By Junell H.B. No. 2780
75R3482 JSA-D
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to standards for faculty teaching loads and class
1-3 enrollment at public institutions of higher education and to
1-4 related funding formula adjustments.
1-5 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-6 SECTION 1. Subchapter C, Chapter 61, Education Code, is
1-7 amended by adding Sections 61.0571 and 61.0572 to read as follows:
1-8 Sec. 61.0571. STANDARDS FOR FACULTY WORKLOADS. (a) The
1-9 board shall establish minimum standards for classroom teaching
1-10 loads for full-time professors, including assistant professors, at
1-11 general academic teaching institutions. The board shall adopt
1-12 separate standards for each major class of institution taking into
1-13 account the role and mission of each institution, the number and
1-14 type of doctoral programs offered, and the institution's research
1-15 activities. In establishing the standards, the board shall
1-16 consider practices in other states and shall solicit a diversity of
1-17 relevant information and recommendations from interested persons.
1-18 (b) Each year, the board shall collect from each general
1-19 academic teaching institution information on the classroom teaching
1-20 workload of the institution's faculty and the institution's level
1-21 of compliance with the standards established under Subsection (a).
1-22 (c) In the formulas established under Section 61.059, the
1-23 board shall provide for a reduction in the amount of state funding
1-24 for a general academic teaching institution for which the total
2-1 classroom teaching load of the faculty of professorial rank is less
2-2 than the total classroom teaching load for that faculty determined
2-3 according to the standards established under Subsection (a). The
2-4 board shall make the reduction in proportion to the percentage by
2-5 which the actual total classroom teaching load falls short of the
2-6 total classroom teaching load determined according to the
2-7 standards.
2-8 (d) Until the board establishes classroom teaching load
2-9 standards under Subsection (a), the following classroom teaching
2-10 loads shall be used for purposes of this section, using the
2-11 institution classifications of the Carnegie Foundation for the
2-12 Advancement of Teaching:
2-13 (1) two courses per professor per semester at a
2-14 research institution;
2-15 (2) 2.5 courses per professor per semester at a
2-16 doctoral institution; and
2-17 (3) 3.25 courses per professor per semester at a
2-18 comprehensive institution.
2-19 Sec. 61.0572. MINIMUM CLASS ENROLLMENT STANDARDS. (a) For
2-20 purposes of this section, the minimum class enrollment standard for
2-21 a general academic teaching institution is:
2-22 (1) 10 students for an undergraduate course; and
2-23 (2) five students for a graduate course.
2-24 (b) In the formulas established under Section 61.059, the
2-25 board shall provide for a reduction in the amount of state funding
2-26 for a general academic teaching institution for each class in which
2-27 the number of students registered is less than the minimum standard
3-1 prescribed by Subsection (a). The board shall make the reduction
3-2 in proportion to the percentage by which the actual class
3-3 enrollment falls short of the minimum standard.
3-4 (c) The board may exempt a class offered at a general
3-5 academic teaching institution from the reduction required by
3-6 Subsection (b) if the board determines that a compelling or
3-7 critical need for the class exists regardless of the class
3-8 enrollment.
3-9 SECTION 2. (a) This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.
3-10 (b) The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board shall
3-11 adopt standards for classroom teaching loads under Section 61.0571,
3-12 Education Code, as added by this Act, to be in effect beginning
3-13 with the fall semester 1998.
3-14 (c) The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board shall
3-15 incorporate the formula finding adjustments required by Sections
3-16 61.0571(c) and 61.0572(b), Education Code, as added by this Act,
3-17 beginning with formulas applicable to the fiscal year that begins
3-18 September 1, 2000.
3-19 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
3-20 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
3-21 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
3-22 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-23 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.