SCC reacts to state policy on illegal immigrants

By Sarah Jane Rosser, Staff Writer

Thursday, May 15, 2008 May 16, 2008 07:55 am

— Stanly Community College (SCC) will join other community colleges in North Carolina in refusing the admittance of undocumented or illegal immigrants into curriculum degree programs.
After receiving a release from Raleigh stating the North Carolina Community College System (NCCCS) will not admit illegal immigrants into their 58 community colleges, SCC President Mike Taylor said the subject is a non issue.
“From a practical stand-point, it’s a lot about nothing,” Taylor said.
“They aren’t here because they can’t afford it.”
Up until now, SCC and other community colleges who allowed illegal immigrants into their system mandated those individuals to pay out-of-state tuition. For SCC, that price was $7,581.20 for an entire year of full-time status.
Attorney General Roy Cooper sent out a letter of advisory to the NCCCS to no longer allow illegal immigrants into the system.
NCCCS has returned to the policy that prohibits those students from taking curriculum degree classes, but it will not restrict high school students from taking any community college classes or an adult who seeks non college level courses to include General Educational Development (GED), Adult High School, English as a Second Language (ESL) classes and continuing education classes.
According to a release sent out by Audrey Bailey, assistant to the president for public information at NCCCS, for the 2006-2007 academic year, 112 curriculum degree students who were identified as undocumented individuals were enrolled among the 296,540 curriculum degree students at that time.
Taylor said only two undocumented individuals were attracted to SCC, one who never enrolled and one who only took one class at SCC.
Contact Sarah Jane Rosser at snaponline26@carolina.rr.com.