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By T. JMMY MUNOZ Daily Texan Staff The chairman of the House Appro priations Committee has filed a bill that would allow state universities and col leges to create a foreign student servi ces fee. The bill would allow the University and other state colleges and universi ties to charge a maximum of $150 per semester to foreign students for the funding of foreign student services in cluding ‘‘orientation sessions, advising and counseling, field trips, internation al student organizations, immigration processing and administration, cultural orientation and other international stu dent activities,”’ he said. If the bill is passed, the fee would be tacked on to existing student services fees collected from each registered stu dent by the University. Committee Chairman Bill Presnal, D-Bryan, said Sunday the bill would recoup the cost of providing services to foreign students. “The taxpayers will certainly be for it (the bill),”” Presnal said. Presnal said foreign students, many of whom do not pay taxes or do not have parents who are U.S. taxpayers, should share the cost of providing their student services that taxpayers now are paying for. Presnal said opinions expressed dur ing a meeting last year of representa tives of state college and university of ficials indicated there is support among those schools for his bill. Presnal filed a similar bill during the Legislature’s special session last September. He said many students also are pay ing for foreign student services be cause money has been diverted from the general budget of state colleges and universities to provide these services. Ronald Brown, UT vice president for student affairs, said the University does not charge a foreign student fee for international student services. He added he ‘would not be unhappy” if the bill were passed by the Legislature. Brown said the University would be able to “expand and enhance those ser vices” if the bill is passed. “It’s (the bill’s passage) not a high priority with us,” Brown said. “On the other hand I would not be displeased if the bill should pass. Bryce Jordan, UT System executive vice chancellor for academic affairs, said the presidents of UT System insti tutions have discussed a proposal for the establishment of a foreign student fee Jordan said a foreign student servi ces fee has the support of “some”’ pres idents of UT System institutions. However, neither Brown nor Jordan would say whether the University would definitely choose to create a for eign student fee if the bill were passed. Joe Neal, director of the UT Interna tional Office, said he could not com ment on the bill because of a Universi ty presidential order that restricts ad ministrators from commenting on pending state legislation. “If I thought the services were worth $150 I would pay for them,” said Gil bert Amine, president of the Council of Foreign Students and adviser for for eign student affairs to the Students’ Association president. Amine, an engineering junior, said he would have to study the proposed legislation before he could comment further. Bil Presnal ... says bill would re coup universities’ cost of foreign student services. Bryce Jordan ... says ‘some’ presidents of UT System institu tions back bill.
Newspaper Details
Austin Daily Texan
Austin, Texas, US
Mon, Mar 07, 1983
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Gilbert A.
USA 13 Jul 2026
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