HOUSE BILL NO. 272 Offered January 11, 2006 Prefiled January 4, 2006 A BILL to require the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia to develop and implement a pilot program to provide geographical equity in the admission of Virginia domiciles to the institutions of higher education in the Commonwealth. ---------- Patron-- Poisson ---------- Referred to Committee on Education ----------

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1.  § 1. Geographical equity in admission to institutions of higher education; pilot program.

A. That the State Council of Higher Education of Virginia (the Council) shall develop and implement a three-year pilot program for the purpose of providing geographical equity in the admission of Virginia domiciles to the public institutions of higher education in the Commonwealth. The program shall seek to ensure that academically qualified students residing in areas of Virginia that routinely have a low percentage of applicants admitted to public institutions of higher education in relation to other areas of the Commonwealth are afforded the same educational opportunities as other Virginia residents.

B. The Council shall determine which areas of the Commonwealth routinely experience disproportionately low acceptance rates at Virginia's public institutions of higher education by calculating the percentage of applicants in each locality that are accepted and enrolled at Virginia's public colleges and universities, and comparing such percentages with the aggregate percentage of Virginia domiciles that are accepted and enrolled in Virginia's public colleges and universities. Any academically qualified student residing in a locality for which the acceptance rate is lower than the aggregate acceptance rate shall be eligible to participate in this program.

C. For purposes of this program, any student whose grade point average and Scholastic Aptitude Test scores are equal to or higher than the average grade point average and Scholastic Aptitude Test scores of all applicants accepted to the institution to which the student applied shall be deemed academically qualified. Any academically qualified student residing in an area experiencing a disproportionately low acceptance rate who is a domicile of Virginia in accordance with § 23-7.4 of the Code of Virginia and is denied admission to a public institution of higher education in Virginia shall be admitted and enrolled in such institution for the following academic year if such student completes, within one month prior to the commencement of the academic year immediately following the academic year for which the student was denied admission, at least 20 hours of community service per week for a period of 30 weeks. The Council shall determine the types of community service that will meet the requirements of this subsection and make available a list of such community service opportunities.

D. In addition to identifying (i) geographic areas of the Commonwealth that routinely experience disproportionate acceptance rates in accordance with subsection B and (ii) community service opportunities for students qualifying for participation in the program in accordance with subsection C, the Council shall make all necessary and appropriate regulations for the implementation of this program.

2.  That the provisions of this act shall expire on July 1, 2009.