Title IX, credit transfer bills head to Abbott
Measures would cut costs and boost law against discrimination
Bills to simplify and cut the costs of transferring from a lowerlevel college to a four-year university and to impose penalties for failure to report Title IX offenses are on the way to the governor’s office for approval.
Senate Bill 212, filed by Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, would help boost the Title IX federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in education programs or activities receiving federal funding.
Senate Bill 25, filed by Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, in March, was passed by the House this week — nearly a month after it passed through the Senate and just days before the end of the legislative session. The bill aims to save taxpayers, students and parents money by ensuring that courses at technical institutes or community and junior colleges can easily transfer and count toward a degree at a four-year university.
The current system of transferring from one public university or college to another is complicated and costly, and students often accumulate an average of seven more credit hours than needed, according to a report by the Texas Higher Education Co
ordinating Board.
“We have a lot of students that are taking college courses that are not applied or they don’t get credit,” West told the Houston Chronicle in April. Transferring costs students and parents around $45 million and the state about $15 million. That comes to $60 million of money wasted on untransferable credits each year, he said.
If enacted, the bill would reorganize prerequisites, core and lower-level courses, making it easier for students to identify which courses will transfer and how they can rely on fields of study to graduate in a timely manner without losing credits.
It further details and encourages articulation agreements between community colleges and fouryear colleges, and would require students to consult with academic advisers and file degree plans within 30 to 60 credit hours that would map out their course load.
Universities would also be held accountable and would be required to provide the coordinating board with an annual report, detailing which courses were not transferable that year and why, West said.
The bill, which has 30 lawmakers as sponsors and received a unanimous
“We have a lot of students that are taking college courses that are not applied or they don’t get credit.” Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, who filed SB 25, which aims to ensure courses can easily transfer and count at a four-year university
vote from all lawmakers who were present during the time of voting, has been a long time coming, said West, who introduced the first version of the bill two sessions ago. But figures from major institutions have shown their support for amendments to the current college transfer process, including University of Texas at Austin President Gregory L. Fenves, who earlier this year called SB 25 one of this session’s most important bills, and Higher Education Commissioner Raymund A. Paredes, who called transferring the “most vexing issue” for the past several legislative sessions.
A host of other highereducation related bills have been passed this month and are heading for Gov. Greg Abbott’s approval, including Huffman’s bill, which was passed Wednesday.
If enacted, the Title IX bill would require all employees of state colleges and post-secondary institutions to report incidents of sexual abuse against a student or employee to the school’s Title IX coordinator. The new legislation would create a penalty — a fine and/or jail time — for those who fail to report or create a false report. The bill also further defines sexual harassment, sexual assault, dating violence and stalking.
Other higher educationrelated bills that have passed both chambers include House Bill 449, which would require colleges to indicate if a student had been expelled or suspended on their transcript, and House Bill 3165, which would create an occupational and life skills associate’s degree at Lone Star College.
Bills addressing the revision of the definition and awareness of hazing, the protection of freedom of speech on campus, foster care services for college students, dual-credit agreements between school districts and colleges, enforced degree plans, and using fees for a new student wellness and success center at University of Houston-Downtown all passed this month and have been submitted to Abbott.