Cut in transition: Cuts to Native Studies program burden students

Two weeks into the fall semester, senior Jordan Catlett withdrew from what would have been her second to last class in her Native Studies minor.

“(The class) just did not align with the experience others who had taken the class told me about,” she said. “I even thought about dropping it as a minor, but I was only two classes away.”

Meanwhile, senior David Estes, a Native Studies and Criminal Justice double major, sits in his Applied Research for Social Changes class, contemplating what could have been from his final Native Studies course.

“We were going to pick a reservation and figure out what programs they need and write a grant to get funding for those programs,” Estes said. “For me, that was a hands-on class, and classes I had been in up to this point were like that.”

That was before the departure of former Native Studies professor and lone faculty member Elizabeth Castle and downgrading of the Native Studies from a department to a program in spring 2013.

Now, the program consists of interdisciplinary courses and houses no faculty and instead utilizes professors from departments such as History, English, Art, Addiction Studies and one professor from the library.

Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Matthew Moen said the interdisciplinary model gets the program back to how it was when it first began in 2006.

“We have always had a history of cross-listed classes,” Moen said. “We nixed that through previous leadership, because they said ‘No, we need more of a linear progression of students through Native Studies courses,’ so we changed the curriculum.”

However, that model is gone and the effects brought by the changes have not gone unnoticed by students in the program.

“Being in touch of the community is a main part of Native Studies,” Estes said. “These classes are more like reading a book, I am so used to hands on and I’m not so interested anymore. You can’t just read a book and know it all.”

Catlett said the interdisciplinary model dilutes the once deeply-involved classes.

“One of the things we are supposed to get out of Native Studies is learning about the culture and critical thinking,” she said. “The way things are now takes away from that overall thinking.”

Moen said the model Native Studies was running under, with Castle carrying the class load, was not an ideal method.

“(The program) now has different instructors with different teaching methods emphasizing different things,” Moen said. “Castle left, and we can’t simply recreate what she was doing. Different instructors are going to use other methods of teaching and sometimes different methods of teaching are more effective.”

Moving forward

After the departure of Castle this summer, Moen said the program needed to quickly fill the vacancies she left for fall courses.

“Professors are doing the best they can for getting pushed into this last second,” Estes said.

However, for the spring semester, Moen said the program has been accepting applications for two new teaching positions exclusive to Native Studies courses.

“We will offer courses with several people instead of one which gives students more of a range of course work and more teaching options,” Moen said.

Catlett said hiring more faculty is a good start for the program.

“It’s a step in the right direction, but they need to seek out people in the Native Studies fields and not people from other fields to house those spots,” she said.

Since its start in 2006, Native Studies has had a complex history — bouncing from chairperson to chairperson, enrollment issues and now, a non-existent in-house faculty.

Moen said he hopes by bringing in new faculty, enrollment will improve.

“We have to get people recruited and hired, and I think if we do that, hopefully those new faculty can do a better job at attracting students,” Moen said.

However, Estes said the small class sizes are something he appreciated about Native Studies classes prior to this semester.

“Everyone chimed in, you can get lost in translation now,” Estes said. “Having that close knit group of students forced us to get out of our comfort zone and get to know each other on a personal level and forced us to be more outgoing. That is gone now.”

Affecting careers

Catlett said one thing that has been noticeable of the Native Studies program in the past has been careers of its graduates.

“The graduates from USD are of high achievement,” Catlett said. “They go on to do many different things, because of the overall critical thinking and overall knowledge the program offers in many areas.”

Catlett is a health science major with a minor in Native Studies and plans to attend graduate school, after which she said she hopes to work in public health and aid in health disparities among Native Americans.

However, Catlett said she has concerns over the educational value of her Native Studies minor.

“I debated dropping my Native Studies minor, because I don’t want something tagged on to the end of my name and have people expect that I know things that I was never taught,” she said.

Estes recently sent in his application to be a federal police officer on a reservation, and said his education has prepared him for the field.

“I was raised on a reservation and being exposed to and doing studies on reservations while at USD has opened my eyes to the reality of Indian reservations,” Estes said. “Thanks to USD, I experienced and lived it.”

Estes will hear back about his job in March, but said if he were to do it all again, he would have second-guessed coming to USD.

Catlett said she is worried about the direction the program is going.

“I really debated on dropping the minor, but next semester, they said there would be new classes,” she said. “But I didn’t see any on WebAdvisor. It’s really sad where this program is going.”