Don't overlook Duke's Native American students

While we appreciate The Chronicle's Nov. 8 article "Minorities call for new committees," it surprised us that the article did not even mention Native Americans among Duke's minority population.

This omission highlights the perpetual ignorance and apathy students and administrators alike have for Duke's minorities, particularly Native Americans. Especially at the current moment, Duke prides herself on engaging diversity. However, too often Duke administrators work to placate large minorities already present at Duke, while neglecting and alienating Native Americans before they even consider Duke.

Duke does not have Native American administrators, faculty or a cultural center, while many of our peers boast all of these assets. Duke lacks a Native American studies department, unlike peer institutions such as Stanford and Penn. While many Native Americans are capable of getting into Duke, they choose schools that embrace Natives-schools like the University of North Carolina, Harvard, Dartmouth and Stanford. For prospective Native students, a choice to come here means not just being the minority, but being the only member from a culture. Moreover, the typical Duke undergraduate class has only two or three Native students (often from different tribes and therefore different cultures). How can so few students represent an entire people to the Duke community?

Native Americans at Duke have a history of lobbying administrators for greater recognition and for the same opportunities Natives at our peer institutions (and even UNC) receive such as on-campus faculty mentors and cultural spaces. Although there are bright spots for Natives at Duke, like the Native American Student Alliance and the Multicultural Center, too often Native issues have been ignored, and administrators' promises unfulfilled.

Natives here play the waiting game when it comes to effective (not just token) administrator responses, due to "scheduling conflicts," "other priorities" and continual pleas for "patience." Perhaps we do not need more president's committees, but we do need to expand our understanding of diversity. Perhaps the President's Council on Black Affairs becoming a President's Commission on Minority Affairs would be more embracing. Attempts to expand the definition of "black" have fallen on deaf ears, so a new beginning may be what's needed now.

Spencer Eldred

Trinity '10

Native American Student Alliance