Campus briefs

Campus safety encourages bike registration

About 150 faculty and students registered their bikes over the course of two days this quarter.

Campus Safety Services combined with the Santa Clara Fire Department to get students and faculty to register their bikes. All bikes in the City of Santa Clara must be registered. Turnout was so large for registering bikes that the Fire Department ran out of registration forms.

Campus Safety also partnered with Calmar Bicycles to sell D-locks at a discounted price.

They sold about 60 D-locks, which are recommended to help prevent bike theft.

According to an e-mail sent out by Campus Safety Director Charles Arolla, even the thickest cable locks can be cut with a small pair of bolt cutters.

A registered bike is also easier to recover in the event it is stolen, Arolla said in the e-mail.

Last year, 60 bicycles were stolen on campus.

Immigration laws challenged

A law granting in-state status to undocumented California students is awaiting a decision on a lawsuit filed by out-of-state U.S. citizens who question its legality.

Legislation piece AB 540 gives in-state tuition rates to undocumented California college students who are in the process of fixing their citizenship status and have graduated from a California high school.

Rather than pay international tuition rates, which are as much as seven times higher, these students are allowed to pay in-state rates.

In 2006, out-of-state students filed a lawsuit against AB 540, contending that it is illegal for undocumented immigrants to pay in-state tuition while U.S. citizens from another state have to pay more.

The lawsuit was initially dismissed, however last month the state appellate court overturned the dismissal and ruled that AB 540 did indeed violate federal law.

The case will return to Yolo County Superior Court in Northern California -- where it was first dismissed in 2006 -- so that a solution may be found. Meanwhile, AB 540 will not be completely removed from the state education system.

The Calfornia State University and the University of California systems are pursuing legal options to reverse that decision and to come up with a solution that will help these students, said Teresa Ruiz, public affairs and communication specialist for the CSU Chancellor's office.

For the most part, students attending state universities, UCs and community colleges are the ones who benefit from AB 540. According to Joni Holly at San Jose State's registrar's office, 62 students were paying the in-state rates under AB 540 for the fall 2008 semester.

Two weeks after the grim news of AB 540 was dropped, Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed the California Dream Act for the second time.

The Dream Act would allow for undocumented students to become eligible for state financial aid.

This time around, the Dream Act was amended so that the source of financial aid funds were from private sources rather than state ones, said Xochtil Arellano, communications deputy of the Latino caucus and assistant to Sen. Gil Cedillo, who is sponsoring the bill.

From staff reports. E-mail news@thesantaclara.com.