Contributing Reporters Stephanie Leonoudakis-Golder and Erin Murray
Anna (a pseudonym) works and pays taxes with a Social Security number and a visa that is four years expired. This Eastern European's hopes for continuing a California State University education have diminished. Twenty-six-year-old Tasha dropped out of Humboldt State University because she could no longer afford to pay international student tuition and her two-semester United States sponsor couldn't afford to support her stay any longer. After moving to San Francisco, she enrolled in classes at City College, but now says her plans for transferring to San Francisco State University aren't going to be that simple. "It was very hard," she says in carefully chosen English. "I couldn't keep up with the fees. That's why I didn't get my goal. I'd be very happy to graduate."
So would the estimated 1,000 other undocumented students, and countless others like Tasha, already attending the California State University system, who can't even get in the system in the first place. As of next fall, attendance at a CSU college will carry a higher price for illegal immigrants. Their fees will be five times higher than what they are paying now, as state residents, and their non-residency status will face exposure for the first time in the system's history. They are the 1,000 illegal immigrants inconspicuously weaved into the system's 21 state-wide campusesÑstudents unaccounted for on a campus' ethnic breakdown report, but known to admissions officials as "undocumented." If Proposition 187, the pending law deemed unconstitutional, is upheld, it will strip public services from illegal immigrants. Those students who will be kicked out of the system indefinitely, or as in Tasha's case, will never be given a chance.
III. Court Cases
Although enrollment figures for the CSU system are already low for the upcoming 1995-1996 school year, according to Steve McCarthy, spokesperson for the CSU system, these 1,000 out of 320,000 total students are automatically in jeopardy of not returning.
California has a history of educating illegal immigrants. According to a 1982 Supreme Court decision, illegal immigrants have been able to attend public schools in California for over a decade. In 1982, a Supreme Court ruling (Plyer vs. Doe) found it unconstitutional based on the violation of the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment to deny young illegal immigrants access to public education through high school level.
Yet, there is no similar constitutional protection for a California public college-level institution, says McCarthy. However, the debate over stipulations for educating illegal immigrants has a rich history in California court rooms.
A 1985 Alameda County Superior Court ruling has made it possible for illegal immigrants who have graduated from a California high school to attend a California State University and to avoid out-of-state fees. This ruling, called the "Leticia A" decision, allowed undocumented students to establish residency by demonstrating intent to reside in the state for more than a year. If a student meets all CSU requirements upon graduation from high school, any CSU campus is an open gate. The current application process does not contain a screening system for undocumented students, says McCarthy. If a student does not have a Social Security number [a common identifier throughout a students' years on a CSU campus] the campus will provide the student with an identification number.
But as of next fall, the stipulations of Leticia A will not apply to the CSU system any longer. A court decision this past January handed down by a Los Angeles appellate court (American Association of Women v. the Board of Trustees) aligns the CSU with the eight-campus University of California system and the 108 community-college system in abiding by a 1990 Supreme Court ruling called Bradford. Bradford holds that all three systems require proof of a students' U.S. residency and if the student is undocumented, the student is charged out-of-state tuitionÑ$7,300 more than the $1,585 California residents currently pay.
"The basic concept here is parallel: Public institutions shouldn't be giving subsidies to illegal aliens," says Alan C. Nelson, an author of Proposition 187, in a January 19, 1995 Los Angeles Times article detailing the lawsuit and court decision.
CSU position
The CSU administration refuse to take an official position on the issue of whether it is the state of California's responsibility to educate non-U.S. residents, McCarthy says. Although he adds "it is better to have an educated citizenry than a non-educated citizenry." McCarthy says he also recognizes that in any large organization there are two "philosophical camps."
"Our faculty represents cross-sections of society. So I'm sure there are people who do [agree with Bradford and Proposition 187], says McCarthy.
But the cross-section of society members McCarthy mentions did not publicly support the lawsuit that the American Association of Women brought against the CSU system to raise fees, says Leslie Dutton, president of the Santa Monica-based AAW. Dutton says when the publicity of the lawsuit reached CSU employees, their organization received many phone calls of support "from administrators and professors to janitors."
"They told us horror stories about their campuses and what was going onÑhow students can't get a seat in class because of overcrowding," Dutton explains. Dutton says some of the callers believed that the overcrowding was a "direct result" of allowing undocumented students into the CSU system, although not one CSU employee gave the group public support.
"But as far as putting their face into a camera and saying my employer is doing something wrong- not one single one of them," Dutton says. "The pc [politically correct] people who control the campuses intimidate people from speaking out."
Breakdown by campuses
Because political beliefs on this issue are split among CSU officials, so is the ethnicity of the system's estimated 1,000 illegal immigrants, McCarthy says. The "biggest split" in the undocumented group between Latinos and Asians.
CSU, Los Angeles, with 70 percent of its students either Latino or Asian descent, has approximately 400 of the estimated 1,000 undocumented students, followed by California State University, Northridge, with 200 undocumented students. San Francisco State University, also with a large Asian and Latino student population, has approximately 36 undocumented students, estimates Ed Apodaca, dean of enrollment. SFSU's administration sent letters to these 36 students detailing the fee hike and requirement to provide documentation, as did both Northridge and Los Angeles. Apodaca says he hopes the new law will be a motivator for undocumented students to present residency status at SFSU as well.
