ALASKA NATIVES COMMISSION
JOINT FEDERAL-STATE COMMISSION
ON
POLICIES AND PROGRAMS AFFECTING
ALASKA NATIVES
4000 Old Seward Highway, Suite 100
Anchorage,
Alaska 99503
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Witness List | PDF
Version
COMMISSIONER TOWARAK: Next on the group would be Michael -- and you signed your name so that I can't read it. Michael -- I can't --
(Pause.)
Is there a Michael here that signed up to
testify? Okay, I'll have to --
COMMISSIONER MASEK: Call on him later.
COMMISSIONER TOWARAK: Yeah, call on him later if he's -- Robert?
(Laughter.)
COMMISSIONER MASEK: Robert.
COMMISSIONER TOWARAK: A. Robert A. I --
(Pause.)
Okay. Alth (ph.) or Ott, something like that. (Laughing.) Something like that. I'm sorry. I'm real poor at reading handwriting. This one I can read real easy. David Henson? (Pause.)
MR. HENSON: I'm David Henson. I'm a student at UAA, and I'm just giving you some figures right now.
(BACKUP TO DAVID HENSON'S TESTIMONY ATTACHED AS EXHIBIT #6)
COMMISSIONER TOWARAK: Is there one other besides Mary Reeve with you?
MR. HENSON: I've got Marge Revas.
COMMISSIONER TOWARAK: Marge? Okay.
MR. HENSON: (Indiscernible -- away from microphone.)
COMMISSIONER TOWARAK: Okay.
MR. HENSON: (Indiscernible -- away from microphone.)
COMMISSIONER TOWARAK: Okay.
MR. HENSON: (Indiscernible -- away from microphone.)
COMMISSIONER TOWARAK: Okay. Debbie and Vicky, huh? (Inaudible response.)
COMMISSIONER TOWARAK: Okay.
MR. HENSON: What I've come to testify about is the imminent closure of Native Student Services at UAA. In the news lately, this has been an issue, where the University has been saying that this is, in fact, not going to happen. And the way it sounds, they were never intending to do this; but we have documentation to show that they were going to merge the Native Student Services with Minority Student Services. The Native Student Services, as it is set up now, is probably the biggest component of why Natives from the Bush that come to Anchorage finish their college education. Every day we have to justify ourselves by signing in, to show that we exist, and justify that we need special services; and this program has been going on for 16 years. At stake with the Native Student Center is our cultural identity, heritage, and well-being.
And we brought it up to their attention, you know, they're looking at possibly changing it; but what we need to do is have implemented a program that is set in stone that don't have to be readjusted every time we get a new University President or Chancellor. And I don't know how many more years this program has to work to show that it is justified. After 16 years of signing in, it sounds like it's got a pretty good track record.
As you notice, the head count of Native students at UAA has increased from 1987 to 1991 by 51.9 percent; and it looks like it's going to continue to rise. But if these -- if the Native Student services doesn't remain intact as is, then you can look for this rate to decline. We probably have the largest Native population on any university in the state. So I'd just like to impose that this Commission recommend to the Student Services as it is, and find out why we continue to have to justify ourselves.
COMMISSIONER TOWARAK: Thank you, David. I want you to know, I, too, I was -- I helped to set up the one in Fairbanks; and I think the one in here in Anchorage is modeled after the one in Fairbanks, and I was it's first Chair. I'm glad you brought this up. This is very timely with regard to post-secondary education. We rarely hear from students at univ -- from the University, and it's good to know of your concern. It'll be taken seriously.
COMMISSIONER MASEK: I'd like to know, what kind of -- what does -- what service -- what does it do for the Native people?
MR. HENSON: It provides - - we have counselors, tutor programs; it provides a place for the Natives to go to identify with the urban and rural Natives, so that the urban Natives can keep in touch with it -- the Bush -- with the true Bush culture.
COMMISSIONER MASEK: When you were going to school in your village, or wherever you came from, were you able to have this same opportunity, you know, to identify with the city --
MR. HENSON: Okay, I speak at this from an urban standpoint.
COMMISSIONER MASEK: Okay.
MR. HENSON: I'm from town; but I deal with Native students from the Bush every day; and at their graduation potlucks, all the Natives from the Bush that graduated college all said that if it had not been for the Center, then they wouldn't have made it in school. In the first three or four semesters, the most critical time, our dropout rate is 50 percent: as it is. And if this service is changed, it will go up even higher.
COMMISSIONER MASEK: And it's a -- is it a real big problem, you think, that if
this services was cut that it would affect the --
MR. HENSON: Oh, yes.
COMMISSIONER MASEK: -- Native education --
MR. HENSON: Oh, yes.
COMMISSIONER MASEK: -- in college?
MR. HENSON: Without it, I don't foresee any new Natives from the Bush coming into town to actually make it. You know, if -- there'll probably be 10, 15 percent that will enter the University of Alaska Anchorage and continue; but, you know, that's a big change from 50 percent at the present time.
COMMISSIONER TOWARAK: Thank you, David.
COMMISSIONER MASEK: Thank you.
MS. PERATROVICH: I would like to ask him, have you presented a resolution to AFN --
MR. HENSON: Yes.
MS. PERATROVICH: -- since this is a state issue? And that you might consider being included on the Affirmative Action Plan that the University, in order to get any federal dollars, would have to include the Alaska Native Center as one of the qualifying items on their Affirmative Action Plan; therefore, making it an ongoing expenditure that they would have to maintain in order for them to be qualified for any federal dollars to come into the University. And, as you know, Senator Stevens is presently getting several hundred million dollars into the University in Fairbanks for the super computer.
MR. HENSON: That could probably be into direct relation that we have no Native faculty at UAA, so how can they help implement a program if they're not Native and understand the culture. So that's probably where -- UAF has Native faculty, to my understanding, so that would be a direct relation to why things are working out like they are at UAA.
MS. PERATROVICH: You have Alaska Natives working in the program though, don't you?
MR. HENSON: Oh, yes, there's -- they can be cut loose at any time. The one Native language program we have, as it stands right now, may not be here next semester; and Native languages are mandated by federal law to be in the universities. So they tell us -- I've been told before:
"Well, if you want those kind of services, you
can go to Fairbanks."
But I live in Anchorage.
COMMISSIONER TOWARAK: Okay, Ray?
MR. BARNHARDT: If I could ask a question, if maybe, to bring us up to date. I understood that, at some point along the summer or this fall, a proposal for an Institute for Indigenous Studies Center was submitted. Do you know what the status of that is, and if there's any action being taken?
MR. HENSON: The word is is they'll decide on that next two to four years. And
the -- an individual drafted a report to support that isn't no longer going
to be a consultant on that issue; so I don't -- it sounds like they're going
to keep the report alive; but I don't know to what extent.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Wait, if you have a problem of hearing, can you please come up here in the front and. . .
COMMISSIONER TOWARAK: Okay, thank you, David. Marge Revas?
REPORTER: (Indiscernible -- away from microphone) --
COMMISSIONER TOWARAK: Okay, sure, sure.
REPORTER: -- in case I can't --
COMMISSIONER TOWARAK: David, do you serve --
REPORTER: -- answer (indiscernible -- noise).
COMMISSIONER TOWARAK: -- in some capacity at the University then?
MR. HENSON: Yes, I'm President, Native Student Organization, member of the student government as a senator, and work for Native Student Services part time.
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