Thread: NC: Hurrah! Colleges to bar illegal immigrants

STUDY CALIFORNIA AND TEXAS -

DON'T FORGET THE COMMUNITY AND TAXPAYERS -

HOSPITALS ARE BROKE AND

CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR CANNOT AFFORD HIS AIRFARE.

AMERICANS CITIZENS FIRST!

Community colleges will stay closed to illegals
Published: August 15, 2008


HICKORY, NC - The North Carolina State Board of Community Colleges has ordered all 58 colleges in the system to not admit illegal immigrants in classes for credit while it conducts a study on the effects of illegal immigrants on the college system.

The State Board of Community Colleges met Thursday and Friday to discuss illegal immigrants attending community colleges. In May, Attorney General Roy Cooper sent a letter to the school system saying post-secondary education is a benefit undocumented or illegal aliens aren't eligible to receive.

The N.C. Community College System asked the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for further clarification, and was told in July that it's something that must be decided individually by states.

System President Scott Ralls said while there are many illegal immigrants in the state, they shouldn't necessarily be punished for their parents' actions, and reminded the Community College System that our economy may depend on them.

"While many of these students may not have arrived in the United States legally, many of them came as minors, and for what it is worth, I have difficulty with the notion of punishing minors for the actions of their parents," he said. "There is also the economic consideration of these current public school students one day potentially being legal caregivers, service providers and production workers in our state's economy, and the question of whether they are trained or not will be important."

Ralls said he knows there are many matters of concern to legal North Carolina residents — primarily illegal immigrants taking limited seats in classes, using state taxpayer dollars to support people who are here illegally and offering something to people who are here illegally.

Ralls did have a few answers to those concerns at the meeting. Illegal immigrants are required to pay out-of-state tuition to attend community colleges. At CVCC, it's $3,732.80 for a full semester of 16 or more credit hours. An in-state student pays $672.

"Given the cost of out-of-state tuition, the numbers of undocumented students admitted to our programs have been very small — less than one-half of 1 percent of enrollment in our degree programs," Ralls said. "We could address it by considering policies that give preference to students with in-state status where program spaces may be limited and waiting lists exist."

Ralls also said the community college system could potentially only admit illegal immigrants who are graduates of U.S. high schools or those who were in U.S. high schools for a certain number of consecutive years, to ensure they came to the U.S. as minors.

An independent consultant the N.C. Community College System will hire will study other states' policies for admissions of undocumented immigrants, ways to verify a student's legal status, the history of admission policies for undocumented students to the N.C. Community College System and what policies should be developed to address the situation, among other things. The study will be paid for by the State Board's reserve funds.

"We're going to continue to do what the state board directs us to do, until we're told otherwise," said Mary Miller, with the media relations department of Catawba Valley Community College.
http://tinyurl.com/58ou7c

North Carolina Community College System
Undocumented study approved
PRESS RELEASE: Immediate
CONTACT: Audrey Bailey, Chancy Kapp

DATE: August 15, 2008
PHONE: (919) 807-6963, 807-6962

State Board of Community Colleges approves major study of immigration issues, maintains current enrollment restrictions.

RALEIGH - The State Board of Community Colleges today (August 15) instructed the System Office staff to move forward quickly with a comprehensive study of issues surrounding enrollment of undocumented students in the North Carolina Community College System.

The Board also approved a motion from Lt. Governor Beverly Perdue, a member of the Board, to adhere to the current practice of restricting the enrollment of undocumented students while the study is underway. The motion specified that the System “maintain the May 13, 2008 directive that bans the admission of undocumented students to NC’s Community College System while the long-term policy is being examined.â€

NORTH CAROLINA COMMUNITY COLLEGE SYSTEM POLICY COMMITTEE
DR. STUART FOUNTAIN, CHAIRMAN
PROPOSED MOTION

The Policy Committee recommends, and I so move, that the State Board of
Community Colleges employ an independent consultant to study issues
surrounding the admission of undocumented students into the North Carolina
Community College System (NCCCS). The Board directs the System President
and his staff to prepare a document outlining the scope of study, including but not
limited to the following:

• A survey and analysis of policies for admission and pending or
ratified state or federal legislation of undocumented students in
institutions of higher education in other states;
• Processes of verification to differentiate between U.S. citizens and
undocumented students;
• Under what conditions undocumented students are admitted to the
systems of higher education;
• Assemble a compendium of the history of the admission of
undocumented students into the NCCCS; and
• What policies and possible policy options can and should be
developed to address the admission of undocumented students.

