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
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MS. REVAS: My name is Marge Revas. Can yo -- and I'm a Raven from the Sun Raven House in Ketchikan, and I am now in my thirteenth semester consecutively at the University of Alaska Anchorage. My first three to four semesters were crucial to my staying in the University system. I will now read to you a prepared presentation on some of the facts as I see them, and then I will give a personal testimony.
The Native student population at UAA represents the fastest-growing portion of the UAA student body; and when combined with the rest of the ethnic racial and minority students, become approximately 19 percent of UAA enrollment. There is but token student support staff to meet the needs of these students and no academic programs, Native faculty, nor culturally-appropriate classes.
The six-year plan of the University of Alaska is committed to fulfill its educational responsibility to Alaska Natives by providing a physical environment and support services relevant to the experience of Alaska Native students, There is a very real threat that the University of Alaska Anchorage's Native Student Service Center will no longer exist as a separate and distinct entity at UAA. The Native students at UAA believe that the Native Students Service Center provides a critical gathering place for support and is instrumental in maintaining their distinct cultural identity throughout their educational experience.
The experience of Alaska Native students in post-secondary educational attainment levels for Natives are alarmingly low. Available statistics confirm that the public education system is failing to meet the needs of Native Americans at all levels. The Alaska Native leadership are acutely aware of the need for highly-trained individuals to run the corporations and the lack of opportunities within the University of Alaska Anchorage to gain this training.
The report of a national advisory committee formed by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, which visited UAA in early 1992 to review and advise the University on matters pertaining to multi-culturalism, specifically recommended that UAA address the issues currently confronting Native students attending UAA.
The history of U -- of Native Students Service at the University of Alaska Anchorage is as following. They address not only the administrative component of support services, but the social and cultural component of the Native experience; thereby enhancing their educational experience. They deal with the rural-to-urban orientation, because when you take a rural student and you place them in Anchorage, that is enough of a culture shock, much less a culture shock with the University system. They deal with students who have English as a second language; they deal with helping the student adapt to other cultures -- other than their own.
We are a communal people. We are not individualistic people. The way that we learn is through positive role modeling at the University. We believe that it is not the fact that we read textbooks and are tested on them; it's the fact that we are kinetic people; we learn through visual symbolic singing, dancing, storytelling, etcetera. We feel that, as Natives, we are being discriminated against, because we are being accused of being segregated and we are taking advantage of a duplication of services. To a degree, this is true. We have to be segregated. However, what does segregation mean? If you mean segregated within our Native Students Services, it is not true, because we have the Center open to all people; it's not just for Natives. If you mean segregation because that's the only place we go, that also is not true. It is a central gathering place, and it is used to the benefit, not just of our education, but, again, to the social and cultural component, It's a place where we have potlucks; we get together -- the upper-level students can role model to the low-level students who b -- who cannot believe that they can succeed, because the statistics are right there in their face all the time, saying that they shouldn't succeed.
We as minority students and as a minority group refuse to be pitted against the other minority students. What they are trying to do is integrate the Native students with the other minority students, because they feel that it is a duplication of students. However, we as Native students, believe that we are a good investment. It is us -- it is we the Native students who are going home to lead our people into the modern technological world. And we feel that even if it is a duplication of services, it's a justifiable duplication of services. We refuse to be pitted against each other to capture the resources and the crumbs that the administrations wishes us to feast on.
Native Students Services is an established program that has existed at UAA, and
it is a program that is a success. What we have done in the last week, since
we found out -- and it's been about a week now since we found out that we
would be moving -- is we have become pro-active. We are not waiting for the
ax to fall; we are not waiting for them to move us; we are demonstrating
that we have had an invitational rally across campus, and we delivered invitations
to all of the decision makers and asked them to attend the Christopher Columbus
Day skit, when we changed Christopher Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples'
Day, a day of healing and survival. We performed for them, gave public testimony;
and we tried to influence their decision before they make the decision.
The final decision has not been made yet. President Bush has declared 1992 the Year of the American Indian. We have written to President Bush. We have also written to the Governor. The University is not insensitive; in many ways it is. For instance, I was the first Native at UAA to graduate in full traditional regalia, and I was also the commencement speaker. They are making headway; but we as quiet people need to be more proactive and political. We do not believe that the administrators who are making this decision will listen to us.
