What to watch: The Midland College Board of Trustees meets at 4 p.m. Tuesday, April 21, to approve a new Level I Certificate in Medical Assistant, designate a specified outdoor area on campus for free-speech and protest expressive activities, and ratify the college’s admission procedures used to admit the 4,739 students who started classes last fall.

Why it matters: Several of those items are direct compliance measures related to Senate Bill 37, the wide-ranging community college governance bill from the 89th Regular Legislative Session. SB 37 took effect last year, with most provisions taking effect on January 1 of this year.

Among its provisions, the board must conduct a comprehensive review of the general education curriculum at least every five years, approve or deny any decision to consolidate or eliminate a degree or certificate program, approve the hiring of a provost, and may overturn the hiring of a vice president or dean, and any pre-existing faculty council or senate is abolished unless the governing board specifically ratified it.

Key items: 

  • Medical Assistant certificate: The board may approve a Level I Certificate in Medical Assistant, an 18-credit-hour, four-semester face-to-face program proposed for an August 24 launch. The administration’s recommendation cites both the demand for dual-credit health sciences and the unmet capacity in existing programs. Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board approval is required after board action.

The curriculum covers clinical procedures and pharmacology, phlebotomy, administrative procedures, three clinical placements, and a credentialing exam review course.

  • Designated free-speech area: SB 2972, also from the 89th session, removed the prior statutory presumption that a community college’s outdoor common areas were public forums. The new statute requires the board itself to designate the public forum areas.

The same statute restricts expressive activity from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m., during the last two weeks of a semester in common outdoor areas, and at any time when sound amplification interferes with class. It also prohibits camping or erecting living accommodations on campus, concealing identity to obstruct enforcement, and lowering the U.S. or Texas flag to raise another country’s or organization’s flag.

  • Admission procedures: SB 37 now gives boards a formal role in setting the college’s admissions policies, where, previously, college administrators largely wrote and managed admission criteria. Under the new system, the board itself must develop and adopt the procedures in collaboration with the college president.

Fall 2025 admitted 4,739 students across all categories. The largest single category was 2,119 dual-credit and early-admission high schoolers, followed by 1,385 high school graduates.

  • Trustee swearing-in: The board will swear in Trustee Jacobe Kendrick at the meeting to fill the unexpired Place 3 vacancy the board appointed him to on March 17, by a 6–0 board vote.
  • Policy update: Trustees will also formally receive a long list of 33 policy updates from the Texas Association of School Boards to align with the new state law, including linking its tax rate calculation worksheets to the supporting documents that prove the math is correct, reviewing its core curriculum at least every five years, and certifying to the state that the courses prepare students for the workforce.
  • Associate Degree Nursing: Trustees will receive a division presentation on the Associate Degree Nursing program. The ADN program is one of Midland College’s selective-admission health-sciences programs, requiring, among other things, a “Proficient” score on the ATI TEAS Version 7 entrance exam, an active Basic Life Support card, and Texas Board of Nursing background clearance.