Dr. Ralls is directed to move forward, under the state rules of procurement and
with the Division of Purchase and Contract, to identify and select a consultant
through a “Request for Proposalsâ€

NORTH CAROLINA COMMUNITY COLLEGE SYSTEM
R. Scott Ralls, Ph.D.
President
CC08-114
Email

May 13, 2008
IMPORTANT INFORMATION

MEMORANDUM
TO: Community College Presidents
Community College VP/Deans of Instruction
Community College VP/Deans of Student Development
Community College VP/Deans of Continuing Education
Community College Admissions Officers
Community College Registrars

FROM: Q. Shanté Martin, General Counsel
RE: UNRESTRICTED ADMISSION OF UNDOCUMENTED OR
ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS

On May 6, 2008, the Office of the Attorney General advised the North Carolina
Community College System Office that the System Office’s guidance in the December
21, 2001 Memorandum CC01-271, restricting the admission of illegal immigrants,
“would more likely withstand judicial scrutiny.â€

Community colleges won't admit illegal immigrants — for now


Charlotte Business Journal

The board governing North Carolina’s community colleges voted Friday to bar illegal immigrants from admission until it comes up with a permanent policy on the issue.

The vote brings at least temporary clarity to a situation that escalated in May, when the state attorney general’s office recommended that the N.C. Community College System stop admitting illegal immigrants. Since then, however, federal immigration officials have told N.C. leaders that no federal or state law prohibits the admission of illegal students — leaving the decision in the hands of the board.

On Friday, amid political pressure, the board decided to put off a permanent decision until it can complete a study on the issue. In the meantime, illegal immigrants won’t be admitted to the community colleges.

The number of illegal immigrants at the community colleges is estimated at less than 0.5 percent of all students enrolled. But the issue has become politically charged.

Both candidates for governor — Lt. Gov. Bev Perdue, a Democrat, and Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory, a Republican — have come out against enrolling illegal immigrants. Perdue is a member of the community colleges’ board. On Friday, she voted in favor of the study and the temporary ban. Also, multiple lawmakers on the state and federal level have said they’d support legslation prohibiting illegal immigrants from attending community colleges.
http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/st ... aily6.html

Originally Posted by vortex

What sort of convoluted logic is being practiced in our institutions of higher learning.

How about blatant discrimination against American citizens practiced by a group of sick, wacko Liberal nut jobs who get hundreds of thousands of dollars to be college professors at what were once good universities? If you want to see what started the collapse of our country, read about the sick things going on at our colleges and universities:

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig/mcelroy3.html

Last October, Michigan State University sophomore and libertarian Jason Van Dyke was told that he should not use the elevator and various other public areas of his on-campus residence, Case Hall. He is a white heterosexual male and a university-sanctioned campaign of discrimination against his ‘sort’ was underway. Signs on restrooms and cafeteria tables indicated "blacks" or "gays only." The discrimination was part of a program called ‘Our Divided Reality,’ which was organized by Case Hall Black Caucus, the Department of Residence Life, and MSU Prism – a support group for lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgendered [LBGT] students. The segregation was intended to heighten student – read white male – sensitivity toward minority groups.

State Board of Community Colleges approves major study of immigration issues, maintains current enrollment restrictions
Triangle -

RALEIGH - The State Board of Community Colleges instructed the System Office staff to move forward quickly with a comprehensive study of issues surrounding enrollment of undocumented students in the North Carolina Community College System.

The Board also approved a motion from Lt. Governor Beverly Perdue, a member of the Board, to adhere to the current practice of restricting the enrollment of undocumented students while the study is underway. The motion specified that the System “maintain the May 13, 2008 directive that bans the admission of undocumented students to NC’s Community College System while the long-term policy is being examined.â€

Community Colleges in North Carolina Close Doors to Illegal Immigrants
By KATHERINE MANGAN

North Carolina's State Board of Community Colleges voted on Friday to bar illegal immigrants from enrolling in the state's 58 community colleges while it commissions a study on the politically charged issue. The decision surprised and angered some Hispanic-rights advocates and disregarded the board president's recommendation that a more lenient policy be restored.

The vote ratified a motion by Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue, a former schoolteacher and current Democratic candidate for governor, who sits on the community-colleges board. She drew sharp fire from critics of the decision.

"I was shocked that a person who is running for office stating that she will be the education governor would propose denying education to these kids," said Tony Asion, executive director of El Pueblo Inc., a public-policy group, based in Raleigh, N.C., that advocates for Latinos. "And I was shocked that they are going forward with this policy even though there is no federal or state law prohibiting the colleges from admitting these students."

North Carolina is one of only a few states that deny illegal immigrants access to community colleges.

In recent years, the state's community-college leaders have been yanked back and forth by government officials who told them they could, or could not, accept illegal immigrants. In May the state attorney general's office advised the community-college system to stop admitting undocumented students who were otherwise qualified. He said the open-door policy that the college system's lawyers had recommended last year could violate federal law.

