Okay, so thank you Carla for this interview today. I want to be able to
pronounce your last name correctly. Can you say it from me please? It's Carla
Viju. Okay, thank you. And your full title? I'm the director of tribal relations.
Okay, so we have this Wisconsin tribal education promise. Tell me about the
reaction so far about a year and a half in? Yeah, so the Wisconsin tribal
educational promise is our effort to bring more native students to campus by
making it more accessible by providing the full cost of attendance to Wisconsin's
natives and we worked with tribal leaders from across the state to create the
program and now we're seeing the fruits of those labors. You know, we're seeing
our first class. We've got nearly 80 students in this first class and we're
hoping it will grow from here. You know, I personally have heard from students
who've shared their stories and their excitement and their general pleasure
with, you know, how they're able to attend UW Madison when they thought maybe it
wasn't possible or they thought maybe they might have to take a job while they
were doing their studies and now they can focus on their major and their
extracurricular activities and just being a student. So it's pretty amazing. So 80
students, does that include bachelors and the unique aspect of having the
opportunity for law and medical students? Right, so we're closing in on 80 but
people still can enroll through the end of the school year. Yes, we do have a
pilot with for medical school and law school. The majority of those, the biggest
majority of those are for the undergraduate degree but, you know, we are
hearing from people across the country even in particular about that law aspect.
There's a lot of excitement around the law school. Right, so there's currently
medical and law students already using the program. Correct. Right, so that's
such a huge number in a relatively short time the first year. How did you get
that awareness out especially even to high school seniors? Well, so this first
year we made sure that the students who are already here were also eligible. So
that made it a little bit easier. We wanted to make sure that we made it as
easy as possible for people to enroll if they were eligible. So people got a
notification, you know, when they enrolled. If you are a member of a native
nation of Wisconsin, you know, click this link and go through this, you know, these
few questions and if you're eligible we'll let you know. And, you know, we wanted to
make sure that we didn't make it a cumbersome process. We just wanted to make
sure that people knew that this was available. Take me back to the inception,
the idea. Where did this idea initially come from and how did you work with the
tribal leaders to make it happen? Well, I think, you know, across the country there's
been a move to make sure to include all sorts of voices on college campuses and,
you know, for native nations in particular to be included in those voices that are
on campuses. And so there are a number of college campuses across the country
that already have tuition promises, our tuition programs for native students. And
so we're not the first. I'll admit that. But, you know, this is something that
people in the community have talked about for some time. And Chancellor
Mnuchin came from California where they had recently enacted a similar tuition
program. And she arrived on campus about four months before I did. And when I
arrived in our very first meeting she said, hey, you know, we just did this in
California. I think we should do it here. And she said, okay. And she said, can we
do it like right now? I was like, okay. And so, you know, we set out to do it the
right way. And that means in consultation with our native nations, with our partners
in the tribes. And so we set up a number of meetings with them and really let them
kind of lead the way and what it would look like. And like I said, there's a number
of tuition programs across the country. After those initial discussions, they made
it clear that we should do more than tuition. And so we started looking at ways
we could make that happen. And that's why our program includes the full cost of
attendance, which means room, board, books, fees, and some extra money for, you
know, other costs that are incurred by going to college. So, you know, I think we
did a really good job in working with the tribes and listening to them and what
they wanted and needed for their students. And here we are. When you spoke to the
tribes and they brought to you some concerns about students and you just
being here with native students, what are some of the barriers generationally
that have happened where afford in college, continuing to afford college,
may have been a challenge. Sure. You know, UW Madison is a very big school. A lot of
our tribes here in Wisconsin are very rural. And frankly, very far away, you
know, several hours by car and far away from communities that these people, you
know, these young people grew up in. And so we really wanted to make sure that
when people got here, they felt, can I start that part over? Sorry. Sorry. Don't
me to ask again. Yeah, please. Tell me about some of the need that native
students, yep, I can feel it. There you go. Okay. Tell me about some of the need
that native students have and why they would want to take advantage of this
program. Well, so. Okay, I'm going to start this. You don't have to ask again. You
know, when we were talking the tribal leaders, they really wanted to make sure
that the students when they arrived were taking well care of, you know, the
native nations here in Wisconsin, many of them are rural and very far away, you
know, geographically, several hours by car. And we're taking, you know, their
young people from those communities and bringing them here to a very big place.
