Indianz.Com > News > ‘We got lied to’: Native students find flaws in free tuition program

‘We got lied to’
Native students find out ‘free tuition’ program isn’t free
Tuesday, September 6, 2022
Indianz.Com
An Oglala Lakota woman is calling upon leaders at her university in Denver to fulfill a promise they made last spring.
Celeste Terry, a 30-year-old student of applied indigenous law and science at Metropolitan State University, said she and other Native students at the university were promised free tuition and fees by the university’s top leader.
MSU Denver President Janine Davidson made the announcement on May 6, during the university’s first ever Native graduation ceremony.
Terry said Davidson never informed the Native student organizers of the ceremony that she would be making the announcement and everyone in attendance was surprised when the president arrived with a news crew.
“We will begin to offer free tuition and fees for Colorado residents who are registered with any of the 574 federal recognized Native nations across the country,” Davidson said during the event, eliciting applause and war whoops from those gathered.
She said she was frustrated by the patronizing manner in which university leaders spoke to the Native students during that meeting, describing a statement made by President Davidson at the start of the meeting as “white saviorism.” “The first thing she tells us is, ‘You’re lucky we’re even considering helping Native students. Most universities don’t. Basically you should be happy with that effort. The intentions were good,’” Terry said, quoting Davidson. And while Terry is glad MSU Denver is working to better support Native students, she said believes the university has more work to do to begin treating its Native students honorably and respectfully. And she said she wishes the university had simply been honest from the start about the program not providing free tuition and fees for Native students. “I just wish they would have told us that when they made the announcement so people didn’t adjust their finances back in May,” she said.Thanks to a combination of federal, state and institutional grants, MSU Denver will fully cover Indigenous and Native students’ tuition and fees beginning in the fall semester. Read more in RED: https://t.co/NLEfafgJEB pic.twitter.com/5cUeZSwyeg
— Auraria Campus (@AurariaCampus) May 17, 2022
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