State checking collegians’ Social Security numbers
BY LAURA KELLAMS


The Arkansas Department of Higher Education has begun checking students’ Social Security numbers and alerting colleges and universities if they appear invalid.

Jim Purcell, the department director, said Thursday that the goal is to ensure that illegal aliens aren’t allowed to pay instate tuition rates when state officials think they’re ineligible under federal law. The investigation into the Social Security numbers began last week after Purcell alerted institutions, at the direction of Gov. Mike Beebe, that they need to ask students for evidence of legal residency before allowing them to pay the cheaper in-state rates.

Purcell said the first check flagged about 2, 000 Social Security numbers from the 2007-08 academic year that appear to be invalid, though that doesn’t necessarily mean the students are illegal aliens. They could include international students in the country legally or U. S. citizens who don’t want to share their Social Security numbers, he said.

That figure represents less than 2 percent of the total student population in Arkansas colleges and universities that year. There were about 121, 000 students enrolled at the beginning of the fall 2007 semester.

The department will ask colleges and universities to check if those students have a legitimate reason to have an invalid Social Security number on file, such as being in the country on a student visa. If the students with invalid numbers are paying in-state tuition, they’ll need to show proof of legal residency, he said.

“We’ll probably send them the information to make sure they check for the future, that those students in the fall will not get something they don’t deserve,â€