The following day, Gov. Michael F. Easley, a Democrat, stepped in and urged the colleges to hold off on changing their policies until the federal government offered some guidance. Nonetheless, the community-colleges system sent out an advisory in late May telling the college presidents to heed the attorney general's advice and ban illegal immigrants. Some did, while others decided to wait for the federal government to weigh in.

Last month, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security concluded that federal law does not prevent public colleges from accepting undocumented students and punted the issue back to the state.

As a result of the conflicting messages, some of the state's community colleges have banned illegal immigrants, while others have not. When those students are accepted, they still must pay high out-of-state tuition rates, a cost that has severely restricted the number of such students attending the colleges.

The community-colleges board also voted on Friday to authorize a study of how other states handle the issue of undocumented students and to use that information to develop its own policy.

Small Enrollment

A day earlier, R. Scott Ralls, president of the community-colleges system, spoke in favor of easing the restriction. "While many of these students may not have arrived in the United States legally, many of them came as minors, and for what it is worth, I have difficulty with the notion of punishing minors for the actions of their parents," he said.

"Given the cost of out-of-state tuition, the numbers of undocumented students admitted to our programs have been very small—less than one-half of 1 percent of enrollment in our degree programs," Mr. Ralls added.

The system reports that only 112 illegal immigrants are among the approximately 800,000 students enrolled statewide.

Gary M. Green, president of Forsyth Technical Community College, said he appreciated guidance on what has been "a difficult and moving target." The state's practices on undocumented students have changed at least four times since 2000.

"I think this is a reasoned approach, for the state board to take time to consider a very important public-policy issue," he said on Friday. Forsyth stopped accepting undocumented students in May, when the attorney general advised colleges to do so. Only four of the college's 7,500 current students are undocumented, he said. They pay out-of-state tuition of $233 per credit hour, compared with the in-state rate of $42.

Some board members and community-college presidents believe that rather than ban undocumented students outright, the colleges should follow the lead of the University of North Carolina system, which allows them to enroll as long as they have graduated from a high school in the United States, pay out-of-state tuition rates, and do not receive federal financial aid.

"I do not understand why they're hammering this ant with a sledgehammer," said Michael A. Olivas, a professor of law at the University of Houston, who is a national expert on immigration law and policy. "These are not kids who have crossed the border as terrorists."

Mr. Olivas said that all but 10 states required undocumented students to pay out-of-state rates, but that with Friday's vote, only North Carolina and South Carolina ban them outright from community colleges.

Opposing Views

The issue has become a hot potato in a state with one of the nation's fastest-growing Hispanic populations and a growing number of undocumented students. U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick, a Republican of North Carolina, announced on Wednesday that in September she would introduce a bill to yank federal funds from colleges that knowingly have admitted illegal immigrants. The bill would restrict direct appropriations and grants, but not financial aid.

"Our higher-education system is set up so that our country's resources go to those who are here legally, not those who are breaking our laws," said Ms. Myrick, a former mayor of Charlotte, N.C., during a news conference.

Andrea Bazán, chairwoman of the National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic advocacy group, called the vote to ban illegal immigrants "shortsighted."

Denying students access to a college education could lead to higher rates of dropouts, teen pregnancy, and gang participation, said Ms. Bazán. "They may feel that there's no point in working hard in school because they won't be able to go to college anyway."

Mr. Asion, of the group El Pueblo, said studies had shown that the state would need tens of thousands more workers in nursing, among other professions, to meet the needs of an aging population. Instead of importing workers, he said, the state could educate undocumented students who had grown up there and provide waivers to allow them to fill jobs in fields with worker shortages.

"We have kids willing to pay to go to school without getting a dime from the state, and we need them," he said. "So why is it again that we don't want them educated?"

"These kids are sitting on the sidelines, waiting," Mr. Asion continued. "One minute they're hearing you can go to college, then you can't, then yes, you can. We're messing with their lives."
http://chronicle.com/temp/email2.php?id ... wWwyNDWpyf

Door to state's community colleges shuts on illegal immigrants
The ban stands
20 AUG 2008 • by Lisa Rossi


The ban on illegal immigrants in North Carolina's community colleges will stand while the board that oversees the institutions conducts an extensive study to craft a long-term policy on the issue.

A divided State Board of Community Colleges voted Aug. 15 to maintain the ban on undocumented students while the board undertook a study—flouting the advice of the staff attorney who said the community colleges' open door policy includes admission of illegal immigrants.

Eleven of the 20 voting members voted in favor; four members were absent.

But the board was unanimous in its decision to hand the matter over to consultants for study on how other states handle illegal immigrants who want to attend college, and how colleges verify who is a U.S. citizen.

