On Northwest Indian College’s 40th anniversary year, the college is bucking national trends in higher education.
With a record 698 students enrolled this quarter, Northwest Indian College celebrated its history and future at an Anniversary Open House at the Lummi Campus on Wednesday, Oct. 18. The event featured activities in buildings across campus, a meal and a screening of the college’s 40th anniversary video.
“Really, we’re celebrating how far the college has come, the vision of Lummi elders and really the vision of the tribes that entrust us with our students,” said Natasha Brennan, Northwest Indian College’s public information officer.
Northwest Indian College is the only accredited tribal college in Washington, Oregon and Idaho. Its main campus is at Lummi, but it has six other extended campus sites in Swinomish, Tulalip, Port Gamble S’Klallam, Muckleshoot, Nisqually and Nez Perce.
At the event, Justin Guillory, president of the college, thanked the Lummi Nation for their vision for the Northwest Indian College.
The college grew out of the Lummi Indian School of Aquaculture, which was founded in 1973 to train Indigenous people to work in fish and shellfish hatcheries. The Lummi Indian Business Council chartered the Lummi Community College in 1983, which changed its name to the Northwest Indian College in 1989. In 2010, the college became accredited at the baccalaureate level. Students from more than 20 states and 100 tribes currently attend the college.
“The existence of Northwest Indian College is an act of tribal sovereignty,” Guillory said. “The vision of Northwest Indian College has always emerged from the Lhaq’temish, the Lummi Nation people, and the vision was to take control of one’s own education.”
The college also celebrated its 40th anniversary with a logo change and an anniversary blanket. The new logo was voted on by students, faculty and staff and was designed by Squaxin Island artist Taylor Krise. The blanket was designed by Tulalip artist Toni Jo Gobin and produced by art and lifestyle brand Eighth Generation.
Part of the 40th anniversary celebration was looking toward the next 40 years. With strong enrollment, the college is looking to offer master’s programs in the future, Brennan said.
The next year will also see the tapering off of discounts the college was able to offer to students with money from the CARES Act, 2020’s Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act. The upcoming winter and spring terms will be 25% off, but tuition will revert to normal prices in the summer.
A large fundraising campaign is also a part of Northwest Indian College’s next four decades.
Barbara Lewis, executive director of the Northwest Indian College Foundation, said the foundation is starting a campaign to raise $40 million in the next three to five years. That would bring the college’s $10 million endowment to $50 million. She said they’re expecting to meet that goal, with an interest from some of the tribes in donating to the college.
“We’re hoping to inspire the spirit of reciprocity,” Lewis said.
For Guillory, the college’s success in enrollment means they need to continue focusing on their core mission of Indigenous education.
Guillory said that since 1990, more than 2,000 native students earned a credential or a degree at Northwest Indian College, and more than 400 have received a bachelor’s degree since 2010.
“It shows that there is a desire, a hunger for not just higher education, but the unique, Indigenous, culturally based education that our students want to come to Northwest Indian College [for],” Guillory said.