As a result, both Lorraine Newlon, director of admissions at CSU, Northridge and David Godoy, assistant vice-president of student affairs at CSU, Los Angeles, say the new policy has motivated students to produce documentation. Of the 200 reported undocumented students at CSU, Northridge, 177 have provided U.S. residency documentation, according to Newton. Godoy estimates that 75 percent of the 400 at Los Angeles have reported documentation.
Yet, the remaining illegal immigrants will most likely fall through the system, these three officials predict, because most will not be able to afford the additional $7,300 out-of-state tuition fee.
"I could only speculate [on how many undocumented students will come back]," Godoy says. Godoy points out that traditionally, these students come from low-income families. For these students to come up with the extra money is "basically unreasonable," he says. At SFSU, Apodaca estimates 10 to 15 of those students will be returning in the fall.
"Those estimates are an optimistic guess on his end," McCarthy says.
CSU campus positions
McCarthy recognizes that Proposition 187 is "a whole different kettle of fish; its passage would make the Bradford decision moot." The campus administration officials interviewed are unsurprisingly negative about the fee hike and the threat of Proposition 187 blocking higher education for this segment of students.
"I am worried about the message that it sends," Apodaca says, calling Proposition 187 "disruptive" and "decisive." "We are going to get people distrusting each other," he says. "It could get very, very, very ugly."
The threat of Proposition 187 passing has not yet affected some campuses. "We are waiting for the system to take appropriate action and give instruction," Newlon says. Godoy says because the initiative is on hold, "none of us are addressing it." Godoy points out another problem is that the CSU system has "already done a job" on undocumented students in regard to Proposition 187.
"By the mere nature of identifying non-residents, if Proposition 187 comes into play, you are already identifying a group in terms of who they are." McCarthy says if Proposition 187 passes, "we'll obey the law."
"I have to follow the law," Newlon says, "but personally, I feel its unfortunate." Newlon says she feels these students are being "victimized by a law that would make access to higher education unavailable."
The CSU administration at CSU, Long Beach is in the primary stages of forming a committee that would deal with verifying all new CSU applicants' documentation, along with going back and checking the documentation of currently enrolled students. This system would result in an administrative cost, but more troublesome is the inconvenience it would pose.
"What we would need to do is go back and check all 320,000 students for residency. We would have to figure out how to do that and make sure we don't tread on anybody's constitutional rights to privacy," McCarthy says. According to Dutton, the AAW plan on monitoring enrollment procedures for documentation checks closely. "We plan on getting copies of enrollment forms," says Dutton.
High School Level
The new court decision and the possibility of Proposition 187 passing would also affect the steeping stone to the CSU system-California's high schools. Like the CSU campuses, some high schools say the law has had little effect on the schools' current student body and administrative procedures for dealing with the enrollment of illegal immigrants.
Michael Crilly, superintendent of Daly City and Pacifica schools, says there is really no way to document declining enrollment of undocumented students, but his district saw reduced numbers in English as a Second Language classes. Crilly says there could be other factors affecting the hint of declining enrollment, but that he believes these lowered numbers were affected by Proposition 187.
"Initially we approached it with a great deal of fear," Crilly says. "I believe that there is some enrollment that we lost before the actual election. I think some individuals who were concerned about it most probably chose not to enroll in school, feeling that the proposition would pass and that there would be major issues for them to deal with, immigration and so on. So we've seen a somewhat diminished number in our ESL classes."
Lois Jones, principal of Oceana High School in Pacifica, says there has not been any noticeable difference in the high school's enrollment. "We've been given notification from the state department of education that we can't even ask those questions. That's not an option. If anybody does, they are not following state department guidelines." Yet Jones adds, "How that plays out down the line, I don't know, but that's what it is for right now."
CSU, Los Angeles' Godoy says he also worries that if Proposition 187 passes, its stipulations would allow illegal immigrants to obtain a kindergarten through 12th grade education but not a college education. High school graduates will not have anywhere to go.
"Its like telling our students, go ahead, be a valedictorian-but the doors are shut after the 12th grade," Godoy says.
Crilly agrees. "I don't think the schools are the appropriate places to wage this particular battle. If it's truly a concern, I think the place to deal with it is at the border and airports-the places of entry. Coming into catch kids as a way to catch parents-I don't know, it seems a little immoral to me," he says.
Tasha traveled to the United States as an English major. She wants to graduate from a college in the United States so she can "get a better grasp" of English. She says once she goes back to her Eastern Block homeland, "the embassy will make it impossible for me to go back [to the United States]." Tasha spends her time outside of working in the library, where she is teaching herself Spanish. "I am learning even if it doesn't come from the classroom." Yet for Tasha, things aren't easy. "I'm struggling. I'm barely making it." She says she wants to pursue a career in International Relations to eventually help her country, yet she doesn't know if California is the place where she will be able to do this, as she has already spent thousands of dollars on lawyers to become a U.S. citizen and continue her education. "There is a huge misunderstanding and confusion in this country [about immigration]," she says. "There are people who don't want to hurt this country."
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