Planning and development are underway for an American Indian education institute at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
The institute will be named after Electa Quinney, a woman of Stockbridge Mohican descent who established the state’s first public school in 1828, and will be established through a combination of its own funds and a $1 million donation made in 1999 by the Indian Community School.
Along with the donation came the stipulation for UW-Milwaukee to create an Electa Quinney professorship and a second faculty position, according to the executive summary for American Indian Programming.
An advisory position was also suggested by the grant for increasing the earning potential of the endowment.
“The emphasis is currently on Indian education, and we will be focusing on trying to develop training programs for teachers and school administrators for the development of degree options that particularly affect policy areas,” said David Beaulieu, Electa Quinney professor of American Indian education.
Beaulieu said the program would include a “sequence of education policy courses (for people) like education directors and folks who are interested in doing research in American Indian research.”
Beaulieu developed the Native American teacher training program seven years ago to help Native Americans become teachers, with many going on to teach at schools with predominantly Native American student populations.
“We are also trying to work as a facilitative role to try to develop service and research projects with Wisconsin Indian tribes,” Beaulieu said. “We encourage Native American people to come to [UW-Milwaukee] and take course and degree options in these kinds of areas that they would like to specialize in, like public health careers and environmental and fresh water sciences [including the education of] graduate students in professional areas.”
Another need for programming at UW-Milwaukee arose from the need for a conduit to and from the American Indian population.
The executive summary said “The University lacks a mechanism to gather ongoing input from the American Indian community concerning the community’s needs vis-?-vis research, academic programs, and community outreach” — something the university it looking to fix.
At UW-Madison, an American Indian Cultural Center is currently being developed for establishment next semester.
Christina Johnson, librarian and program assistant for the American Indian studies program at UW-Madison, said Native American student groups and faculty will be provided a space in the cultural center with the establishment of the program.
She said talks have been going on for several years about the establishment of a center space and it is something people are looking forward to.
According to Stephanie Dodge, office assistant at the UW-Madison American Indian Studies Program, there are currently 30 students at UW-Madison enrolled in the American Indian Studies Certificate Program. Dodge also said there are currently 325 students at UW-Madison who are declared Native Americans.
“[The cultural center will serve] primarily native students on campus and also Native American members throughout the community and surrounding areas too,” Dodge said. “There’s limited places like this, especially on universities. This will help with retaining more minority students by forming a community.
