[UPDATED] KSU Student Should Stay, by a KSU Graduate

By now, I’m sure many of you have heard of Jessica Colotl, the 21 year old student at Kennesaw State University who was recently found to be an illegal immigrant during a routine traffic stop in Cobb County.

James Touchton, a staffer (maybe volunteer?) for Tom Graves’ 9th District US House of Representatives campaign, is a guy I vaguely knew when we were both students at Kennesaw State in the first half of this decade. He worked with Student Government, I was an officer of various levels with a service based honors society known as the National Society of Collegiate Scholars. We now find ourselves on opposite sides of this particular debate, given his comment in the link.

Even then, Kennesaw had a pretty significant international student population – in other words, “brown” (any non-white race) people were as much the norm as white people were. Even though we were in the heart of northern Cobb County, it really didn’t matter to me or the students I knew. In fact, my immediate predecessor as President of NSCS-KSU was an international student, and the immediate President before her was an African American, who I worked with as her Coordinator of Publicity. I once dated a Colombian student while there. It was in former President Betty Siegel’s address during my graduation ceremony in May 2005 – almost exactly 5 years ago today – that she announced her resignation. So I never knew current President Daniel Papp, who has made many of the right calls in this situation – but both of my younger brothers have also gone there, and my youngest brother is still a student there, and they say he has been a GREAT asset to the University.

I said all of that to note this: Kennesaw State has never, in my experience, been a bastion for nativism. We all knew we were there to further ourselves and our education, and by and large we treated each other as the adults we were (even though I started there as a 16 yo kid).

I am saddened that my alma mater has been dragged through the mud with this situation, and I am even more saddened that some former leaders there side with denying a person an education. Kennesaw State opened many doors for me, and helped me grow in so many ways. I am saddened that 5 of the 7 GOP GAGOV candidates have chosen to attack my alma mater, rather than work to ensure genuine immigration reform that would actually benefit EVERYONE concerned.

Jessica Colotl should stay, and it is my hope that through this situation, she will grow and others at the school will learn more about the struggles immigrants face.

[UPDATE] For those who are worried about who pays what: We can settle that REAL quick: remove public funding for secondary education in Georgia COMPLETELY. The Constitution of the State of Georgia says that “Public education for the citizens prior to the college or postsecondary level shall be free and shall be provided for by taxation.” It doesn’t say JACK about the same thing applying to the Board of Regents, who it sets to administer any public college and university in this state. The only thing noted about Board of Regents money is that “All appropriations made for the use of any or all institutions in the university system shall be paid to the board of regents in a lump sum”. The General Assembly is perfectly free to not appropriate ANY money for the Board of Regents.