United Tribes Technical College Left Out of Indian Affairs Budget Request for Fifth Straight Year
Legislators say funding cut sends wrong message to American Indian community
By David Pluviose
For the fifth consecutive fiscal year, the Bush administration has zeroed out funding for the United Tribes Technical College. In the previous four years, Congress restored funding for the Bismarck, N.D., intertribal college in the Department of the Interior budget, appropriating $3.5 million in fiscal year 2006. Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., says the cuts are “flat wrong” and he will once again work to restore UTTC’s federal funding.
“This is one of the top tribal colleges in the country. To continually offer zero funding for this school is to fail to recognize the important role UTTC plays, so I will fight to restore funding for the school again,” says Dorgan, who is vice chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs and the ranking member of the Senate Interior Appropriations Committee.
Founded in 1969, UTTC is operated by five American Indian tribes. All five, the MHA Nation (consisting of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara tribes), the Spirit Lake, the Sisseton Wahpeton Sioux, the Standing Rock Sioux and the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, are either fully or partially based in North Dakota. UTTC officials have said in the past that cutting federal support — about half of its operating funds — would force the college to close. Jesi Shanley, UTTC’s associate dean of student and campus services, says losing federal support now would lead to massive staff and program cuts.
“When I first started here in 2002, we had just barely over 500 students. This year we have 1,113 students. That’s 1,113 students that would not be reached any place else,” Shanley says.
John Gritts, the American Indian College Fund’s tribal college liaison, says cutting UTTC’s federal funding “just baffles me,” as the college has played a key role in equipping members of numerous tribes with the skills necessary to become self-sufficient.
“[Federal funding] is the heartbeat of the institution,” Gritts says. “All the colleges are underfunded miracles, and United Tribes is in the same position. They need the core funding in order to provide services to the communities. You take away the core funding, there’s just no backbone.”
