Navajo Technical University will become the first tribal university to offer a Ph.D. program this fall. Tribal college and university leaders are celebrating the move. Navajo Technical University in New Mexico has come a long way since its founding about 40 years ago as a job skills training center with five signature vocational programs.
The University of Minnesota is offering student housing for residents who want to immerse themselves in learning Ojibwe or Dakota, two Native languages at risk of extinction.
Aerial view of Cankdeska Cikana Community College
At Navajo Technical University, which has campuses on the sprawling Navajo reservation in New Mexico and Arizona, some students commute up to two hours each way to attend classes. Many of them lack reliable access to the internet.
The pandemic has made attending the university even more challenging, but university leaders have come up with creative ways to engage students and keep them enrolled, even starting a Homework Express service through which campus shuttle bus drivers bring packets of homework to designated drop-off points for students who lack internet access altogether. The drivers then return to pick up the completed assignments.