N.C.: No immigrant policy yet for community colleges

[Jean]

No immigrant policy yet for community colleges
Decision on admitting students in U.S. illegally may take months. Critics say board too slow.
By Kristin Collins

Posted: Saturday, Jun. 06, 2009

On June 18, the State Board of Community Colleges' policy committee will discuss for the first time a consultant's report on the options for dealing with the admission of illegal immigrants.
That committee will develop a recommended policy, which will be given to staff to vet and write up.
The full board will receive the recommended policy. This will probably happen no sooner than August, board members say.
The full board will debate and settle on a final policy.
The policy will go through administrative code review, a state-mandated process that includes public comment and could take six to 18 months.
The new policy becomes a permanent rule.

Illegal immigrants will be barred from the state's community colleges for at least another semester while system leaders struggle to create a permanent policy on their admission.

The State Board of Community Colleges will meet this month to discuss the issue for the first time since deciding last August to commission a nearly $75,000 study on the issue. But they say that a decision is still months off and that an administrative rules review process will delay the introduction of a permanent policy even longer.

In the interim, illegal immigrants are temporarily blocked from enrolling in degree programs at the state's 58 community college campuses.

“We need to do our homework, fully analyze it,â€

[builditnow]

[quote]Pro-immigrant advocates say they agree that the decision should have been made months ago. Tony Asion, director of the Latino advocacy group El Pueblo, called the study a “political ploy.â€