BLOOMINGTON Ind.

Indiana University administrators are working to find a new space and director for a support group for American Indian students weeks after student leaders accused IU of not supporting the group.

In early August, members of the First Nations Educational & Cultural Center said the group's governing board was dissolving due to inadequate treatment by the university.

Rebecca Riall, a law student and First Nations board member, said administrators had viewed the group as a "burden." Unlike other student organizations, such as La Casa and IU’s Asian Culture Center, she said First Nations had no "financial or personnel authority" and needed a director.

"They're always telling us it's because of our numbers," Riall said of the university's explanation of why the center has no director or building of its own.  She counters that the number of American Indian students will not go up until services are enhanced, and that the group reaches out to the community as a whole, not just students.

Administrators have vowed to "continue efforts to appoint a permanent director" for First Nations. Charles Sykes, executive director of IU’s African American Arts Institute and Multicultural Initiatives, said he submitted this year a budget proposal for a new director, to no avail.

School administrators are now working to secure a new space, a director and additional staff for First Nations. The group held an open house Friday that drew about 70 students.  First Nations will move from two dorm rooms in Eigenmann Hall to a more accessible location in Weatherly Hall at Ashton Center when the space is ready.

Lillian Casillas, director of IU's La Casa, the campus' Latino cultural center, has agreed to serve as First Nation's interim director for up to a year.  She plans to hire two work-study students to staff the center so it can be open longer hours.