Texarkana College says things will be ‘business as usual’ after SCOTUS ruling on affirmative action

TEXARKANA, Texas (KSLA) - Area institutions of higher learning are still assessing the Supreme Court’s ruling on affirmative action. Smaller institutions KSLA reached out to say things should be business as usual.

The admissions and enrollment office at Texarkana College continued assisting prospective students Friday, June 30 after the U.S. Supreme Court decided to do away with affirmative action in higher education admissions. Leaders say Texarkana College will continue with business as usual. Vice President of Operations Brandon Washington says the local college has always been an open enrollment institution.

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“So open enrollment for Texarkana College means we will continue to require the same enrollment procedure which we have always required, which is a high school diploma. We have never used the race as a basis to determine enrollment or admission to the college,” Washington said.

Texarkana College has an enrollment of around 4,000 students per semester. Officials there say they don’t expect to lose students, but it’s too early to determine if the ruling will bring more students to the campus. Phyllis Deese is the Vice President of Administrative Services at Texarkana College.

“We don’t anticipate any changes in our enrollment. our neighbor colleges also have that same open enrollment policy like we have, so I don’t anticipate the recent supreme court ruling having any impact on our enrollment whatsoever,” said Phylis Deese, vice president of administrative services at Texarkana College.

Concerning the ruling, Texas A&M University-Texarkana provided the following statement: “None of the A&M System universities use race in admissions, so there will be no impact.”

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