They have a parking issue on campus with 24,000 students protesting. We are only 900 students; they don't listen t -- about the parking issue. What makes us think they're going to listen to us? We believe that what we need to do is each and every student needs to be out there, calling the Legislative Information Office, contacting their representative in Juneau and back in their hometown. We need to write to the Governor. We need to write to the Anchorage Mayor and Assembly and say:
"If 900 students do not move here to go to school,
how is that going to affect your resource base?"
What we are asking for today is support and ideas. There's -- there are a few of us who can lead. As students -- like I said, a -- the first few semesters are really crucial, so those of us who w -- can fight are here today to ask for your help.
COMMISSIONER TOWARAK: Thank you, Marge. The message is being heard loud and clear, I think, amongst the members. Next to --
COMMISSIONER MASEK: One question. I just want to congratulate you on your graduating. I have one question. You mentioned in there they're failing to meet the needs. Can you tell me what kind of needs are you talking about? And also mentioned that they didn't address something in regards to a Native experience.
MS. REVAS: Failing to meet the needs of Native students.
First of all, we were not asked about the merger -- how we felt about it.
Failing to meet the needs of Native students, again, as I mentioned, when
a Native student comes to UAA, they are usually from a rural area. I, myself,
am from an urban areal; I'm from Ketchikan; and when I came, there were no
support services for me, other than Native Students Services. When I come
to Anchorage from a smaller town, and mo -- and I, myself, was a dropout
from high school, because I couldn't even handle high school -- okay? --
I'm set up to fail. Natives usually are, because their curriculum in the
rural area is different, they're not set up to graduate and go on to post-secondary
education. They are set up in a vocational education curricula. They’re set
up to be diesel mechanics, beauticians, bakers, etcetera. A professional
degree takes us a lot longer to obtain, and when we ha -- need support services,
when we have problems with our financial aid, when we have problems with
reading and writing, because we as Natives -- I, myself, have a hard time
with reading and writing -- reading comprehension comes hard to me; and in
order to keep my grade point average up, the only way that I can make it
through the system is to organize study groups and to get the free tutors
that are available to me.
Another thing that is not focused on is the positive role modeling. You cannot place another minority in front of me and expect me to believe that I can succeed, too. I need to see Natives succeeding. I need to see how upper-level Natives cope with holidays, the lack of our Native food, you know, the different things that affect us emotionally while we are in school, because we are here committed to our education, and we need some support; and this is where we get our support. Now if you integrate Native Students Services with Minority Student Services, our services will be diluted.
COMMISSIONER MASEK: Well, do you think if a lot of this here is addressed in the village when the kids are like in -- still in junior high, and if they're taught that at a younger age, and then -- you know, 'cause I went to school in Anvik. I was born and raised there; I graduated; I became the first student to graduate in the village, and, you know, a lot of things that I have done in my life have been very hard, too; but I think, you know, it has to be implicated somehow when they're still young in the village, and somehow if they're given the opportunity to experience it, so that they're not culture shocked, as you said before.
MS. REVAS: What we are experiencing now is a pivotal point in our history. It is now that we are able to look at what our needs are and articulate them. Those that came before us had a hard time, because they didn't have the support system that we now have. Our elders didn't have this Commission to come testify and say:
"This is what I see is lacking,"
you know. Now, yes, we are able to look at the different portions of our system and say what is wrong, why Western theories do not apply to Native populations in education, in recovery, in everything, you know. Now is the pivotal time; and I can't speak to the village experience, because I'm not from the village. I -- I'm from Ketchikan which is urban, but I still had a hard time. My -- I -- like I said, I'm in my thirteenth semester now. My first three semesters, I was in there at least once a month in some kind of crisis. Now that Native Students Services has grounded me, has helped me to adapt to the educational system, I am a successful student. I am the Chair of the Board of Global Information and Activities, I have achieved leadership roles, because of the positive role modeling that has done -- that has happened there, and because of the support services.
COMMISSIONER MASEK: Thank you.
MS. REVAS: Uh-huh (affirmative).
COMMISSIONER TOWARAK: Thank you, Marge.
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