. -
QRNEY GENERAL
OFTEXAS
October 6, 1958
Honc;rableRalph T. Green Opinion No. WW-510
Director
Texas Commission on Higher Re: Is the specific prior
Education approval of the Commis-
308 W. 15th Street sion required for Texas
Austin 1, Texas Woman's University to
establish the proposed
Dear Mr. Green: program in nursing?
At present, the Texas Woman's University offers, and
prior to September 1, 1956, offered a degree in nursing in its
College of Nursing. During the freshman year and during one-
half of the senior year, each student is on the campus in
Denton, Texas. During the intervening tuo and one-half years,
the student is in resident clinical training in the Dallas
County Hospital System, The maxi'mumnumber of students who
can be trained in Dallas has been reached, Without additional
clinical facilities, the nursing program cannot be enlarged or
expanded to meet the need for additional trained nurses.
In view of this limitation in the Dallas facilities,
it has been proposed that arrangements be made with the Texas
Medical Center, Inc. of Houston, Texas, to furnish facilities
for clinical training in Houston so that more nurses can be
graduated. The question presented here is whether or not the
expansion of the nursing program by the use of the Houston
facilities, in addition to the Dallas facilities, constitutes
a "new degree program" within the meaning of Section 11 of the
Act creating the Texas Commission on Higher Education.
The Texas Commission on Higher Education was created
by Acts 54th Legislature, Regular Session9 1955, page 1217,
Chapter 487. Sections 6 and 11 of said Act provide in part:
I, The Commission shall establish rules and
regulations not inconsistent with and limited to,
carrying 'out the provisions of this Act.
11
* 0 0 No new department, degree program, or
certificate program shall be added at any State-
supperted college or university after September 3,
1956, except by the specific prior rpp~aval by the
Commission, 0 0 mll
- .
Honorable Ralph T. Green, page 2 (Ww-510)
Effective January 13, 1958, and pursuant te the
authority contained in the'Act to establish rules and regu-
lations, the Commfssien adopted REGUL$TION NUMBER ONE in
which degree program.was def&ned as, + D a the pattern ef
academic requirements which the institution sets and which
students must satisfy as the basis fer the institution to
award a particular degree." New degree program was defined
as, "* 0 .,any degree program which was not autherlzcd and
available as an offering af the institution en September 1,
1956 0 a n"o
Ne change in the ,pattern ef academic requirements for
the nursing degree is contemplated. The Houston facilities
weuld be the same type as the Dallas facilities, The use ef
additlanal facilities of the same type weuld be an enlargement
or expansion. Thus, since ,the pattern =sfacademic requirements
would remain the same, and since the proposal involved here is
actually an expansion ef an existing "degree program", there is
no new degree program.
Prior to the adoptisn ef REGULATION NUMHER ONE de-
fining these terms, Attorney General's Opinion WW-10, dated
January 29, 1957, went intb the question of the application of
the Act to a prmpesal by the Agrticulturaland'Mechaaica1 Col-
lege of Texas to establish and operate in Arlington a graduate
engineering division of the Agricultural and Mechanical College,
using the facilities of Arlington State College. There, the
proposed offering was designed to meet the needs of a limited
group in a particular area at the campus of another college.
The proposal would establish a new extension program since it
was not being offered off-campus at the time. We held that the
proposal constituted a "new degree pregram." If the degree
program had been offered off-campus from a time prior to
September 1, 1956, until the proposed offering at Arlington,
our opinion would have been different. The clinical phases of
the nursing program of the Texas Woman's University have been
taught off-campus from a time prier to September 1, 1956, until
the present,
We cenclude, therefore, that the use of the facilities
of the Texas Medical Center, Inc. by the Texas Woman's Uni-
versity is merely an expansion of an existing degree program and
dsas not csnstitute a new degree program within the meaning of
Section 11 and dmes net require the specific prier approval by
the Texas Commissien en Higher Education.
The scepe ef this epinian is necessarily limited to
the question presented and deeanst pass on any ether aspect ef
Honorable Ralph T. Green, page 3 (w-510)
the proposed arrangement between the University and the Center.
It should be noted, however, that Section 11 of the Act also
provides that, "The Commission shall order the consolidation or
elimination of programs where such aG%ion is in the best inte-
rest of'the fnstitutions themselves and the general requirements
of the State of Texas, ~ Q m"O
SUMMARY
The specific ppior approval of the Texas
Commission on Higher Education fs not re-
quired for the Texas Woman's University
to use the facilities effered by the Texas
Medical Center, %nc:+in,:f%scollegiate
nursing program, since the same does not
constitute a new degree program within the
meaning of Section 11, Senate Bill No. 145,
Acts 54th Legislature, Regular Sessfon, 1955,
Chapter 487, page 1217.
Sincerely,
WILL WILSON
Attorney General of Texas
APPROVED:
OPINION COMMITTEE
Geo D P. Blackburn, Chairman
Houghton Brownlee, Jr,
Wayland C. Rivers, Jr.
Rfchard B. Stone
Grundy Williams
REVIEWED FOR THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
BY: W. V. Geppert