“I think my friend Sen. Dorgan would agree with me that sometimes we see these budgets come over with cuts that are going to be restored by Congress. It’s a game as old as there is … as long as we have been doing business. But I think some of these cuts send out the wrong signal to Indian country as to what our belief on our fulfillment of our obligation to Native Americans is all about,� McCain said.

“I think sometimes we have recommendations to zero out funding with the full expectation that Congress would not allow that with certain programs,� Dorgan adds.

Herrin says funding for tribal schools is a more pressing priority for the Bush administration than funding tribal colleges.

“The priority is the elementary and secondary [schools]; we fund those 184 schools. The No. 1 priority is to maintain those 184 schools, then we move into postsecondary,� he says.

That puts UTTC’s leaders, as well as most other tribal college leaders, in a tough spot. Instead of strengthening their programs, UTTC’s administrators must devote their attention to keeping the college’s core funding stable, Shanley says.

“Right now, we have two of our deans, along with our president, in Washington, D.C., fighting for the restoration of our funding, when we could be, as a campus, growing and moving forward. All of us, staff and students, have to be worried about the budget. What does that do to recruitment? What does it do to staff morale?� she says.

“We could be concentrating on bigger, better [projects] that move us forward as an institution, but instead we’re just trying to hang on and get our funding restored,� Shanley adds.