PCC not affected by order to admit


By Brock Letchworth
The Daily Reflector

Thursday, November 29, 2007

State regulations requiring North Carolina community colleges to admit illegal immigrants won't affect Pitt Community College, officials say.

The state's community college system earlier this month ordered its 58 schools to begin admitting illegal immigrants who meet the basic requirements of being either a high school graduate or an adult in need of skills training.

Dennis Massey, PCC president, said the school's board of trustees implemented a policy nearly three years ago approving the acceptance of undocumented students.

"It is not really something that impacts us at this point because we've had a policy in place that admitted those students just as any other student," Massey said.

There are nine undocumented students enrolled at Pitt Community College this semester, said Don Spell, PCC vice president for student development. Because undocumented students must pay out-of-state tuition fees, Spell said, few can afford it.

The cost of out-of-state tuition and fees for a full-time student at Pitt Community College is $2,840 per semester, while in-state costs are $544. Illegal immigrants do not qualify for state or federal financial aid, Massey said.

Juvencio Peralta, president of the Association of Mexicans in North Carolina, said he thought ordering the community colleges to admit illegal immigrants was a step in the right direction although having to pay an out-of-state tuition presented a challenge to most families of undocumented students.

"It's not like they are getting a free ride to go to school," Peralta said. "It is still going to be tough for a lot of Latino kids and their families."

A bill to provide in-state tuition to some undocumented students failed in 2005.

"If they changed to allow students who, for example, graduated from high school in North Carolina to come with in-state tuition then yes, I think this would have a big impact on us," Massey said.

Peralta said he would like to see modifications allowing undocumented students to receive in-state status after attending state schools for at least five years.

"It would be nice to make it flexible for young kids so they can continue with their education," Peralta said.

William Gheen, spokesman for the Americans for Legal Immigration PAC, said his organization would like Gov. Mike Easley to rescind the order and for the state legislature to go into emergency session to address the issue.

"We should not be training illegal aliens for jobs they cannot legally hold," Gheen said.

The PCC trustees anticipated the new regulations might come before implementing their policy to admit undocumented students, Massey said.

Community college system officials said under the old policy, 340 of the 270,000 students enrolled statewide last year were illegal immigrants.

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