By: Shawn Cox
Submitted: 2010-09-02 11:04:07 | Word Count: 800
Tribal colleges and universities are unique American institutions that offer opportunities for Native Americans to pursue higher education within their own cultural and regional contexts. Generally located on or near Indian reservations, tribal colleges and universities (also referred to as tribally controlled colleges) aim to preserve and communicate traditional native culture, provide higher education and career or technical opportunities to tribal members, enhance economic opportunities within the reservation community, and promote tribal self-determination.
In 1968 Dine, Inc., an organization established by Native American political and education leaders, founded Navajo Community College (later renamed Dine College). This was the first tribal college to be created on an American Indian reservation. Since then the number of tribal colleges has increased steadily in the United States. As of 2001, thirty-two tribal colleges have emerged, created by American Indians tribes for American Indians. These colleges are located in areas with large concentrations of Native Americans, principally in the upper Midwest, the Pacific Northwest, and the Southwest.
There are seven tribal colleges in Montana, five in North Dakota, four in South Dakota, three in Minnesota, three in New Mexico, two each in Michigan, Nebraska, and Wisconsin, and one each in Arizona, California, Kansas, and Washington. Inclusive of these, two new colleges in Michigan and Minnesota were added in 2001, highlighting the steady growth that tribal colleges continue to experience in their relatively short history. Among these tribal colleges and universities, twenty-four are community colleges and offer the associate's degree and technical and vocational certificates, six offer the bachelor's degree, and two offer the master's degree. In light of the tribes' federal sovereign status, however, tribal colleges and universities receive little or no state funds. Thus, they are primarily dependent on federal assistance for their core operating expenses through oversight by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Students and Faculty
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The majority of tribal colleges and universities are located on isolated Indian reservations. As a result, most of them have small enrollments, often less than 1,000 students. While smaller classes enable these tribal colleges to offer more individualized instruction, they also struggle with limited resources in part due to their smaller enrollments. As of 1994 tribal colleges served approximately 15,000 full-and part-time students according to the National Center for Education Statistics. The average age of tribal college students has become younger in recent years, from thirty years of age down to twenty-seven, as students are choosing with greater frequency to enroll directly in a tribal college after graduation from high school. The majority of students are more likely to come from families with lower levels of educational attainment and thus be first-generation college students. Many students also receive some form of federal financial aid.
The modal profile of the typical tribal college student, however, is a single mother with young children, living below the poverty level and often dependent on welfare or her extended family for support. This typical student attends part-time, and is academically underprepared for college, thus in need of some remedial courses. Child care and family services are common needs for these students that tribal colleges try to meet on their campuses. Lack of dependable transportation and available telephone services in isolated reservation areas also impact tribal students' ability to attend regularly or to communicate with college officials when problems arise and they cannot attend classes.
To help overcome these economic and educational obstacles, tribal colleges offer their students opportunities for self-determination and academic and career success. This is done through an array of diverse, comprehensive, academic and technical course offerings; a culturally infused curriculum that incorporates native values, beliefs, and customs; and a variety of academic and student support services. Another important characteristic is that at least 30 percent of the faculty are Native American and Alaska Natives as compared to less than one percent of all faculty at all other public postsecondary institutions. Thus, students have native role models and mentors, some of whom are tribal elders, who bring cultural awareness, sensitivity, and specific curricular expertise to the classroom. As native faculty, they also have a greater understanding of students' academic and personal situations.
Tribal colleges seek to prepare their students to succeed both inside and outside the reservation. In placing a significant value on the students' culture and incorporating it into the college experience in a holistic manner, tribal colleges and universities are able to achieve higher retention and graduation rates for Native American students than mainstream institutions can. In 1994 tribal colleges awarded 69 percent of their associate's degrees, 81 percent of the bachelor's degrees, and 67 percent of the master's degrees to Native American students. By comparison, only 0.9 percent of the associate's degrees, 0.5 of the bachelor's degrees, and 0.4 of the master's degrees awarded by all other institutions were earned by Native American students that year.
