House Bill 1372

AN ACT TO PROVIDE THAT ANY NURSING SCHOOL OR DEGREE PROGRAM AT A STATE INSTITUTION OF HIGHER LEARNING OR A PUBLIC COMMUNITY OR JUNIOR COLLEGE IN MISSISSIPPI THAT HAS AN ENROLLMENT OF 100% DURING THE 2003-2004 ACADEMIC YEAR IS ELIGIBLE FOR STATE FUNDING TO HIRE UP TO FOUR ADDITIONAL FACULTY MEMBERS FOR THE NURSING SCHOOL OR PROGRAM BEGINNING WITH THE 2004-2005 ACADEMIC YEAR; TO PROVIDE THAT IN ORDER TO RECEIVE THIS FUNDING, A NURSING SCHOOL OR PROGRAM MUST INCREASE ITS ENROLLMENT PROPORTIONATELY FOR EACH ADDITIONAL FACULTY MEMBER HIRED WITH THE FUNDING; TO AMEND SECTION 37-115-51, 37-129-1 AND 73-15-25, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO CONFORM TO THE PRECEDING PROVISIONS; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:

SECTION 1. (1) Any nursing school or degree program at a state institution of higher learning or a public community or junior college in Mississippi that has an enrollment of one hundred percent (100%) during the 2003-2004 academic year is eligible for funding from the State Board of State Institutions of Higher Learning, the State Board for Community and Junior Colleges or the State Department of Education, as the case may be, to hire up to four (4) additional faculty members for the nursing school or program beginning with the 2004-2005 academic year. In order to receive the funding under this section, a nursing school or program must increase the enrollment at the school or program proportionately for each additional faculty member hired with this funding.

(2) The Legislature shall appropriate or otherwise make available to the State Board of State Institutions of Higher Learning, the State Board for Community and Junior Colleges and the State Department of Education the funds that are necessary to implement the provisions of subsection (1) of this section.

SECTION 2. Section 37-4-3, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

37-4-3. (1) From and after July 1, 1986, there shall be a State Board for Community and Junior Colleges which shall receive and distribute funds appropriated by the Legislature for the use of the public community and junior colleges and funds from federal and other sources that are transmitted through the state governmental organization for use by those colleges. This board shall provide general coordination of the public community and junior colleges, assemble reports and such other duties as may be prescribed by law.

(2) The board shall consist of ten (10) members of which none shall be an elected official and none shall be engaged in the educational profession. The Governor shall appoint two (2) members from the First Mississippi Congressional District, one (1) who shall serve an initial term of two (2) years and one (1) who shall serve an initial term of five (5) years; two (2) members from the Second Mississippi Congressional District, one (1) who shall serve an initial term of five (5) years and one (1) who shall serve an initial term of three (3) years; and two (2) members from the Third Mississippi Congressional District, one (1) who shall serve an initial term of four (4) years and one (1) who shall serve an initial term of two (2) years; two (2) members from the Fourth Mississippi Congressional District, one (1) who shall serve an initial term of three (3) years and one (1) who shall serve an initial term of four (4) years; and two (2) members from the Fifth Mississippi Congressional District, one (1) who shall serve an initial term of five (5) years and one (1) who shall serve an initial term of two (2) years. All subsequent appointments shall be for a term of six (6) years and continue until their successors are appointed and qualify. An appointment to fill a vacancy that arises for reasons other than by expiration of a term of office shall be for the unexpired term only. No two (2) appointees shall reside in the same junior college district. All members shall be appointed with the advice and consent of the Senate.

(3) There shall be a chairman and vice chairman of the board, elected by and from the membership of the board; and the chairman shall be the presiding officer of the board. The board shall adopt rules and regulations governing times and places for meetings and governing the manner of conducting its business.

(4) The members of the board shall receive no annual salary, but shall receive per diem compensation as authorized by Section 25-3-69 for each day devoted to the discharge of official board duties and shall be entitled to reimbursement for all actual and necessary expenses incurred in the discharge of their duties, including mileage as authorized by Section 25-3-41.

