AUSTIN - State Sen. Eliot Shapleigh told his colleagues Wednesday that in 1960 California made a decision to expand its university system, which proved to be visionary because it made the nine University of California campuses world class schools.

The El Paso Democrat thinks that the Lone Star State finds itself in the same situation the Golden State found itself nearly 50 years ago.

"Now we have an opportunity to define ourselves," Shapleigh told the Texas Senate Higher Education Committee. "The future of Texas hangs in the balance."

The five-member panel, which includes Sen. Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock, agreed. So did Texas Tech President Guy Bailey and the presidents of six other major Texas universities the Legislature plans to eventually designate as national research institutions, more commonly called tier-one or flagship universities.

With that in mind the Senate Higher Education Committee started hearing how three bills - no one spoke against the proposed legislation - would start the process of making Tech and the six other schools national research universities, just like the University of Texas at Austin, Texas A&M and Houston-based private school Rice University.

Committee chairwoman Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, made it clear from the onset that although these are hard economic times, even if the Legislature cannot spend a penny on the proposed legislation this session, "what we need to do is create the pathway."

The bills that would facilitate the process for the schools to become tier-one universities are Senate Bill 9 by Zaffirini, SB 1560 by Duncan and Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano and SB 1564 by Shapleigh.

"The good news is that these goals are what everyone, all the emerging institutions, ought to be trying to achieve," Duncan said during the 21/2 hour hearing. "They are not unattainable by any of the seven. When you work to achieve those goals, whether you get national research university status or not, you are improving the institution and becoming a more valuable asset for the state."

The Legislature estimates that it needs to fund nearly half a billion dollars so that the seven schools get the tier-one designation. Tech Chancellor Kent Hance said during a recent visit to Austin that for the school the amount is between $40 million and $60 million in state funding.

Hance and Duncan said in separate interviews at the time that if the needed research money is not available this session, it is important to pave the way so that Tech gets tier-one status in the next few years, perhaps as early as the next legislative session in 2011.

Bailey told Wednesday's panel that there are two kinds of supports the seven schools need to get national research institution designation.

"We need immediate support and the matching funds that would help us bring in top notch researchers," Bailey said. "The second thing we need, we need ongoing permanent predicable support. We need support so that we can invest in long-term strategic initiatives.

"It is crucial to keep that in mind as well," he stressed.

Schools seeking tier-one status need to be able to attract high-caliber faculty who know that the state has made a long-term commitment to the institutions, Bailey explained.

Zaffirini said that among the objections she has heard being about making the seven schools tier-one institutions is that for UT Austin and Texas A&M the research pie would get smaller. UT President William Powers and A&M President Elsa Murano said they disagreed with such opinions because all things considered, the more flagship universities Texas has the better for the state.

"It's a great benefit to our universities," Powers said. "Anytime we have discussions on this we make tremendous amounts of progress."

Texas Higher Education Commissioner Raymund Paredes concurred.

"There is compelling evidence that we need to create more research universities," Paredes said. "(But) it will be a long and costly process."

Besides Tech, the other six schools under consideration for tier-one status are the University of Houston, the University of North Texas (in Denton) and the University of Texas at Arlington, Dallas, El Paso and San Antonio.