There's also an enrollment deadline, usually a couple weeks before classes. (I'm not sure how the foreign student registrations works, but it seems as if safeguards were in place, and worked as designed) It's most probable they were red flagged during registration.
I concur.
Yes, that makes sense
That's not what the article said, though. The article said the red flag came up when they failed to report to classes. What type of classes, though? Since the article didn't specifically say orientation classes, the reader is to assume they are referring to "class-CLASS," which didn't start until September 6.
I'm not saying I don't agree with your theory, only that in order for it to be true, the article would have been written differently, one would think, anyway.