(5) The board shall name a director for the state system of public junior and community colleges, who shall serve at the pleasure of the board. The director shall be the chief executive officer of the board, give direction to the board staff, carry out the policies set forth by the board, and work with the presidents of the several community and junior colleges to assist them in carrying out the mandates of the several boards of trustees and in functioning within the state system and policies established by the State Board for Community and Junior Colleges. The State Board for Community and Junior Colleges shall set the salary of the Director of the State System of Community and Junior Colleges. The Legislature shall provide adequate funds for the State Board for Community and Junior Colleges, its activities and its staff.

(6) The powers and duties of the State Board for Community and Junior Colleges shall be:

(a) To authorize disbursements of state appropriated funds to community and junior colleges through orders in the minutes of the board.

(b) To make studies of the needs of the state as they relate to the mission of the community and junior colleges.

(d) To require community and junior colleges to supply such information as the board may request and compile, publish and make available such reports based thereon as the board may deem advisable.

(e) To approve proposed new attendance centers (campus locations) as the local boards of trustees should determine to be in the best interest of the district. However, * * * no new community/junior college branch campus shall be approved without an authorizing act of the Legislature.

(f) To serve as the state approving agency for federal funds for proposed contracts to borrow money for the purpose of acquiring land, erecting, repairing, etc. dormitories, dwellings or apartments for students and/or faculty, the loans to be paid from revenue produced by those facilities as requested by local boards of trustees.

(g) To approve applications from community and junior colleges for state funds for vocational-technical education facilities.

(h) To approve any university branch campus offering lower undergraduate level courses for credit.

(i) To appoint members to the Post-Secondary Educational Assistance Board.

(j) To appoint members to the Authority for Educational Television.

(k) To contract with other boards, commissions, governmental entities, foundations, corporations or individuals for programs, services, grants and awards when such are needed for the operation and development of the state public community and junior college system.

(l) To fix standards for community and junior colleges to qualify for appropriations, and qualifications for community and junior college teachers.

(m) To have sign-off approval on the State Plan for Vocational Education that is developed in cooperation with appropriate units of the State Department of Education.

(n) To approve or disapprove of any proposed inclusion within municipal corporate limits of state-owned buildings and grounds of any community college or junior college and to approve or disapprove of land use development, zoning requirements, building codes and delivery of governmental services applicable to state-owned buildings and grounds of any community college or junior college. Any agreement by a local board of trustees of a community college or junior college to annexation of state-owned property or other conditions described in this paragraph shall be void unless approved by the board and by the board of supervisors of the county in which the state-owned property is located.

(o) Under the provisions of Section 1 of this act, provide funding to nursing schools and degree programs at public community and junior colleges to hire additional faculty members for the nursing school or program, and require any nursing school or program that receives the funding to increase the enrollment at the school or program proportionately for each additional faculty member hired with the funding.

SECTION 3. Section 37-115-51, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

37-115-51. The Legislature * * * finds that there is great need of additional and better trained nurses in Mississippi and the purpose of this section is to meet that need to the extent * * * provided in this section.

The Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning shall establish a school of nursing at the University of Mississippi under the jurisdiction of the Dean of the School of Medicine or such other authority as the board of trustees may determine, and other regularly constituted administrative authorities of the university.

The board of trustees shall provide for the school, such buildings and equipment, and such teaching staff and other personnel as may be deemed appropriate for the establishment and operation of the school of nursing and for the performance of the other functions * * * provided for in this section, all of which shall, however, be done within the appropriations made for those purposes.

The school of nursing shall, under the direction and supervision of the Dean of the School of Medicine and the other regularly constituted administrative authorities of the university and of the board of trustees and under curricula to be prescribed by the board, and beginning each of its functions at such time as may be determined by the board, carry on a teaching course, looking to the conferring of bachelor's or master's degrees in nursing.

