Richmond Community College President Dr. Sharon Morrissey said she’s glad the state has finally established a policy regarding the admission of undocumented immigrants into the regular programs state’s community colleges.

The North Carolina Board of Community Colleges approved a new policy this month that would allow illegal immigrants, who have graduated from a U.S. high school to attend community colleges. The hitch is they will have to pay out-of-state tuition rates, which amount to about $7,700 a year.

That tuition cost reflects a full semester load of 12 credit hours. And because these immigrants are undocumented, they are disqualified from applying and/or receiving any form of financial aid.

“The out-of-state tuition is so high I really don’t know how many people will be able to pay that to come to a community college,” Morrissey said. “I don’t see there being any significant impact locally.”

The new policy will have to go through the administrative rules process as outlined in the state Administrative Code, Title 23, which can take anywhere between 6 to 12 months to complete.

Until the new policy becomes law, the current admissions standard of not admitting undocumented immigrants, which went into effect May 2008, remains in place. Morrissey said that policy was put in place while the state board explored what it legally could and could not do because it was such a major issue. Morrissey said the state Attorney General and Department of Homeland Security were involved in the decision-making process.

“If it goes through the rules process it will become effective for our summer 2010 admissions so it doesn’t open the doors immediately,” Morrissey said. “It takes time to go through the process. I know there’s been a lot of people questioning it, but I think people overall are glad it’s settled so we can move forward.”

Morrissey said she had an inquiry about admitting an undocumented student a few months ago, but that she hasn’t really seen much of a demand or concern in this area. But, Morrissey said, she’s glad that the issue has been settled.

“This is the first time a policy has been made at the state level and it’s nice to have that leadership from the state board,” Morrissey said. “The policy itself treats North Carolina’s community colleges the same as its universities as far as our ability to enroll undocumented students. Our policy is a little stricter because it also says undocumented students cannot displace our regular student populations, they’ll have to wait until the end of the registration process to register.”

That simply means U.S. residents will have priority to crowded classrooms.

This is the third time the state community college system has changed its policy on illegal immigrants since 2000.