As enrollment at tribal colleges spikes, American Indians are hoping the Obama administration will make good on campaign promises to increase funding.
From 1998 to 2001, Carrie Billy served as the first executive director of the White House Initiative on Tribal Colleges and Universities under the Clinton administration. During her tenure, TCUs received their largest ever federal funding increase as well as the establishment of the American Indian Teacher Corps Program, the Tribal College Technology Information Program and other important advances in tribal college funding and programming. She is a graduate of the University of Arizona and Georgetown University Law School.
Billy took over as head of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium, which oversees 36 tribal colleges in the United States, last summer.
Diverse caught up with Billy before she was scheduled to travel to Turkey, where she planned to discuss possible collaborations between Turkish institutions and American tribal colleges
Q: What are your hopes for tribal colleges under the incoming Obama administration?
I’m excited about the new administration; it’s a positive change for Indian country, for the United States, for the world. There are new opportunities for us to refocus on academic- and culturally based education and native language restoration. Obama understands the importance of sustaining native culture, languages and traditions. We’re looking forward to working with him on that, in addition to economic development opportunities for Native Americans and higher education issues like increasing the number of Pell Grants.
