Y GENERAL.
Honorable Robert S. Calvert
Comptroller of Public Accounts
Austin, Texas
Opinion No. C-483
Re : Whether Texas Western College
may use an appropriation set
up in General Appropriation
Bill as "Tuition Scholarships"
to pay tuitions for non-
Dear Mr. Calvert: resident students.
We are in receipt of your letter of recent date
requesting an opinion on the question as hereinafter stated:
Whether Texas Western College may use an
appropriation set up in General Appropriation
Bill as "Tuition Scholarships" to pay tuitions
for non-resident students.
House Bill No. 12 of the 59th Legislature, Regular
Session, 1965, same bein the Biennial Appropriations Bill,
provided in Section IV-2fithe following:
"TEXAS WESTERN COLLEGE OF TBE DNIVERSITY OF TEXAS
II
. . .
"7. Special Item (non-transferable):
Tuition Scholarships $4,000"
Article 2654c, Revised Civil Statutes of Texas,
provides in part as follows:
I,
. . .
"Sec. 1 (b) The Governing Boards of the
several state-supported institutions are
hereby authorized and directed to have re-
served and set apart in a separate account
on the books of the respective institutions,
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Hon. Robert S. Calvert, Page 2 (C- 483)
out of the fees levied and collected from
students under Subsection (a), Section 1
of this Act, an amount to be determined
by the Legislature for each institution
in the biennial Appropriation Bill, for
the purpose of creating a special fund to
be used in awarding Tuition Scholarships
to needy resident students enrolled in
such respective institutions. Tuition
Scholarships shall be awarded to students
with the approval of the President or other
administrative headsof each such respective
institution in accordance with such rules
and regulations governing the award of such
Tuition Scholarships as may be promulgated
by the Governing Boards of said respective
institutions. Rules and regulations shall
be subject to the following conditions:
II
. . .
"1 (b) (3) Recipients of such Tuition
Scholarships mus% be classifi d as 'resident
students' under the provision: of this Act.
II
. . .
“Sec. 1 (e) The term 'residence' as
used in this Act means 'domicile'; the term
'resided in' means 'domiciled in'; provided,
the Governing Board of each institution
required under this Act to charge a nonresident
registration fee is hereby authorized and
directed to follow such rules, regulations,
and interpretations as are issued by the Commis-
sion on Higher Education for the effective and
uniform administration of the nonresident
tuition provisions of this Act. Any such rules,
regulations, and interpretations as may be
issued by said Commission shall also be
furnished to the presidents or executive heads
of public junior colleges in this State. For
the purposes of this Act, the status of a
student as a 'resident,' or 'nonresident'
student, is to be determined as follows:
"1 (e) (1) A nonresident student is
hereby defined to be a student of less than
twenty-one (21) years of age, living away
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Hon. Robert S. Calvert, page 3 (C-483)
from his family and whose family resides in
another state, or whose family has not
resided in Texas for the twelve (12) months
immediately preceding the date of regis-
tration; or a student of twenty-one (21)
years of age or over who resides out of
the state or who has not been a resident
of the state twelve (12) months immediately
preceding the date of registration.
1,
. . .
"1 (e) (4) Individuals of twenty-one
(21) years of age or less whose families
have not resided in Texas for the twelve
(12) months immediately preceding the date
of registration, shall be classified as
'nonresident students' regardless of whether
such individuals have become the legal wards
of residents of Texas or have been adopted
by residents of Texas while such individuals
are attending educational institutions in
Texas or within a year prior to such an
attendance or under circumstances indicating
that such guardianship or adoption was for
the purpose of obtaining status as a 'resident
student.'
"1 (e) (4) (f) All aliens shall be
classified as 'nonresident students';
provided, however, that an alien who is
iiving in this country under a visa per-
mitting permanent residence or who has
filed a Declaration of Intention to become
a citizen with the proper federal immigra-
tion authorities shall have the same
privilege of qualifying for resident status
for fee purposes under this Act as has a
citizen of the United States. Provided,
however, that a resident alien residing in
a junior college district located immediately
adjacent to state boundary lines shall be
charged the resident tuition by such junior
college.
II
. . .' (Emphasis added).
From the letter which you received from Texas Western
College, which is the basis of your inquiry, we quote the
following:
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Hon. Robert S. Calvert, page 4 (C-483)
"Texas Western College of The University
of Texas in its request for legislative appro-
priations for the fiscal years ending August
31, 1966 and 1967, requested a special item
for each year, $4,000 for 'Scholarships for
Top Juares High School Graduates.' The amount
requested was to take care of the tuition of
ten non-resident students for nine months.
"The item was appropriated by the Fifty-
Eighth Legislature and set out in the appro-
priation bill as 'Tuition Scholarships.' The
regular tuition scholarship, as you know, is
for resident students and in the amount of
$25 per semester. This was not set up as
the statutes provide the regular resident
tuition scholarship will be.
"My question is: May we use this appro-
priation to pay tuition for non-resident
students, the purpose for which it was
requested, or will its use be limited to
the regular statutory 'tuition scholarship'?"
From reading the above quoted letter, the same
discloses that these students are and will be residents of
Juarez, Mexico, while attending Texas Western College of
The University of Texas at El Paso, Texas, and will be
classified as non-resident students.
As Article 2654~ requires that recipients of tuition
scholarships must be classified as resident students, it
therefore follows that non-resident students would not be
eligible to receive tuition scholarships.
SUMMARY
Under the provisions of Article 265&c,
Revised Civil Statutes of Texas, appropriation
set up in House Bill No. 12, Biennial Appro-
priation Bill, 59th Legislature, Section IV-24,
Tuition Scholarships cannot be used to pay
tuitions for non-resident students.
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, -
Hon. Robert S. Calvert, page 5 (c-483)
Yours very truly,
WAGGONER CARR
Attorney General
By:
JBB:sj
APPROVED:
OPINION COMMITTEE
W. 0. Shultz, Chairman
H. Grady 'Chandler
Roy Johnson
Linward Shivers
APPROVED FOR THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
BY: T. B. Wright
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