The Texas Legislature is in full swing, and legislators are making their mad dash to pass their laws before the 140-day session ends.

St. Edward’s University students and staff members have been lobbying the Texas Legislature to maintain funding for the Texas Equalization Grant, which is given to 1,109 St. Edward’s students. But there are other bills of interest to St. Edward’s under the legislative microscope.

The following items are just some of many that legislators will consider, but it is possible that some could slip through the cracks.

“There is so much on the agenda and there are so many issues,” said Br. Richard Daly, a St. Edward’s professor and the former executive director of Texas Catholic Conference. “There is a good likelihood that there will be a special session.”

A special session, which has to be called by the governor, could focus on topics such as school funding, redistricting or the budget.

Current budget proposals would cut discretionary funding in half for the Texas B-On-Time Loan.

The loan program is given to Texas students at public and private universities who are eligible for federal financial aid. This year, 399 students receive the loan at St. Edward’s, and the median amount of the loan is $6,780, the maximum amount available to students this year, according to Student Financial Services. Students do not have to repay the loan if they graduate within four calendar years or with no more than 126 academic credits and maintain a 3.0 grade point average.

In addition to $30 million of revenue dedicated to the loan program, the program’s discretionary budget from the state’s general revenue fund is set to decrease from $52 million to $26.2 million during the next two years. The result is that the program’s growth is halted.

“Conceptually, what has been done is that the program will no longer pay for any new enrollees,” said Legislative Budget Board spokesman John Barton.

That means that only students currently enrolled in the Texas B-On-Time Loan program would be eligible to continue receiving funding. Just 54 St. Edward’s students receiving the loan are scheduled to graduate before the 2011 fall semester.

A proposal by Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, would broaden conceal and carry laws on college campuses. Private universities, however, would be allowed to ban guns on campus.

Wentworth has said he wants licensed gun owners to be able to defend themselves from gunmen like the one at the University of Texas last fall or the student who massacred 32 people at Virginia Tech in 2007.

St. Edward’s, however, has been sending a statement to legislators saying that all universities should decide the issue for themselves, university spokeswoman Mischelle Diaz said.

“St. Edward’s University believes that the decision regarding the right to carry a concealed weapon on campus should be made by the governing board of each individual institution,” the statement says. “Each decision should be made in the context of the institution’s mission, student population and closely held values.”

The St. Edward’s Student Code of Conduct prohibits students from possessing guns and other weapons.

“The student code of conduct places value on our sense of community and honor,” the university’s statement says. “Possession of weapons of any kind violates a person’s sense of a safe learning and living environment while on our campus.”

Bills to allow conceal and carry on campus have been filed in past sessions, but the Legislature was split more evenly between political parties. Republicans now have a supermajority in the House.

Legislators are debating the bill SB 354 in the Senate Criminal Justice Committee.

Legislators have filed several bills that toughen state laws against bullying and cyber-bullying in public schools.

The issue of bullying, especially cyber-bullying, has been on legislators’ radars since several students in Texas public schools were reportedly bullied and subsequently committed suicide.

Another incident at an out-of-state university recently made national headlines. In an incident last September at Rutgers University in New Jersey, a freshman student committed suicide after his roommate streamed a secretly-recorded video of him kissing another man online.

Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, has proposed a bill, HB 399, requiring all state universities in Texas to offer a course in personal finance.

The bill unanimously passed the House Higher Education committee on March 25. No full vote has been scheduled yet.

The bill says that the course may include training on “budgeting, credit cards, spending, saving, loan repayment and consolidation, taxes, retirement planning, and financing of health care and other benefits.” The state universities would have to implement the course by the fall of 2013.

Castro’s bill as it currently stands would only affect St. Edward’s from a competitive standpoint.

However, earlier this year, the Student Government Association considered suggesting a similar measure to the university’s administration. That bill never made it out of committee.

The state is considering a statewide ban on text messaging and sending e-mails while driving, although these are already banned in the City of Austin. The only time texting while behind the wheel would be legal is when a car has come to a complete stop — like at stop signs and traffic lights.

The House Transportation Committee has unanimously approved a bill, HB 243, that would create such a ban. Several other bills have also been filed targeting cell phone use while driving.

Thirty other states currently outlaw text messaging while driving.

OTHER NOTABLE LEGISLATION

• HB 766 would exempt college textbooks from the sales tax.

• HB 2454 would ban discrimination against faculty members or students at public universities who want to pursue research in intelligent design rather than evolution.

• HB 33 would require public universities to list retail prices of course-required textbooks at the time of registration — something that St. Edward’s already does.

• HB 104 would eliminate the State Higher Education Coordinating Board and create a new entity that would be placed under the supervision of the controversial State Board of Education. The SBOE has come under fire from the left for what they see as politicizing the state’s social studies curriculum. Conservative SBOE deny those claims.