Arizona Tri-Universities for Indian Education website : http://www.atuie.org

Funding Source: Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education

Funding Period: September 1, 2001 to August 31, 2004

Contact person: Victor Begay, Program Manager

Partners:

• University of Arizona (AZ)
• Northern Arizona University (AZ)
• Dine College (AZ)
• Tohono O'odham Community College (AZ)
• Intertribal Council of Arizona (AZ)

American Indians continue to benefit the least from the educational system. They have the lowest college entry rates and the highest attrition of all students. Most Arizona Tribes are investing millions of dollars in education, primarily in scholarships. Their expectations of postsecondary education are considerable, as tribal leaders readily acknowledge the relationship between new resources, the potential of higher educational attainment and tribal development. Accordingly, many American mainstream colleges and universities are seeking ways to not only retain more Native students but to become more seriously responsive to the needs of Indian Nations that reside within their service areas.

This project is a Native-led initiative that will guide the inclusive and participatory development of a statewide policy and model/master plan that will integrate academic experience with tribal realities. This effort will increase Native student success while helping to construct Native community development capacity. A university-based Indian Education consortium known as Arizona Tri-University for Indian Education (ATUIE) in cooperation with the Education Working Group of the Intertribal Council of Arizona (ITCA) and Arizona's two tribal colleges, Dine Community College and Tohono O'odham Community College, will facilitate this process starting in the first year with the formulation of a White Paper, focusing on four critical, interrelated themes: 1) cultural convergence, 2) Native student realities, 3) usable/sustainable knowledge (research), and 4) sharing (philanthropy). Based on its findings and recommendations, the model will coalesce as a Project facilitative focus, invoking innovative strategies that will reduce Indian student attrition, increase graduate school entry areas critical to tribal development, and increase tribal contextualization of academic experience for Native students.

During the second and third years, the project will operationalize the model, initiating strategies to stimulate change in institutional cultures to benefit Native students and cooperative working relationships among Tribes, community colleges, and universities throughout the state. While doing so, the project will provide coordination and focused technical assistance to community college and university programs, and to Arizona tribes in implementing the recommended change strategies.

The approach used in this Project promises not only to increase retention and graduation, but to stimulate Arizona's 21 Tribes, two tribal colleges, and public higher education institutions to develop functional partnerships aimed toward mutually agreed-upon goals and purposes. Special emphasis will be placed on building research capacity in Native communities to be led by Native students and graduates while facilitating tribal philanthropy toward higher education in the process. A linchpin in the project is the active participation of Arizona''s tribal colleges, which have agreed to guide the process of cultural mediation between Tribes and higher education institutions.

ATUIE, whose membership includes American Indian administrators and faculty, is organized under the Presidents of the three state universities-Arizona State University, in Tempe; Northern Arizona University, in Flagstaff; and University of Arizona, in Tucson. The Project will be guided and coordinated through the Center for Indian Education at Arizona State University.

The development of policy with implementation and documentation of this model/master plan--both as a synergistic process and an evolving product--will be the first of its kind in the United States.