By: Seliger, Creighton S.B. No. 2119
(In the Senate - Filed March 10, 2017; March 28, 2017, read
first time and referred to Committee on Higher Education;
April 24, 2017, reported adversely, with favorable Committee
Substitute by the following vote: Yeas 4, Nays 3; April 24, 2017,
sent to printer.)
Click here to see the committee vote
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR S.B. No. 2119 By: Seliger
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the automatic admission of students to general academic
teaching institutions.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Sections 51.803(a-1), (a-2), and (a-6),
Education Code, are amended to read as follows:
(a-1) Beginning with admissions for the 2021-2022
[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 30 [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 30 [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 30 [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 30 [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 30 [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 efforts [centers].
SECTION 2. The changes in law made by this Act apply
beginning with admissions to a general academic teaching
institution for the 2021-2022 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, 2019.
* * * * *