California's only tribal college appeals loss of accreditation.

DAVIS, Calif. -- Thirty-year-old D-Q University, the first and only tribal college founded outside a reservation, closed in February after losing its accreditation and running out of operating funds. The school's board of trustees appealed the loss of accreditation and is planning an audit of the school's finances; meanwhile, another group, after also having claimed the board of trustees mantle, abandoned its effort, declaring D-Q's problems too serious to be rectified.

The college lost its accreditation in mid-January, after being placed on notice last June. D-Q's accreditation, pulled by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges division of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, remains in effect however, pending the outcome of an appeal.

Last June, ACCJC told the college to better manage its finances, show proof that courses were of high enough quality to lead to an associate of art's degree, and recruit more board members. Deficiencies cited by other parties also included a lack of qualified administrators and a $100,000 bank loan the school couldn't afford to repay.

Will the Real Board Please Stand Up?

D-Q "never had the full 15-member board of trustees," said Cindy La Marr, former D-Q board member, former president of the National Indian Education Association and now executive director of Capital Area Indian Resources in Sacramento, Calif.

Also, she said, the board of trustees "needed more people with expertise." In addition, some members, including La Marr's friend David Risling, D-Q University co-founder and board member who died in March at the age of 83 (see "'Father of Indian Education' Dies," this page), "had been there for a very long time. That was part of the problem: They wouldn't step down."

After initially offering her help to Risling but subsequently clashing with him and D-Q President Victor Gabriel, La Marr formed a second "board of trustees" in the weeks before the college's closing. But this board folded after only three weeks, citing insurmountable problems at the school.

Meanwhile, the original board of trustees reconstituted itself, adding new members, including several University of California-Davis current and former employees. This board and La Marr's group clashed often, each calling the other illegitimate, formed without adhering to the school's bylaws. A press release issued March 11 by the original board of trustees characterized La Marr's board as "unauthorized" and says her board had "no legal standing whatsoever." The press release went on to say that, while La Marr's board submitted requests to ACCJC to review the loss of accreditation, the agency recognized only the original board's request. (According to the March 11 release, when La Marr's group sent ACCJC its request for review, it "resulted in the ACCJC writing DQU and asking for a court order to indicate officially which board was the real one." ACCJC would not comment on any allegations made by La Marr's group or the original board.) The original board, working with Gabriel, subsequently fried an official appeal, Gabriel said. The agency will review the appeal and make an onsite visit this summer.

Pending ACCJC's visit, the board and the administration "are forming committees to address a couple of areas in the curriculum (the agency) said needed improvement," Gabriel said. "We have people from UC-Davis, California State and Solano College on those committees," he said, expressing confidence that they will succeed.

Too Short a Funding Stick?

One of a number of problems with D-Q's fiscal management was the college's draining of an $800,000 private endowment--the interest from which was supposed to go toward student scholarships--through payment of salaries, among other things, La Marr said. Another was that most students hadn't received any financial aid during the 2004-2005 school year, she said. "Regarding the issue of financial aid to the students, these matters are confidential and unique to each student," the D-Q press release said.

"D-Q was always struggling financially," La Marr said. The struggle was exacerbated last year, when the school's funding from the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs was withdrawn reportedly because its student body didn't meet the bureau's requirement that it be at least 51 percent Native American.

"This semester, we were going to ask each of the tribal communities (of the students) to make contributions, but we never got to it," given the circumstances, Gabriel said. Also, "A partnership with the Southern California Indian Center would have given us more money."

According to La Marr, one of D-Q's first mistakes was that it didn't include tribal communities in the schools' planning phase. Because it didn't sufficiently reach out to tribal communities, La Marr contends, D-Q is not a typical tribal college: "D-Q is an example of what we shouldn't do" in developing tribal colleges, she said.

However, some of the school's financial problems stemmed from the same handicaps suffered by other tribal colleges. "Tribal colleges are underfunded; they're given a short stick by the federal government. Funding per student is not comparable with other schools, (and) many students are low-income," La Marr said. "Other colleges have alumni. Tribal schools don't have access to that type of capital." And while some are calling for gaming tribes to come to the rescue, La Marr said, "casinos wouldn't, as a business, go after a losing proposition."

She said "There was a 3 percent increase from 2004 for education in the federal 2005 budget. But for Indian education, in the upcoming budget, they're proposing 2003 levels--a drop."

"At least give us an opportunity for equal education," La Marr said.