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.