SIPI faces big cut in support

By Kathy Helms
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — More than 7,000 Navajo students have passed through the doors of Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute (SIPI) in Albuquerque in just over a decade. Though enrollment at the Bureau of Indian Affairs-run school has steadily increased, its federal funding flatlined 11 years ago.

The school barely escaped death in the 1980s due to decreased federal spending, and once again is staring down that all-to-familiar bleak hallway.

Black Mesa Delegate Amos Johnson, a SIPI graduate, became a champion for the school in the '80s, testifying before Congress in an attempt to keep the institute open, according to SIPI representatives who recently asked the Intergovernmental Relations Committee to support their effort to block decreased funding.

Freddie Howard, a member of the SIPI Board of Regents; James Lujan, acting president; and Valerie Montoya, acting vice president for Academic Programs, approached IGR for help until something can be worked out to put the institute on firm financial footing.

"We're all trying to figure out how we can increase our funding during these strenuous times," Howard said. "The college that we represent has talked about the possibility of going into maybe 638 contracting. But that doesn't really guarantee us that we'll get an increase in funding that will give us local autonomy, that will give us more flexibility to manage our programs.

"We thought about maybe changing the funding formula, the way Congress gives us money. Since 11 years ago, all the money we received from Congress has been on a flat rate. We get the same amount of money every year, even though we get an increase in students every year.

"It's because of the way the funding formula is set up. The way it is, we just get the same amount of funding year after year. It doesn't really allow for an increase," he said.

Casualty of war
"But since the Iraq War and Hurricane Katrina and the other hurricanes, they (BIA) started cutting our funding. We lost $350,000 last year. We're going to end up losing another $350,000 this year, and then we're going to start losing that amount every year," Howard said.

Last Thursday, House Democrats rejected a $142.5 billion federal spending bill which cuts $14.3 billion in student loan funding from the overall $56.5 billion budget for the Department of Education, down slightly from last year.

The proposed budget creates huge disparities for every American, according to U.S. Rep. Tom Udall, D-N.M. "This legislation also includes $70 billion in tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans" and actually increases the federal budget deficit by $20 billion, he said.

Funding for veterans health care also is set for a 5 percent across-the-board cut, Udall said. "For New Mexico, that's 2,245 veterans who will not be receiving adequate health care."

SIPI's Howard said the BIA gave the school only 75 percent of its funding this past year. They withheld 25 percent.

"The reason is, they say we might get 6 percent cuts but they don't really know, and 'the 25 percent that we're not going to give you, we're just going to hold in abeyance until we find out how much you're going to be cut," he said. "So, we're operating at 75 percent of our full funding, in addition to what we already lost. This really puts a dent into not only our school, but some of our programs. Last year we had to release something like 21 employees." This year, they are looking at possibly having to do the same thing. "We might have to do a reduction in force. We're going to probably have to put more people on furlough. We're going to have to reduce our number of students. We're going to have to have no summer school programs. We're going to have to reduce some of our remedial programs," Howard said.

"And then we're going to probably end up losing some of our professors that have Ph.D's and doctorates because of our instability of finances. The future forecast doesn't really look good for the school," which is why his group came to Window Rock, he said.

"The Navajo Nation is one of the founding fathers of this institution,"according to Howard, who added that they now have legislation introduced in Congress by U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, R-N.M. that would restore funding to last year's amount and also would allow for continued funding of the institution.

"We have that legislation in Congress now. What we need the Navajo Nation to do is support that legislation. If we get it approved, all the other Indian community colleges are going to start lobbying for their own legislation to have the same funding formula for their schools," he said.

SIPI is a BIA school as opposed to Indian community colleges, which are mostly operated under charter from the Department of Interior and receive separate funding, according to Howard.

The whim of BIA
"When funding requests come down, we're actually just helpless. We're at the whim of the BIA and we just have to abide by the amount of money that they give to us. We have to go begging. The BIA is obstructed by law not to advocate.

"They cannot advocate for Indian tribes, they cannot advocate for our students, they cannot advocate for our school or institution. It doesn't make any sense to try to hold the BIA's feet to the fire when they can scream as much as they want to, but they can't say nothing on our behalf," Howard said.

Another plan that probably won't get off the ground this year is SIPI's plan to fill up a 72,540-square-foot Science and Technology Building.

"We had a new $8 million science building that we just had erected" in September 2003, according to Howard ."We're going to probably have to eliminate some of our science programs because of our budget cuts.

"We're not going to have the full use of that building. We'll probably just occupy half of it or 60 percent. It's really a shame that we have to do that because a lot of people put a lot of work into erecting that science building."

He said that many of the school's programs have a 90 to 100 percent success rate in having their students continue onto universities to further their education.

"We also work with others, like Intel and Sandia Lab,"and many of the school's graduating students often have jobs before they even graduate, he added.

In jeopardy
Acting President James Lujan told IGR members that budget cuts by the BIA are "jeopardizing the credibility of our institution (and) jeopardizing the accreditation of our institution."

The school achieved community college status and continued accreditation by the North Central Association, Commission on Institutions of Higher Education in 1993.

"Currently, we have 293 Navajo students attending SIPI. Our enrollment has gone down from over 900 students to 600 students due to budget cuts," Lujan said.

He asked IGR to stand behind the school " so that Sen. Bingaman, Heather Wilson, and Sen. (Pete) Domenici will know that the Navajo Nation and other tribes are supporting our institution."

"We're anticipating a 6.5 percent cut in our budget for FY06. Also, there will be further cuts in terms of FY07. I think in order for our institution to be viable and not lose accreditation, we must have full funding. When SIPI was under threat of closure in the early 1980s, all it took was the tribes to say, 'We want SIPI open.' Now, we're asking the IGR Committee to help us in support of our institution by way of opposing the budget cuts being imposed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs," Lujan said.

Valerie Montoya told the committee, "Because of the budget cuts, we're having to consider closing down some of the academic programs. Every year we're also asked to take a look at closing down the institution during the summer. We do like to operate year-round, because we're interested in helping students make progress and graduate as soon as possible."