From the Durango Herald News:
DENVER – Legislators are targeting Fort Lewis College’s free tuition for Native Americans for a $1.8 million cut.
It comes on top of the nearly $4 million in cuts Gov. Bill Ritter has proposed for the college by 2011 – the deepest percentage cut in the state. Together, the two cuts will have a “devastating, crippling impact” on Fort Lewis, said Steve Schwartz, FLC’s vice president for finance and administration.
“I’ve never seen anything where I’ve felt so singled out by the state,” Schwartz said.
The college hasn’t figured out what it would do if the Legislature OKs both cuts, which could take $6 million out of its $41 million annual budget. But it would “absolutely” have to lay off employees, Schwartz said.
College officials and their allies at the Legislature are fighting the cuts, and their first priority is to kill House Bill 1067, which targets the Native American tuition program.
Ritter’s Department of Higher Education is behind the bill. It seeks to change the state law that reimburses Fort Lewis College for the full tuition price of each Native American student. Instead, the department wants to reimburse Fort Lewis only for the “cost of instruction,” a $3,000-per-student difference that adds up to $1.8 million in 2011, the year it would take effect. Rep. Karen Middleton, D-Aurora, and Sen. Bob Bacon, D-Fort Collins, are the sponsors.
More and more Native Americans are taking advantage of free tuition at FLC, and most of them are from out of state. Under current law, the state has to pay Fort Lewis the nonresident tuition rate of $16,060 for every out-of-state Native American it enrolls. There are 758 Native Americans currently enrolled at FLC. The cost to the state mushroomed from $6.5 million in 2004 to $10.7 million this year.
“We do understand the Legislature’s concern. It’s a big number, and it’s only going to continue to grow,” Schwartz said.
The Fort Lewis Native American Center’s staff refused to comment and referred calls to the college’s media relations office. Provost Steve Roderick is going to Washington, D.C., this week to see if Congress could send federal money to help shoulder the burden. But in the meantime, the college wants the bill killed this year, to give Ritter’s blue-ribbon panel on college funding time to make recommendations for revamping the system statewide.
The tuition waiver grew $1.1 million in the last year. To pay for the extra, the Department of Higher Education wants to take money out of the statewide financial aid budget for work-study, a pot of money that pays needy students who work on campus.
That’s not fair, Bacon said.
“What (the bill) is, is an attempt to try to maximize the work-study funds across the state for many students, and not just for Fort Lewis,” Bacon said.
Department of Higher Education officials say they are trying to do what’s right for all colleges as deep budget cuts loom next year.
“We’re not trying to single them out or anything. We’re in the position of making really tough choices among really bad options,” said John Karakoulakis, the department’s director of legislative affairs.
But Fort Lewis leaders do feel singled out, especially because the governor’s budget takes colleges back to their 2005 levels, when Fort Lewis got less money compared to other Colorado schools. Under Ritter’s plan, Fort Lewis will lose nearly a third of its state support by 2012, a larger percentage than any other college. And that’s not including the $1.8 million cut to the Native American tuition waivers.
“Fort Lewis College is willing to take its cuts and willing to take its hits. But it has to be a fair share,” Schwartz said.
College administrators are working with their local legislators, Rep. Ellen Roberts, R-Durango, and Sen. Bruce Whitehead, D-Hesperus, to kill the Native tuition bill. Fort Lewis alumni Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Cortez, joined the fight Thursday.
Roberts and Whitehead are running against each other in the November election for Whitehead’s Senate seat. They both emphasize that they want to keep politics out of this debate. But the cuts Ritter, a Democrat, proposes at Fort Lewis will lead to job losses in the district of the Democrats’ most vulnerable incumbent senator, Whitehead.
The tuition waiver program comes from Fort Lewis’ history as an Indian boarding school. The federal government gave the school near Hesperus to the state in 1911, on the condition that the state maintain it as a school where “Indian students will be admitted free of tuition and on an equality with white students,” according to that year’s Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs.
In the century since, Fort Lewis moved to Durango and converted itself into a four-year liberal arts college. But the free tuition policy remained. Native American students still have to buy textbooks and pay fees and room and board costs.
Fort Lewis stands almost alone among American colleges by giving free tuition to American Indians, even if they live out of state.
