2), and (a-6) and adding Subsection (j-1) to read as follows:

(a-1) Beginning with admissions for the 2019-2020 [2011-2012] academic year, a general academic teaching institution [The University of Texas at Austin] is not required to offer admission to applicants who qualify for automatic admission under Subsection (a) in excess of the number required to fill 50 [75] percent of the institution's [university's] enrollment capacity designated for first-time resident undergraduate students in an academic year. If the number of applicants who qualify for automatic admission to the institution [The University of Texas at Austin] under Subsection (a) for an academic year exceeds 50 [75] percent of the institution's [university's] enrollment capacity designated for first-time resident undergraduate students for that academic year, the institution [university] may elect to offer admission to those applicants as provided by this subsection and not as otherwise required by Subsection (a). If the institution [university] elects to offer admission under this subsection, the institution [university] shall offer admission to those applicants by percentile rank according to high school graduating class standing based on grade point average, beginning with the top percentile rank, until the applicants qualified under Subsection (a) have been offered admission in the number estimated in good faith by the institution [university] as sufficient to fill 50 [75] percent of the institution's [university's] enrollment capacity designated for first-time resident undergraduate students, except that the institution [university] must offer admission to all applicants with the same percentile rank. After the applicants qualified for automatic admission under Subsection (a) have been offered admission under this subsection in the number estimated in good faith as sufficient to fill at least 50 [75] percent of the designated enrollment capacity described by this subsection, the institution [university] shall consider any remaining applicants qualified for automatic admission under Subsection (a) in the same manner as other applicants for admission as first-time undergraduate students in accordance with Section 51.805.

(a-2) If the number of applicants who apply to a general academic teaching institution during the current academic year for admission in the next academic year and who qualify for automatic admission to a general academic teaching institution under Subsection (a) exceeds 50 [75] percent of the institution's enrollment capacity designated for first-time resident undergraduate students for that next academic year and the institution plans to offer admission under Subsection (a-1) during the next school year, the institution shall, in the manner prescribed by the Texas Education Agency and not later than September 15, provide to each school district, for dissemination of the information to high school junior-level students and their parents, notice of which percentile ranks of high school senior-level students who qualify for automatic admission under Subsection (a) are anticipated by the institution to be offered admission under Subsection (a-1) during the next school year.

(a-6) Not later than December 31 of each academic year in which a general academic teaching institution [The University of Texas at Austin] offers admission under Subsection (a-1), the institution [university] shall deliver a written report to the governor, the lieutenant governor, and speaker of the house of representatives regarding the institution's [university's] progress in each of the following matters:

(1) increasing geographic diversity of the entering freshman class;

(2) counseling and outreach efforts aimed at students qualified for automatic admission under this section;

(3) recruiting Texas residents who graduate from other institutions of higher education to the institution's [university's] graduate and professional degree programs;

(4) recruiting students who are members of underrepresented demographic segments of the state's population; and

(5) assessing and improving the institution's [university's] regional recruitment centers.

(j-1) Notwithstanding Subsection (j), if The University of Texas at Austin elects to offer admission under Subsection (a-1) for an academic year, the university may not offer admission to first-time undergraduate students who are not residents of this state for that academic year in excess of the number required to fill 15 percent of the university's enrollment capacity designated for first-time undergraduate students for that academic year.

SECTION 2. The changes in law made by this Act apply beginning with admissions to a general academic teaching institution for the 2019-2020 academic year. Admissions to a general academic teaching institution for an academic period before that academic year are governed by the law in effect immediately before the effective date of this Act, and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose.

SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2018.