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A.  Pursuant to the duty and responsibility placed with the legislature by La. Const. Art. VIII, § 1 to establish and maintain a public educational system and the authority granted the legislature by Article VIII, Section 5(D)(3) to create a new institution by law enacted by two-thirds of the elected members of each house, the South Louisiana Community College in Lafayette Parish is hereby created and established as a comprehensive, multi-campus, public two-year institution of higher education.  The institution and its programs shall be managed and supervised by the Board of Supervisors of Community and Technical Colleges, subject to the appropriate approval of and oversight by the Board of Regents.

B.  The Board of Regents and the Board of Supervisors of Community and Technical Colleges shall adopt necessary rules and regulations to implement the provisions of this Section.  Such rules and regulations shall include but not be limited to the following guidelines, procedures, and requirements:

(1)  The institution and its programs shall be developed to be operational and ready to begin providing instructional services to students no later than the start of the 1999-2000 academic year.

(2)  The primary service delivery area of the community college shall be comprised of the parishes of Acadia, Evangeline, Iberia, Lafayette, St. Landry, St. Martin, St. Mary, and Vermilion.  Campuses or sites may be established in each of these parishes using public technical college facilities whenever possible.  The institution shall be domiciled in Lafayette Parish.  T. H. Harris Technical College in Opelousas shall serve as the site for the college campus in St. Landry Parish. If space is available, the technical college in each parish shall be the primary site for the vocational component of the community college.  If space is available, the academic component may be offered at the technical college site in each parish.  Where the primary service delivery area overlaps with the service area developed by the Board of Regents for Louisiana State University at Eunice, the Board of Supervisors of Community and Technical Colleges shall work in close cooperation with the Board of Supervisors of Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, officials at Louisiana State University at Eunice, and the Board of Regents to minimize unnecessary duplication of programs and services.

(3)  The institution and its programs shall be developed to assure the delivery of coordinated and articulated educational services in each parish comprising the primary service delivery area.

(4)  The institution and its programs shall be developed in a manner that maximizes the use of existing state and local resources and facilities in each parish comprising the college’s primary service delivery area.  This may include entering into cooperative service agreements, or contracts, or both, with other public education institutions and facilities in each parish comprising the institution’s primary service delivery area, including public secondary schools, technical colleges, and higher education institutions, to provide for credentialed faculty and instructional services from qualified persons, the use of classroom and laboratory facilities, and library resources.  The institution shall be established with adequate facilities, resources, services, and programs to meet accreditation requirements.  Additionally, it is the intention of the legislature that programs and services of the community college involving occupational, career, and vocational-technical education be provided through cooperative agreements with existing public vocational-technical education facilities within the primary service delivery area to the extent that such existing facilities can efficiently and effectively meet the needs of the community college.

(5)  The Board of Supervisors of Community and Technical Colleges is authorized to establish tuition amounts and other fees and charges applicable to students attending South Louisiana Community College that are consistent with tuition amounts and other fees and charges applicable to students attending other public two-year institutions of higher education in the University of Louisiana System.

C.  The Board of Supervisors of Community and Technical Colleges may appoint an advisory board made up of two members of the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education who reside in the South Louisiana Community College primary service delivery area, two members of the Board of Supervisors of Community and Technical Colleges, and local community representatives from business and labor.  The Louisiana Community and Technical Colleges president, the state superintendent of education, the commissioner of higher education, and the president of South Louisiana Community College shall serve as ex officio members.

D.  The Board of Supervisors of Community and Technical Colleges and the Board of Regents shall work closely with the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools for accreditation.  The institution shall be structured so as to fully satisfy all requirements of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to assure accreditation.

Acts 1997, No. 1369, §1, eff. July 1, 1997; Acts 1998, 1st Ex. Sess., No. 94, §1, eff. May 5, 1998; Acts 1998, 1st Ex. Sess., No. 151, §1, eff. July 1, 1999.

NOTE:  See Acts 1997, No. 1369, §§3, 4.