KSU: We won't reject unauthorized immigrants

Kennesaw State University on Friday denied that it will begin turning away student applicants who don't have legal status in the United States, while apologizing for miscommunicating about its plans. "Unfortunately, we have miscommunicated regarding (University System of Geor-gia) admissions policy and how KSU's academic require-ments impact fall 2018 admis-sions," KSU interim Pres-ident Ken Harmon said in a statement sent to The Atlanta Journal-Constitu-tion. KSU declined to say precisely how, when and where the miscommunica-tion occurred. KSU issued its statement after students and staff mem-ben began posting concerns about the univetsity's admis-sions policies on Facebook this week. One post from a KSU employee said the uni-versity would begin turning away unauthorized immi-grants in the fall of 2020 to comply with the controver-sial Georgia Board of Regents Policy 4.1.6. That policy says people who are not lawfully present in the United States shall not be eligible to be admitted to a state university that for the past two recent academic years did not admit all "aca-demically qualified appli-cants." KSU has rejectedsuch applicants for this coming fall semester, prompting the university to enforce Policy 4.1.6, according to the Face-book post by Marcela Cada-vid, an enrollment services specialist at KSU's Recruit-ment, Retention, and Pro-gression to Graduation Pro-gram for Hispanicalid Latino Students. "We are continuing to press them to release this information to the com-munity immediately so that affected students have enough time to plan accord-ingly," she said in her post, which had attracted more than 50 reactions and had been shared 41 times by Fri-day afternoon. Harmon, KSU's interim president, denied Friday that Policy 4.1.6 will kick in at the university. "All academically quali-fied students," he said, "will be admitted for fall 2018, as such, the provisions of Board policy 4.1.6 are not applica-ble for KSU admissions. We apologize for mistakenly sug-gesting otherwise and for conveying misinformation." The University of Geor-gia, Georgia Tech and Geor-gia College & State Univer-sity do not admit unautho-rized immigrants under the regents' policy, which has sparked disruptive demon-strations. Twu other compet-itive state schools — Georgia State and Augusta universi-ties stopped enforcing the policy this year after deter-mining they had admitted "all academically qualified applicants through general admissions during the last two years." The Board of Regents adopted the policy in 2010, just months after a KSU police officer arrested Jes-sica Colotl on campus. A native of Mexico who was brought to the U.S. without authorization when she was 11, the Lakeside High School graduate was charged with impeding traffic and driv- ing without a license. Critics of illegal immigration grew angry when they learned KSU was charging her an in-state tuition rate. After Colotl’s arrest, the regents adopted a separate policy requiring all universities to verify the “lawful presence” of students seeking in-state tuition.

In October, Georgia’s Court of Appeals reversed a lower court’s decision that said the state must permit residents who have been granted a special reprieve from deporta- tion to pay in-state tuition at state colleges and universities. At issue is the Obama administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arriv- als Program, or DACA, which grants two-year work permits and deportation deferrals to immigrants who were brought here illegally as chil- dren. Last year, President Donald Trump announced his administration was rescinding the program, but that move has stalled amid federal court challenges. The 2017.18 school year has been a tumultuous time at KSU, with several high-pro-file controversies and mis-takes by administrators. Sam Oleic resigned as president in February after he and uni-versity officials did not fol-low state guidance when KSU made a change that kept cheerleaders from kneeling on the football field during the national anthem. The university is conducting a national search for Olens’ replacement.

Meanwhile, two student groups have ongoing lawsuits against the university, accusing KSU of enacting policies that discourage conservative and Christian organizations from speaking or displaying items on campus. Noting the lawsuits, University System of Georgia Chancellor Steve Wrigley requested in March that KSU thoroughly review its student affairs department and create a corrective plan.

Laura Oropeza, a KSU admissions counselor, was among more than a dozen people who commented on Cadavid’s Facebook post this week.

“Students who are going to be affected need to be aware now — not later — because they need to be able to plan accordingly,” Oropeza, who emphasized she was not speaking on behalf of the university, said in an interview before Harmon released his statement. “The high school students who won’t be able to apply need to know so that they have a Plan B.”