Sec. 54.530.  STUDENT UNION FEES;  THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN.  (a)  The board of regents of The University of Texas System may levy and collect from each student a compulsory fee for operating, maintaining, improving, equipping, and/or constructing additions to the existing Texas Union building near Guadalupe Street.  Unless the board increases the amount as provided by this subsection, the fee may not exceed $33 for each regular semester and $16.50 for each term of each summer session.  The money collected from the fees shall be deposited to an account known as the Texas Union Fee Account.  With the concurrence of the student fees advisory committee, the board may increase the amount of the fee to an amount that is not more than 10 percent of the amount imposed in the preceding academic year.  The board may increase the amount of the fee to an amount that is more than 10 percent of the amount imposed in the preceding academic year if that increase in the fee is approved by a majority vote of those students participating in a general election called for that purpose.  However, the board may not increase the amount of the fee to an amount that is more than $50 for each regular semester and $30 for each term of each summer session.  The activities of said Texas Union building financed in whole or in part by the fee shall be limited to those activities in which the entire student body is eligible to participate, and in no event shall any of the activities so financed be held outside of the territorial limits of the campus of The University of Texas at Austin.
(b)  The fees thus collected and placed in the Texas Union Fee Account shall be placed under the control of and subject to the order of the board of directors of the Texas Union building, which board shall annually submit a complete and itemized budget to be accompanied by a full and complete report of all activities conducted during the past year and all expenditures made incident thereto.  The board of regents shall make such changes in the budget as it deems necessary before approving the same, and shall then levy the fees in such amounts as will be sufficient to meet the budgetary needs of said Texas Union building, within the limits herein fixed.
(c)  The power and authority conferred by this section does not and shall not constitute in any way a limitation or restriction upon the power and authority of the board of regents under Chapter 55 of this code.
Amended by Acts 1979, 66th Leg., p. 2074, ch. 811, Sec. 1, eff. June 13, 1979;  Acts 1983, 68th Leg., p. 2060, ch. 378, Sec. 3.  Renumbered from Education Code Sec. 67.21 and amended by Acts 1987, 70th Leg., ch. 901, Sec. 32, eff. Aug. 31, 1987.  Amended by Acts 1989, 71st Leg., ch. 910, Sec. 8;  Acts 1999, 76th Leg., ch. 1529, Sec. 1, eff. Aug. 30, 1999.