Photo courtesy of UAA.
The Northern Light interviewed a UAA employee who worked closely with Native Student Services — or NSS. The source asked to remain anonymous due to fear of backlash from students and administrators.
Save NSS is a student organization that formed to oppose the reorganization of NSS under Student Affairs. The group has called for staff to be retained and for the reorganization to be halted.
The source said they saw an organization chart for the newly reorganized Community and Belonging program, which included two full-time staff positions at the Indigenous and Rural Student Center — or IRSC.
This is contrary to claims made by the Save NSS petition, which alleges that academic advising will be dismantled by the change.
In an email with Executive Director Kim Morton, The Northern Light was provided an organizational chart matching the one described by the source. According to Morton, the two positions that will be working at the IRSC are the Associate Director of Community and Belonging and the Belonging Coordinator.
The source said claims surrounding a name change prompted by the Board of Regents motion are untrue. This was confirmed in a written response from Deanne Woodard to The Northern Light.
However, the source said a name change has been considered even before this fiscal year. “If you go back to the 2017 Diversity Inclusion Action Plan, Interim Associate Vice Chancellor for Alaska Natives and Diversity Jeane Breinig suggested renaming Native Student Services,” said the source.
The source said the Save NSS student petitions claimed UAA was taking away “the only safe space created by, with, and for Native students” is false.
As confirmed by Woodard, the source said NSS isn’t going away. The source also said NSS is not the only space and service for Native students on campus.
The source cited the Alaska Native, Indigenous and Rural Outreach Program, the Cama-i Room and Alaska Native Studies as some of the programs available to students.
The source also said students' claim that NSS is losing its independence under the reorganization is untrue.
The source said Community and Belonging is already overseen by Student Affairs, which previously had authority over NSS. No independence is being lost by the move, according to the source.
The source said they would like to see data on how many students NSS served and mentioned that the student sign-in document at NSS could accurately identify the number of students the organization serves.
The source also said that the claim made by NSS and UAA that they are raising Native student enrollment is false. This is corroborated by the 2024 ANSI report.
According to the report, 12.6% of students attending UAA were students of Indigenous heritage. That number dropped by 1.6 percentage points. The number of graduate students of Indigenous heritage peaked at 12.7% in fiscal year 2020. Now, it’s down 3 percentage points. After having a six-year graduation rate of 22.1% in fiscal year 2019, that number is now down 5 percentage points.
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