That's very different from those communities. And so making sure that they
had all the tools to be successful and having a place where they felt like they
belonged and were welcomed was really important. And so looking at all aspects
of the college experience, and that includes, you know, having the ability to
financially participate in things like travel abroad or extracurricular
activities that they might not be able to if they didn't have the tribal promise,
that was important. So tell me about some of the requirements. We have our 11 as
federally recognized tribes. So tell me about some of the requirements for
potential students that want to be in this program and then to continue to be
sure. So for the promise, you need to be a Wisconsin resident and you need to be
an enrolled member of one of Wisconsin's federally recognized tribes. The
Wisconsin's federally recognized tribes are each sovereign nations. That means
they can determine their citizenship. And so we, when we talked to the tribes,
they felt like that was a good starting place for eligibility. And so that's how
we're going to start. And then, you know, just when you get here, you have to be
just like any other student and keep your grades and, and be a good student and a
good community member. And, and that's about it.
Do they still have to continue the fast for form and, or already be accepted to
UW Madison, say for maybe high school seniors?
So you do have to get accepted. Right. So that's the main thing is you do have to
have the grades and get accepted to UW Madison, just like everyone else. But
once you're here, like I said, we try to make it as easy as possible for you to
just upload your tribal enrollment information and, and get through the
process of verifying that you're a tribal member. And then, you know, when
you're here, we try to connect with all the, the Native students with, you know,
people on campus who can make sure that you're connected to other Native
students, Native faculty, Native staff, just so that you have a chance, if you'd
want to build community with other Natives here in Madison.
Do you have any current data on how many Native students are enrolled at the
school? Well, there is data. It's, it's, you know, it's not perfect. It's people's
self-report. You know, we get a wide variety of numbers that people share with
us. We would think that there's probably about 300 ish students that are Native
on campus. That's self-reported. That means that someone said, yeah, I'm
Native, but that does not necessarily mean that they're enrolled in a tribe. It
could be that they said, oh, my great grandma's Native, but I'm also Latino and
I'm also, you know, white. So it could be a wide, they could be all different
nationalities and ethnicities. So it's, you know, it's hard to exactly
categorize right now. But for now, you know, now with this, we'll at least be
able to capture who is enrolled from a Wisconsin tribe and grow from there.
Have you heard from working with students, but anything from parents saying they
couldn't continue or they're happy that their son or daughter has an opportunity
to go and continue? Well, that's interesting because, you know, when we were
talking about the program as we were developing it, we would hear from
parents and that was really interesting were parents who shared their stories
of going to college and talked about how they, there wasn't any food security,
for instance, like how they had to miss meals or how they lived on a can of
peanuts for, you know, two days because they didn't have, you know, enough on their
meal card or how they had to take an extra job and their roommate, you know,
got this really cool internship that they got to do for free. And so we got to
hear all of these stories from parents and I think that's what really swayed
how we took a look at this program because we wanted to take all of those
things into account like Native students deserve to have food security, they
deserve to take those really neat internships and they deserve to like do
all of the other things that other students can do. So yeah, I mean, we've
heard from a lot of different people, a lot of different stories and that's what
shaped the whole thing. Right. How is it being funded? So this is not, this is
being funded by internal funding, you know, our WFA and others do fundraising for it
and so it's not a taxpayer funded program and, you know, we're pretty proud
that people want to support this program. So I just want to be clear for the medical
and law students, does that also cover their housing as well? It does not. It does not.
So for those students it's just tuition fees and just tuition. I think it's just,
let me now double check for you, but I'm pretty sure it's tuition because those got
added at the very end and I don't include this in the interview, but like I think
because they did it, had to do it separately because they were using their
own money to pay for it. They were going separate from what the chancellor and I
were working on. But yeah, I believe it's just tuition and they're, you know,
because it's not, they're not a traditional student like where they would
be staying in the dorms or using the plan or you know what I mean. And I'll
probably say that. Yeah. Are you talking to Amanda White Eagle? To who? Amanda White Eagle.
She's the Great Lakes Center Director. She's the one who would know the law
student side and she's the one who has been talking to law students around the
country who are really interested in coming here. Oh, that's good. Yeah. So that
brings you to a question I had here. Transfer students. Yes. Within the state
of Wisconsin. Yes. Does it apply to them? It does. Okay. Yes. Now UW Madison, like
many other universities across the country, but we're here today on UW
Madison land that was owned by a whole chunk original land. Can you tell me
about that connection and why this program, the promise is so unique? Yeah.
So, you know, this, we are on ancestral, the ancestral homeland of the whole
chunk nation. In every direction you look from where we are right now, this was
whole chunk nation. This was the land of the whole chunk nation. Let me start that
over because they weren't a nation back then. They were just whole chunk people.
