Letter to editor can be found here:

Published: July 12, 2009

The purpose of this letter is to urge the General Assembly to reverse the decision of the community college board to temporarily ban enrollment of undocumented students in college credit courses before the close of the 2009 session.

The decision to impose the ban was made in response to then-candidate Bev Purdue’s request via conference call at the Board’s Spring 2008 meeting, thus not only ending the proud tradition of an open door policy in N.C. community colleges, but also ending the vital integration of the community college and university systems.

It is understandable that the community college board has been under intense pressure from the anti-immigrant lobby in the General Assembly, and I applaud the decision to hire an independent consultant to provide guidance as they go through the mandated process of preparing a responsible, permanent policy.

In the meantime, however, the Board could have lifted the temporary ban, and reverted to the policy that was in place before the politically-charged decision to impose the ban. They would have synchronized community college policy with that of the university system. Universities still enroll qualified undocumented students, but charge out-of-state tuition.

That is not the case, and that is why we must turn to the General Assembly to make things right.

Join the League of Women Voters of Catawba Valley in urging your legislators to reverse the decision to ban enrollment of undocumented immigrant students in college credit courses. Not only is this the right thing to do, it’s the smart thing to do.

Fran Syptak
President (ex-officio)
LWV of Catawba Valley

As a good reference point you should also check out this post, Study: Undocumented Students Save Taxpayer Dollars in North Carolina.