The University of Connecticut Board of Trustees unveiled a new memorandum of agreement (MOA) with Connecticut’s five recognized indigenous tribes on Dec. 18, 2024, according to UConn Today. This new partnership is focused on the development of relations between the two parties on a range of academic and advisory areas, primarily at the Avery Point campus. There are several points of importance in the agreement; for instance, the UConn administration has agreed to formal tribal consultation meetings at least once a year, and a Tribal/University Advisory Board was created within the administration to recommend policy and further developments on the agreement. In addition, at UConn Avery Point, the agreement mandated the creation of strategies to increase the recruitment, enrollment and retention of indigenous students. These strategies would be in service of making the Avery Point campus a Native American-Serving, Nontribal Institution, a federal designation for when at least 10% of the undergraduate population identifies as Native American or Alaskan Native.
There are a few important clarifications to make about this information and what it means for UConn, but on its face, it stands to be a good decision. UConn has a moral obligation to give back to the native communities of Connecticut and the rest of the nation, as it is no exaggeration to say that this school was built upon their suffering. The Morril Land Grant Act of 1862, which provided federal money for the development of state public universities, was funded entirely by the forced seizure and sale of land from western Native American tribes. The growth of UConn specifically from agricultural school to fully fledged state university was specifically funded through the sale of land from tribes in California, Montana, Nebraska, Michigan and many more states. When adjusted for inflation, UConn received about 4 million dollars from this law. Since there is no UConn without this money and there is no money without the bloodshed of Native Americans, it follows this school must give back and help uplift these communities as much as it can. Since there is no UConn without this money and there is no money without the bloodshed of Native Americans, it follows this school must give back and help uplift these communities as much as it can.
As for this memorandum of agreement itself, there are now a couple points to go through to understand exactly how much it does in service of these goals. First off, this is a memorandum of agreement, not a contract. The difference between the two is key, as at the bottom of the document it makes clear the contents of this document are not legally binding. All of it is subject to the execution of the UConn administration, which has historically not been great at that on other interests of the common public. The university grant program Connecticut Commitment, recent sustainability goals and sexual assault prevention in the past have all seen similar grand promises with little eventual results. Plus, the methods are not any guarantee of results either, with the focus of the MOA being the consultation meetings and advisory board, both of which have no enforcement behind them. Although it is good to at least know these interests are being heard, the bigger question around this situation is what will come about as a result. The Daily Campus Editorial Board remains cautiously optimistic on this matter.
Finally, it’s also worth exploring what else can come from such a partnership between these two groups. Although it’s good to see a focus on the development of the Avery Point campus, improvements to the acknowledgement of indigenous students and their quality of life at UConn should not just pertain to one of the smallest sects of our university community. There are limited resources at the branch campuses and solely trying to recruit indigenous students at Avery Point restricts the opportunities they could have. UConn should strive to increase the involvement of indigenous students across all campuses and set a goal for every campus, not just Avery Point, to become a Native American-Serving Nontribal Institution. This development should be for UConn as a whole, enabling indigenous students to reap the full benefits of what UConn has to offer on all of its campuses, not just one.