MCC expects little impact from state ruling on illegals

By Chyna Broadnax | Statesville R&L

Published: September 22, 2009

Mitchell Community College expects a minimal impact, if any, from a new state policy governing the admissions of illegal immigrants into community colleges.

The State Board of Community Colleges voted last week to allow illegal immigrants to enroll in North Carolina's 58 community colleges.

Board members voted 16 to 1 to admit undocumented immigrants provided they:

- Have graduated from a high school in the United States;

- Pay out-of-state tuition of $7,700 per academic year; and

- Do not displace a state or U.S. resident from a class or program.

Under the new policy, undocumented immigrants cannot register for classes until after legal residents have.

"The new policy, I doubt seriously, will have an impact on Mitchell Community College," President Douglas Eason said.

Students admitted under this policy will not be eligible to receive financial aid so paying out-of-state tuition cost may be a barrier for them.

Eason said the required tuition these students must pay would be a "pretty steep hill," for them.
The policy will take six months to a year to go into effect.

It may not be until next fall until community colleges can begin to admit undocumented immigrants.
"If we have any students admitted under this policy it will be a very small number and I doubt that," Eason said.

Until the new policy is effective, community colleges must continue to operate under the previous rule of denying admission to undocumented immigrants.

"Once the administrative rules process is completed, our community colleges will be able to cease the back-and-forth of the last eight years, and these students, who are striving for a better future, will have access to a seamless educational pathway from K-12 and beyond," board chair Hilda Pinnix-Ragland Pinnix-Ragland said in a statement.

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