MARIETTA – Cobb’s three Republican state senators are among 15 signers of a letter sent to the Board of Regents on Wednesday, urging the body to do more to get illegal immigrants out of state-subsidized universities.
Meanwhile, a special committee created by the regents last week, called the Residency Verification Committee, has set its first meeting for Monday. Lisa A. Rossbacher, president of Southern Polytechnic State University in Marietta, is among four college heads appointed to the committee.
On Wednesday, the Republican state senators wrote to the regents: “We remain disappointed and perplexed that the Board of Regents seems to be engaged in verbal gymnastics … to escape the obvious and full application of law. Persons not lawfully present in the United States are not eligible, regardless of tuition rates, to attend taxpayer supported colleges and universities in Georgia.”
Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers, whose district includes part of north Cobb; Judson Hill of east Cobb; and John Wiles of Kennesaw are among the GOP state senators signing the letter.
The letter continues the controversy over illegal immigrants in state universities that sparked in May, when it was learned that a recent traffic stop ultimately led to immigration detention for Jessica Colotl, a Kennesaw State University student.
Colotl was brought to the United States by her parents when she was a child, and she remains an illegal immigrant. She graduated from a Gwinnett County high school, and has attended KSU – and paid in-state tuition – since fall 2006.
Last week, the Board of Regents, which oversee the state’s 35 public colleges, gave its schools 60 days to review all admission applications for the fall, “to determine whether undocumented persons are receiving, or about to receive, a state, local or federal benefit prohibited by federal or state law.”
The board also directed that no illegal immigrants be allowed to pay the discounted, in-state tuition rate.
In-state students taking a full course load at KSU pay about $2,364 per semester. Out-of-state students are charged about $7,036.
Arlethia Perry-Johnson, special assistant to KSU President Dr. Dan Papp, said there were 22,389 students enrolled at KSU in fall 2009. Of those, 21,579, or 96 percent, paid the lower tuition rate.
But the state senate Republicans insist no illegal immigrant should be attending state schools, regardless of how much tuition they pay.
“The in-state tuition rates cover less than 30 percent of the total cost to educate a student in our public system,” the senators wrote to the regents. “Clearly Georgia taxpayers have a vested interest in knowing that only eligible students be subsidized. It is also important to note, out-of-state tuition rates do not cover the full cost to educate a student. Again, Georgia taxpayers are footing a portion of the education costs.”
The senators say federal law, as well as Georgia law, defines postsecondary education as a public benefit not afforded to illegal aliens.
“The suggestion by Board of Regents officials that the term ‘postsecondary education’ means anything other than attendance at a public institution, providing said benefit, cannot be logically defended. The plain letter of the law along with congressional intent could provide no clearer guidelines on the issue,” they write.
The special regents committee is scheduled to meet at 11:30 a.m. Monday at the regents’ offices in Atlanta, though some members will join in by conference call, said John Millsaps, a spokesman for the regents.
“The intent [of the committee] is to ensure that Georgia universities’ residency verification processes are such that all students are paying correct tuition amount. For example, if you are a U.S. citizen, are you entitled to in-state tuition? If you are an undocumented student, are you categorized correctly to be paying out-of-state tuition?” Millsaps said.
Rossbacher and three other university leaders – Mark Becker of Georgia State University; Virginia Carson of South Georgia College in Douglas; and Martha Nesbitt of Gainesville State College – sit on the committee, as well as five Regents and some staff members. The committee is to report back to the full board no later than October, Millsaps said.
At Kennesaw State University, officials have previously boasted of their efforts to increase enrollment of Hispanic students.
For instance, in a January 2010 news release, the Kennesaw State University announced it had “been awarded a $660,000 grant by The Goizueta Foundation to develop strategies aimed at improving the retention and graduation rates of Hispanic and Latino students at the university, which have the potential for replication by the University System of Georgia’s 34 other institutions.”
“KSU is strongly committed to recruiting – and graduating – a diverse student body, and we need to do a better job of attracting and retaining Hispanic and Latino students,” President Papp is quoted as saying in that release.
In fall 2009, there were 1,223 KSU students who identified themselves as Hispanic or Latino, Perry-Johnson said.
But in recent weeks, when the Journal has asked for data on how many KSU students cannot prove they are legally in the country, Perry-Johnson insisted that was impossible to determine.
“The emphasis of KSU’s student information data-collection system is to determine a student’s ‘tuition classification status.’ It is not focused on identifying students’ immigration status, e.g., documented versus non-documented – terms which have legal implications. The authority for such designations does not fall under the university’s purview,” she told the Journal.
By contrast, when the Journal asked Southern Polytechnic State University officials how many of its students could not prove they are legally in this country, a spokeswoman responded emphatically, “none.”
SPSU had 5,186 students enrolled in fall 2009.
The other Republican state senators who signed the letter to the regents are Don Balfour of Snellville; Jim Butterworth of Cornelia; John Douglas of Social Circle; Gregg Goggans of Douglas; Bill Heath of Bremen; Dan Moody of Johns Creek; Jeff Mullis of Chickamauga; Chip Pearson of Dawsonville; Mitch Seabaugh of Sharpsburg; Preston Smith of Rome; and Ross Tolleson of Perry.
