How two key SCOTUS decisions could affect higher education in Tennessee

Two opinions from the U.S. Supreme Court will have major implications across the higher education landscape in Tennessee. Justices ruled against race-conscious admissions policies and the Biden Administration’s student debt relief program.

Affirmative action

The makeup of college campuses could change dramatically after Thursday’s decision, in which the court struck down race-conscious admissions policies, also known as affirmative action.

Dr. Kelly E. Slay is a Vanderbilt professor who researches the implications of banning the consideration of race in college admissions. She has also witnessed it firsthand.

Slay attended the University of Michigan before that state outlawed race-conscious admissions. She returned years later to find a remarkably less racially diverse campus. She said that changed both classrooms and campus culture.

“You had Black students talking about the way that they felt isolated, that they felt like they didn’t belong,” Slay said.

The Supreme Court’s decision will have the most acute effect on admissions policies at schools like Vanderbilt and the University of Tennessee Knoxville, Slay said. But there will likely be ripple effects throughout the higher education landscape.

“We might see students deciding not to apply to some of the more selective institutions that they may have considered before and instead going to either institutions where they perceive that they have a better chance of gaining admission or institutions that they perceive to be more racially diverse and inclusive,” Slay said.

Slay pointed to California as an example. She said after that stated banned race-conscious admissions, students of color were less likely to apply to and enroll in schools like UC Berkeley and UCLA.

“They instead shifted to less selective institutions like the Cal States and community colleges.”

She said Black students and students of color often strongly consider campus culture when deciding where they want to go to school.

“If predominantly white institutions experience declines in the enrollment of students of color, that could make minority-serving institutions like HBCUs (including the ones we have here in Tennessee) a more compelling choice for college,” she wrote.

Slay emphasized in an email that the court decision affects admissions, but does not directly address other strategies to build a diverse student body, like recruitment or financial aid.

“So, colleges and universities must and can continue to advance opportunities for all students of color who are underrepresented in higher education.”

The Supreme Court’s decision overturned more than four decades of legal precedent.

Student loan forgiveness

On Friday morning, the nation’s highest court dropped another decision with enormous impacts for Tennessee. Justices ruled that the Biden Administration’s student loan forgiveness program overstepped its authority.

The plan would have forgiven up to $10,000 in student loans for borrowers making up to $125,000 annually. The debt relief would have increased to $20,000 for Pell grant recipients — students with high financial need.

One in eight Tennesseans have student loan debt. Together, residents carry a total debt topping $30 billion, according to the Education Data Initiative. The average student loan debt for the state is more than $36,000.

Alexis Marshall WPLN News

Hailee B. Roye worked as a pre-K teacher in East Nashville last fall while pursuing a master’s degree in public policy at Vanderbilt University. The Biden Administration’s debt forgiveness program would have cancelled $20,000 of her student debt.

Hailee B. Roye is among those student borrowers. She spoke to WPLN News last year when the forgiveness program was announced. This spring, she graduated from Vanderbilt with a master’s degree and more than $100,000 in student debt. After the news she’s feeling “disappointed.”

“Not solely just for myself, but for other people who are also (in) higher debt than me,” she said.

Roye said the court’s decision will make it harder for people to escape cycles of poverty.

“With inflation and trying to find jobs and getting a good salary and trying to maintain staying afloat in our society, I think, when you add on student loans, it kind of just makes it even harder.”

Roye received Pell grant funding to go to school, so she would have qualified for $20,000 in forgiveness. Even though that would have only knocked out a fraction of her debt, she said it still would have made a big impact.

“It’s a huge difference, especially (for) someone who doesn’t come from generational wealth,” Roye said.

Now, she’s considering putting her loans in deferment, until she can find a job that pays enough to start chipping away at the debt.