Sacramento State Announces New Native American College

California State University, Sacramento, is opening a new college, the Native American College—a first for the system—to support Indigenous students in the state, campus officials announced at the state Capitol Friday.

The college plans to welcome its first cohort of first-time students and transfers next fall. Students who gain admission to the university and the new college through an additional application can pick any major offered at Sacramento State, but will all minor in Native American studies and take tribal leadership courses. The university also plans to group students together for general education courses “taught with a focus on Native life, history and culture,” said Luke Wood, president of Sacramento State.

Students can live together in campus housing on a living-and-learning floor associated with the program. The college will also have its own classrooms, computers and meeting spaces, as well as its own staff, including a recruiter, tutors, a counselor and an adviser, according to the university’s website. Students will be able to attend events, talks and trainings on Native American leadership and will be paired with faculty mentors.

Too often, Indigenous students find themselves in “classrooms with individuals who may not fully understand their communities, their cultures, various cultural and religious practices,” Wood said. There’s a “lack of reflection of them within the curriculum, a lack of spaces that center their identities and support their growth and development.”

He wants more for the university’s Indigenous students.

“We don’t want to just have a program or a center,” he said. “We wanted to have a whole college that’s specifically designed to serve students who identify as Native.” The plan is to start with an inaugural cohort of 40 to 60 students and “grow exponentially” from there, he added.

Annette Reed, a member of the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation who is set to become the first dean of the Native American College, described the new college as a future “space of belonging, empowerment and collaboration.”

“We are creating a learning environment that values Native American knowledge systems and traditions while preparing students to address the challenges of today and tomorrow,” said Reed, formerly the university’s chair of ethnic studies, in a news release.

Campus leaders say news of the college has been met with overwhelming support.

California assembly member James Ramos, a member of the Serrano/Cahuilla tribe and the first Native American elected to the State Legislature, applauded the effort when Wood announced the new initiative at an Indian Culture Education Day event at the state Capitol.

“It’s inspiring to see a university take such bold action to provide culturally relevant opportunities for Native students while building bridges between academia and tribal communities,” Ramos said in a news release. “I commend Sacramento State for setting a precedent that I hope others will follow.”

Room for Growth

California is home to roughly 110 federally recognized tribes, but Indigenous students make up only 0.2 percent of students in the California State University system—833 out of more than 450,000 students, according to fall 2023 data from the system. Native American enrollment has plunged 44 percent since a peak of 1,481 students in 2013, echoing national trends.

Of the system’s campuses, Sacramento State is one of the most popular among Native students, Wood said, enrolling several hundred students who identify as Native American or as having “mixed identities.” But campus leaders recognized a “need for us to serve far more students than we’re serving.”

Despite the state’s large Native population, California has no accredited four-year tribal colleges or universities, though it has three tribally affiliated colleges that offer accredited courses through other higher ed institutions: California Indian Nations College in Palm Desert, California Tribal College in Northern California and Kumeyaay Community College in San Diego. D-Q University, a tribal institution in Davis, shuttered in 2005 after losing its accreditation.

Wood sees the Native American College as fulfilling a similar need as those institutions but with the budget, gravitas and support of a large public state university.

“I don’t see this as competing, but really filling an incredible void that’s there, and making sure that we’re saying to our Native students the same things that we say to our other student populations—that we are here to serve you,” Wood said. Sacramento State is a campus “where you’re not going to be a guest in someone else’s house, but you’re going to be home.”

Celeste R. Townsend, president and CEO of California Indian Nations College, noted the new Native American College isn’t tribally run, like her institution. But she praised Reed’s leadership and said she was “elated” to hear the news, adding that she would encourage students to attend.

“Sac State will have the funding,” she said. “I think that’s the hardest thing for us as a tribal college.” She sees the two institutions as “fighting different battles, but sharing that road of education” for Native students.

The announcement comes on the heels of Sacramento State launching the country’s first Black Honors College this fall. The success of that effort helped convince campus leaders to consider the new Native American College, Wood said. The honors college also has its own space, staff, classes and targeted supports to serve Black students interested in Black history and culture. The Black Honors College admitted 80 students in this fall and plans to admit 80 in the spring, followed by 250 more next year—more than initially planned, because applications exceeded what the university expected.

“Obviously this is similar to what we were doing with the Black Honors College, which has been even more successful than I think most people realized it would be,” Wood said.

Wood believes the model of creating microcolleges for underserved populations on campuses could take off at other public universities, offering “a more intimate, personalized and specialized experience for these students.”

“I would assume that we’re going to see others who are going to want to do the same thing,” Wood said. “And for those institutions that don’t, we look forward to seeing their students transition to having greater opportunities with Sacramento State.”