The school of nursing shall under the same direction, supervision, control and conditions as set forth in the fourth paragraph of this section, have authority, in its discretion, to arrange and contract with hospitals, hospital schools of nursing or other similar institutions, for students in the school of nursing to take clinical training and practice in those institutions. It also may contract with hospitals, hospital schools of nursing or other similar institutions with respect to providing to any such institution instructors or instruction services from the university school of nursing upon full or part time basis and upon such basis of compensation or reimbursement of costs as may be deemed reasonable and proper in view of the public interests involved.

Under the same supervision, direction, control and conditions as are set forth in the fourth paragraph of this section, the school of nursing shall also administer such scholarship programs in nursing education and such activities with respect to recruitment of nursing students and counseling work with such students and prospective students as may be provided for by the Legislature from time to time.

The school of nursing at the University of Mississippi is eligible for funding to hire additional faculty members under the provisions of Section 1 of this act.

SECTION 4. Section 37-129-1, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

37-129-1. In addition to all other powers and duties now vested by law in the Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning of the State of Mississippi, the board shall:

(a) Establish by rules and regulations and promulgate uniform standards for accreditation of schools of nursing in the State of Mississippi (i) insofar as concerns the eligibility of graduates of those schools to take the examination prescribed by law to become registered nurses authorized to practice the profession of nursing as registered nurses in Mississippi, and (ii) insofar as concerns student nurses attending those schools being eligible to participate in any student nurse scholarship program or other program of assistance now existing or hereafter established by legislative enactment;

(b) Issue to those schools of nursing upon an annual basis certificates of accreditation as may be proper under those standards;

(c) Administer any scholarship program or other program of assistance heretofore or hereafter established by legislative enactment for the benefit of students attending accredited schools of nursing in this state;

(d) Administer any other funds available or that may be made available for the promotion of nursing education in the state, with the exception of nursing faculty supplement funds to the public junior colleges, which funds shall be appropriated to and administered by the Division of Junior Colleges of the State Department of Education;

(e) Adopt rules and regulations to provide that a nurse in training may, during the two-year period in an approved hospital, be allowed to transfer at any time with full credit after six (6) months in training, to any other hospital of her choice at which there is a vacancy; suitable provision shall be made to protect him or her against coercion or intimidation concerning such a contemplated transfer;

(f) Under the provisions of Section 1 of this act, provide funding to nursing schools and degree programs at state institutions of higher learning to hire additional faculty members for the nursing school or program, and require any nursing school or program that receives the funding to increase the enrollment at the school or program proportionately for each additional faculty member hired with the funding.

In addition to other powers now vested by law in the Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning, the board may establish and maintain a nurse-midwifery education program that meets the accreditation standards of the American College of Nurse-Midwives at a state institution of higher learning under the jurisdiction of the board of trustees.

In order to implement paragraph (d) above, the Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning shall arrange and contract with hospitals, senior colleges and hospital schools of nursing for the financial support of programs of nursing education. The * * * board may adopt such terms for contracts, and such rules and regulations for reimbursing contracting agencies for costs of instruction in schools of nursing as may be feasible in accordance with appropriations made by the Legislature for this purpose. However, no reimbursement may be made to contracting agencies in excess of the actual cost of instruction in the schools of nursing.

No provision of this section shall be construed to authorize any department, agency, officer or employee of the State of Mississippi to exercise any controls over the admissions policy of any private educational institution offering a baccalaureate degree in nursing.

SECTION 5. Section 73-15-25, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

73-15-25. In addition to all other powers and duties now vested by law in the State Department of Education, it shall, acting in this behalf by and through its Division of Vocational Education * * *:

(a) Establish by rules and regulations and promulgate uniform standards for the accreditation of schools of practical nursing in this state insofar as concerns the eligibility of graduates of those schools to take the examination to become licensed practical nurses;

(b) Issue to those schools, upon an annual basis, certificates of accreditation as may be proper under those standards;

(c) Under the provisions of Section 1 of this act, provide funding to nursing schools and degree programs for practical nursing to hire additional faculty members for the nursing school or program, and require any nursing school or program that receives the funding to increase the enrollment at the school or program proportionately for each additional faculty member hired with the funding.

SECTION 6. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2004.