CSUN Urged to Pay More Attention to American Indians

About 30 protesters urged Cal State Northridge to address the problems of American Indian students, claiming 92% of them drop out because the university does not try hard enough to retain them.

Among other things, the protesters want counselors to provide academic advice and organize activities for the 208 American Indians on campus. They also called on the university to recruit American Indian students.

The demonstrators also demanded that university administrators keep a promise made in May to provide the 20-member American Indian Student Assn. with more study and meeting space. The group currently shares a converted storage closet with another student organization, said protester Nancy Peterson-Walter, a former part-time anthropology instructor at Cal State Northridge who counseled American Indian students before leaving the university in 1987.

Peter Aguirre, president of the American Indian Student Assn., said a survey by his organization showed that, on average, 45.5% of the campus’ American Indian students drop out after their freshman year. Only 7.7% manage to graduate, he said.

The latest statistics compiled by the university show that, of American Indian freshmen who enrolled in 1983, just 10% graduated. Overall, 45% of the students who enroll as freshmen go on to graduate, university officials said.

“It’s important that American Indian students on campus have a gathering place,” Peterson-Walter said. “The number of American Indian students is decreasing at a higher rate than all other ethnic minority groups, but the population is increasing. If there’s anything that’s desperately needed, it’s higher education.”

American Indians are the smallest minority group on campus, making up only 0.69% of the 30,000-student population, according to registration statistics compiled last spring. An interdisciplinary program begun in the late 1970s offers a minor in American Indian studies.

By contrast, Asians, who recently won approval for creation of a full department of Asian-American studies, make up 12% of the student population.

Registration records indicate that 11% of the university’s students identify themselves as Latino and 5% as black. Pan-African and Chicano studies departments were established in 1969 in the wake of student and community protests.

Jacqueline Jacobs, associate vice president for academic services, said the university plans to hire two American Indian counselors to recruit American Indian high school and transfer students. She also said the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, which oversees the American Indian studies minor, is considering American Indian applicants for the position of educational equity coordinator, which will oversee relations with minority groups in the school.

University spokeswoman Ann Salisbury said she sympathized with the protesters but said American Indians already have access to academic counseling through the American Indian studies program. She also said she doubted the demonstrators’ sincerity, because they held the protest at the same time that other minority groups were gathering on campus to discuss ways to improve ethnic and race relations.

The discussions were part of events this month in honor of the university’s cultural diversity and racial awareness.

The demonstrators targeted Columbus Day to protest what they called the historic oppression of American Indians by whites.

“1492: That was the beginning for European Americans but the end for American Indian people,” protester Rene Orozco said.