The University of Minnesota-Morris, which also was an Indian boarding school, has the same policy. But it does not have a separate nonresident tuition rate, said Jacqueline Johnson, the college’s chancellor. The University of Minnesota system’s budget covers the cost of tuition waivers.
Michigan also has a free tuition program for Native Americans, but it’s only for Michigan residents.
One Fort Lewis alumni in the Legislature thinks his colleagues need a history lesson.
Rep. Sal Pace, D-Pueblo, graduated in 1999. He first saw HB 1067 after it was introduced Monday and joined with Roberts to fight it.
“It’s really sad in 2010 that Colorado has forgotten about the history of broken promises and broken treaties to Native Americans,” Pace said.
Fort Lewis has other allies at the Legislature, too.
Rep. Mark Ferrandino, D-Denver, serves on the Joint Budget Committee, which writes the state budget, using Ritter’s plan as a starting point. Whitehead has talked to him about the dual cuts planned for Fort Lewis, and Ferrandino is concerned.
“One of the things I want to make sure is when we’re looking at our cuts to higher ed – and there are going to be some – how do we do it in a fair and equitable manner?” he said. “Is that disproportionately hurting Fort Lewis? If so, then I think we need to equalize that somehow.”
HB 1067 is tentatively scheduled for its first hearing in the House Education Committee on Jan. 25.
Turtle Talk 
I am outraged at the proposed cuts not only because of its un-proportional targeting of Fort Lewis but also because I am a Native American Student who attended and is planning on re-attending Fort Lewis and without the Tuition Waiver I will not be able to afford a college education. My whole life plan hangs in the balance as over paid politicians attempt to break another treaty between the Native Americans. Obviously Native Equality is an issue here as well since the Colorado State Legislature has so ignorantly attacked the entire U.S. Native American Community. If the Tuition Waivers are taken from Fort Lewis not only will Durango’s economy be dissrupted so will the State’s due to the loss of a high percentage of out of state Native students living in CO only for the Waivier. I would like to thank all the politicians fighting for us. Thank You for remembering the disgressions of the past, and thank you for helping my home away from home, Fort Lewis College.
To say I am appalled by the proposed cuts to the Native American tuition waiver to Fort Lewis is an understatement. It is obvious to me that our politians in Denver don’t have a clue and that breaking just one more promise is no big deal. I agree with Rep. Sal Pace, D-Pueblo that “his collegues need a history lesson”. Not the type of fabricated history lessons we were taught in public schools as we were growing up but the true history. Shame on the politicans and their total lack of education and ethics!
This is yet another attempt by the United States Government to break a promise to its indigenious people. Without the tuition waiver, I would not have been able to attend college at all. I am half Laguna Pueblo and I am working towards a law degree. I am proud to be a contributor to society. Without the college degree I have earned, I may be just another person living off the system. Taking away the free tuition is taking away future doctors, lawyers, engineers, and even business leaders. Natives living in remote areas may never get the chance again to leave the res to see what the world has to offer. To say that we need to equalize the blow is outrageous. What about all the suffering we Native people have endured? Should we spread that so that it is equal? Should we steal land from people and force them into boarding schools to assimilate then give them one SMALL token of hope to better themselves then take it away? This act of blatant “Indian giving” will not happen in MY lifetime.
HI there, i completely agree with your comment, and suggest with your enthusiasm to continue your education where ever it may be. I too a Native American student, in fact, i learned some old news yesterday that I am an alumni from a college that no longer has it’s accredidation. Lucky for me, my credits will not be affected, and are still honored to UNM, University of New Mexico, in Albuquerque. I do feel more sadden by the news for the friends who too depend on this educational institute, and will not be able to finish their degree. There are many prestigious students there who deserve to be at a more respectable university. But due to financial obligations, lack of financial support, etc. They are at SIPI.
I impose that while you are a student of the same dilema, you should continue your education wherever. This article states that University of Minnesota Morris is a tree-tuition college, and you do not have to be a resident of the same state to qualify. You can take this passion, harness it, and perhaps be one to fight for your Native people, rather then to depend on foreign politicians to fight for us. I plan to do so. I wish you the best through your endeavors, and know you will overcome obsticles.
Carpe Diem