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Colleges are keenly focused not just on who is coming in the door but who’s staying.
As the pandemic picked up steam, officials at Fort Lewis College in Durango asked this question:
“How do we express to our students that we care about them in this time of great distress?” asked provost and vice president for academic affairs Cheryl Nixon.
Nearly half of the students at the college are Native American, a community that has been hit very hard by COVID-19. Drawing upon guidance from students, the university began talking about Native American concepts such as creating a “community of care,” incorporating the Navajo principle of K’é or kinship, community and togetherness into the school’s messages to students, sometimes voiced by students themselves.