In an effort to expedite student completion and graduation, the Texas Legislature passed Senate Bill 497mandating that students enrolled at a
public institution of higher education not be required to complete more than the
minimum number of semester credit hours (SCH) that are required by the Southern
Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACS-COC). For
associate degrees, that number is 60. Allowances for exceeding the 60 SCH
limit can be granted when a compelling academic reason exists, but must be
presented to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board on a case-by-case
basis.

Colleges have until the fall semester or 2015 to reduce the
required hours for all degrees. Many programs are having difficulty making
this adjustment as there are often no electives that can be dropped and program
faculty must decide which academic and field content classes are
expendable. Discussions among colleagues at other Texas institutions
suggest that literature and the second semester of freshman English are common
choices for elimination.