Okay. So, this is the ancestral homeland of the whole chunk people. In every
direction you look from where we are today, this was whole chunk land and the
lakes, you know, all around us. These were places where people fished, people
hunted, people had their families, people had community, people celebrated. They
had their cultural ceremonies. They, you know, you know, they had their
medicines and loved one another. They had, you know, all kinds of things here and
they were forcibly removed. And this university has spent some time coming
to accept and share that story. And part of the reason this promise exists is
because, you know, there is some recognition that that all happened. But
there's also, you know, there's also the need and want to do what's right and
good for native people too. So, yeah, I mean, this is Ho-Chunk ancestral land and
I think there's now some sense of pride in that and wanting to share and
celebrate that history. But there's also, you know, with this promise a chance to
give back to. Have you come across any students who identify as whole chunk? Oh,
yeah, we, yeah, there's plenty of, there's definitely some Ho-Chunk students on
campus. I am, you know, we have what's called the first nation's cultural
landscape tour here on campus and we share many sites that are culturally
significant to the Ho-Chunk nation. We take a walking tour and we have
Ho-Chunk nation students who are part of like giving that tour. We do a lot of
different things with the Ho-Chunk nation here on campus. It's really,
really nice to have them be partners with us in a lot of different things on
campus. It's really nice to have, you know, their input and have them be
partners with us in a lot of different things here. Right. It's learning on
your ancestral grounds. It must maybe for them even feel spiritual. Yeah, I'm
Oneida, so I'm not Ho-Chunk. You know, I grew up near Green Bay and I feel pretty
grateful that some of the Ho-Chunk elders and Ho-Chunk community members
here in the Madison area have been so willing and able to share with me so
many stories and have been welcoming and, you know, been, you know, just like
almost like aunties and grandmas to me since I've arrived because they want
the students here to be successful and part of that is having leadership, you
know, here on campus who knows those stories and those culturally significant
things about that nation. So it's really wonderful. Tell me about some of the
other support services that native students can take advantage of on
campus to feel community. Yeah, there's a really nice community here on campus
for native students. We have a group, they call themselves the relatives and the
relative collective. It started out with some aunties and in native culture,
aunties are almost like your second mom. They're your mom and the aunties are
generally speaking like staff who are student focused. They help with student
services. They work in areas like tutoring, mental health services. They
plan activities for students like outings, dinners. They support the
students and some of the activities that the students are planning like pow-wows.
There's the uncles, you know, similar role and now we have cousins, you know, so
it's just a really supportive community. Just this past winter, the student
organization, Hwangshik, planned a winter round dance and I was so proud of
them. They planned this round dance. They had over 200 people show up to this
winter round dance in December and they had invited seven drums and 20 showed up.
It was amazing so you can see there's such strong support for native
students on this campus and it's just so nice to see. That's amazing. I would love
to go to some of those events. Yeah and there's a wellness house or a student
house where native students can kind of hang out. There is, there's an
Indigenous Student Center. It's just, you know, it's actually right across the
street right here. There's an Indigenous Student Center and it's a
gathering spot for students but there's also some offices for the native
student orgs and they have dinners there on Wednesday nights and people can go
there and do their homework and just hang out and yeah it's a really nice spot.
And so they can use this, say if someone is, you know, a sophomore, the promise
won't retro and cover your freshman year away from that point forward.
Forward. Okay and so that must be a huge relief. Yes, right. It'll take
care of you from now to the end of your degree. Correct. And summer courses as
well. I don't, I'm gonna have to get back to you on that one. Okay. Yeah. I don't
know exactly how it works. Yeah, I saw something that said it you can but then
it may take less from the right. I'm sure the financial aid folks will explain it
to me much better. I hope that we can somehow speak with a medical student and
see how their life has really been impacted by this. So they may be in it
using the promise and graduating student potentially or because they're
time as medical students or as law students is a little shorter. Yeah, yeah
I didn't, you know, I didn't, again because I think they're like a little
bit separate because they're pilots. I don't know those who those students
might be, especially because I'm not down at the med school, the law school
but yeah, I don't know if they are but and I think Victoria was gonna help try
and figure out some students for you. Okay. Also the tribe, Brotherton, is not a
federally recognized tribe. So students from that tribe, they would not be
eligible for programs. Correct. Correct. Right. You know, there are, there's a lot
of legal precedents that surrounds being a federally recognized tribe and as I
mentioned, federally recognized tribes are sovereign nations who determine
citizenship and so that's a political classification. It's not a race or
ethnicity and so that's the reason why we can offer this program because it's
not a race or ethnicity. It's a citizenship of a nation and so that's why
we had chose that particular eligibility requirement. And how long do you think
the promise will last or we don't know? Well, it's, the, the promise is intended
to be forever, right? I mean, Native American students have been around, you
know, since the beginning of what is now the United States, been around since
the inception of what is now this country and I think the goal is to make
sure that they're taken care of forever. It's a gift that keeps on giving. Correct.
I mean, you know, in, in my culture, we talk about taking care of the next seven
generations and that means that we make sure that decisions we make for today
aren't just for ourselves or for our kids but they are for the next seven
generations. So they benefit not just us or our own families or our own kids but
they benefit everyone out into the future.
It's excellent. Is there anything else that you would like to add?
Okay, I think I got every one of them.
Okay, I think that's everything.