The decision came amid concern among community college staff on how to handle the administration of such a task.

Van Wilson, community college system associate vice president for academic and student services, said colleges can't use the options available to employers to verify citizenship status, such as the online system, E-Verify, that helps employers check the work status of new hires.

He said verification is labor intensive for staff that is already "stretched to the max" and is grappling with pressure on colleges to rely less on Social Security numbers in order to protect student identities.

A key interest among board members is how other states such as South Carolina that have pursued similar restrictions have handled the issues that accompany identifying the citizenship status of their students.

In South Carolina, where the legislature recently voted to require public colleges to verify citizenship and to deny entry for illegal immigrants, higher education officials are studying which tools to use to verify citizenship, said Scott Verzyl, assistant vice provost and director of admission at the University of South Carolina in Columbia.

He said university officials are considering whether they can use data kept by the U.S. Department of Education unit that processes the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, which provides some citizenship information.

They are also looking at what is referred to as the SAVE database, which allows access to U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services records and helps determine non-citizens' immigration status, he said.

"The intent is ... that we don't have people who are pretending to be citizens who are not," Verzyl said.

Officials are also studying how much this will cost colleges in terms of extra staff and technology, he said.

The N.C. community college decision comes after nearly a decade of legal and political wrangling over whether undocumented immigrants should be able to attend these institutions in North Carolina.

"Our students and staff have been whip-sawed on this position too many times over months and years," said board member Stuart Fountain. "We felt like we just don't want the risk of having flip-flopping on this question prior to when we get this study done."

Undocumented immigrants make up a tiny fraction of those who attend community college in the state.

A total of 112 students in 2006-07 were illegal immigrants who enrolled at one of the system's 58 colleges, system officials said. Nearly 300,000 students total that year enrolled in degree-seeking programs.

The N.C. community college system has changed its position on the admission of illegal immigrants five times in the last eight years, said R. Scott Ralls, system president.

The most recent confusion over the issue of whether to admit illegal immigrants to community colleges came this spring. Board attorney Shante Martin said in a May 13 opinion that community colleges need to ban illegal immigrants, advice last week she said "doesn't hold water anymore."

Martin's earlier memo followed the advice of the N.C. Attorney General's office, which stated May 3 that illegal immigrants should not be admitted to avoid conflicts with federal law.

Those decisions came under fire in July, when the N.C. Attorney General received a letter from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which said it was not a violation of federal law to admit illegal immigrants to community colleges.

That means with the federal government's hands out of the matter, and no state law clarifying whether immigrants could attend community colleges, it was up to the state board that oversees community colleges to decide.

Before the board voted, Ralls advocated that community colleges follow the system's open door policy while it debates a more permanent policy.

"While many of these students may not have arrived legally, many came as minors," Ralls said Thursday. "For what it's worth, I have trouble punishing minors for the actions of their parents."

Fountain said he wants a new policy in place on illegal immigrants and college admission by the beginning of academic year 2009-10.

The debate among state board members was expected to draw vitriol, but was generally civil. Yet at least one board member—albeit a non-voting one—spoke in support of allowing illegal immigrants to attend community colleges.

"If they have the desire to learn, then they need that opportunity to get the education," said Jeana El Sadder, a student representative on the board from Rockingham Community College. "To punish them for something their parents did—to me, that's not right."

Jason Britt, 21, said he supported the board's Friday decision. "I think they were in a very hard position," said Britt, a student at Bladen Community College. "I think they had to do something, because community colleges are wanting an answer."

Student Jesse Presnell, 19, echoed El Sadder's concern over barring illegal immigrants, and said the issue is one divided not only by partisan lines, but also among generational lines.

"When you have a board full of mostly older people, you're going to have mostly older opinions," he said.

Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue, who attended last week's board meetings via speakerphone, urged the board to uphold the current ban while it debated any substantial policy changes.

"I cannot see how we, as a board, can justify such erratic policy-making to the people of this state," she wrote in a letter to the board.

Perdue is the Democratic nominee for governor; her opponent, Republican Pat McCrory, also opposes allowing illegal immigrants to attend state community colleges.

Other prominent state Republicans have jumped into the fray on the issue as well. U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick said earlier this month she wanted to introduce legislation that would prohibit any college or university that knowingly enrolls illegal immigrants from receiving federal money.

And as reported by the Greenboro News & Record, last January, U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx wrote a letter to UNC System President Erskine Bowles asking him to prohibit illegal immigrants who live in North Carolina from paying in-state tuition. "Giving special treatment to illegal aliens is fundamentally unjust to both North Carolinians and legal immigrants who have invested a great deal to comply with our immigration laws or obtain legal citizenship," she wrote.
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