Role of Community Colleges in the Implementation of Postsecondary Education Enrollment Policies for Undocumented Students

This article examines the case of how the City University of New York (CUNY)-its central administrative offices and two of its community colleges-has addressed the issue of college access for undocumented immigrants in its implementation of New York's college in-state resident tuition (ISRT) policy for this population. It highlights the role of implementers-those individuals who make day-to-day decisions and whose responsibility it is to carry out mandates-and policy ambiguity in the execution of policies. A total of 19 individuals ranging from interest group representatives, local community-based organization officials, CUNY central administrative office officials, and staff from two community colleges were interviewed. This investigation finds that CUNY's central administrative offices have devoted a fair amount of resources on disseminating the availability of ISRT for undocumented immigrants and attempts to ensure proper institutional implementation of the state's policy as interpreted by its system-level policy. Day-to-day implementation measures at CUNY and its individual community colleges included two processes: application for admission and residency verification. Furthermore, community colleges, to varying degrees, have developed outreach efforts that have focused on disseminating the availability of this policy and to a certain extent its procedures via one-on-one counseling and written communication. Last, this article concludes with implications for the literature and institutional policies and practices to increase the level of students enrolled in community colleges.