University Council May Consider Immigration Issues

The agenda for today’s University Council meeting includes what could become a controversial item. It's a resolution asking the State Board of Regents to rescind the policy excluding undocumented high school graduates from applying to UGA.

"Our mission is to educate the population of Georgia. and the issue of legal status isn’t part of our mission," says Dana Bultman. "Determining whether someone is authorized to be here isn’t part of our mission. You could conceivably have a high school valedictorian who couldn't apply to UGA, and that bothered peope."

UGA has an admissions policy that grants undergraduate admission to valedictorians from accredited Georgia high schools. According to the Admissions Office website, the valedictorian must also meet "all Board of Regents requirements," which would include legal status.

Bultman teaches Spanish Rennaisance literature in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences's Romance Languages Department. She said the college's Faculty Senate voted unanimously to approve a resolution calling for the policy to be rescinded.

"At the university, we have a non-discrimination policy, and this is clearly discrimination," she says.

At today's meeting, a representative from the UGA Student Govenrment Association will also present a similar resolution that members adopted. The also followed suit.

The Regents policy also pertains to other schools in the university system.These include Georgia Tech, Georgia State, Georgia College and State University and the Georgia Health Sciences University (former known as the Medical College of Georgia).

A petition that circulated around the UGA campus called the move a step toward the "re-segregation" of Georgia schools.

Composed of representatives from each of UGA's 14 colleges and schools, the University Council meets today at 3:30 in the 's Grand Hall.