MINUTES

President's Board of Advisors on Tribal Colleges and Universities

Washington, DC

February 5-6, 2007

Attendees: Ron His Horse is Thunder, Chair; Eddie Brown; Kathy Domenici;
S. Verna Fowler; Joseph Hiller; Deborah His Horse is Thunder; Daniel
Keating; Martha McLeod; Carl Morgan; Richard Stephens; Karen Swisher;
Edward Thomas; Della Warrior and Richard Williams.

WHITCU Staff: Deborah Cavett, Anselm Davis, Tonya Ewers, James Hafer,
and Phillip DeSenze

Ron His Horse is Thunder called the meeting to order at 9:00 a.m. Roll
call of Advisory Board members was taken and the WHITCU staff was
introduced.

[Agenda]{.underline}

Deborah His Horse is Thunder moved to approve the agenda, which was
second by Martha McLeod and approved by the Board.

[August 2006 Minutes]{.underline}

Deborah His Horse is Thunder moved to approve the August 2006 minutes.
Della Warrior seconded the motion, which was approved with one
abstention.

[WHITCU Update / Deborah Cavett]{.underline}:

-   Members of the board were reminded that the government is operating
    under a continuing resolution, which has an effect on WHITCU
    activities.

-   WHITCU's website is up and running with updated information and has
    had 18,000 hits in the first quarter of 2007, which indicates that
    it is a valued and useful tool.

-   Federal departments and agencies were asked to submit a three-year
    plan for FY 06 - 08. Their last three-year plan submission was four
    years ago. The format of the plan was revamped with instructions to
    provide salient information and with drop down menus making it user
    friendly.

-   Against the backdrop of the American Competitive Initiative, WHITCU
    sponsored a technical service workshop in Las Vegas, Nevada, on
    November 28 and 29, 2006. Thirty-six individuals from 25 tribal and
    universities colleges (TCUs) participated in the workshop designed
    to bring participants in contact with "out of the box" funding
    opportunities.

-   James Hafer made a presentation relative to participants' evaluation
    of the Las Vegas workshop. Participants deemed the workshop a
    success and suggested that this type of workshop be an annual event.

-   FY 04/05 Report to the President is in final draft. The FY 06
    reports are due from the federal agencies at the end of April 2007.
    More effort will be made to get federal agencies to provide more
    narrative with their data; thus, providing WHITCU with a better
    performance baseline.

-   WHITCU continues to work closely with the White House
    Intergovernmental Affairs Office and the Indian affairs Working
    Group. WHITCU is heavily involved with the education committee and
    chairs the TCU subcommittee. Remediation is a topic of interest of
    the subcommittee, which is a topic of interest of board members and
    a number of federal agencies.

-   WHITCU will be on the agenda of RES 2007, which also includes
    Northwest Indian College and Navajo Technical College as part of a
    panel on education and information technology.

-   Daniel Keating was recognized for his work with the Oklahoma tribal
    colleges that are in various stages of development.

-   WHITCU was represented at the Department of Interior's Human Capital
    Conference held in Houston, the NASA's launch, and the Department of
    Defense's New Orleans conference where issues relative to minority
    programs were discussed.

-   WHITCU assisted EPA in the planning of their MOU signing ceremony,
    which involved Salish Kootenai College and will take place in the
    Russell Senate building. WHITCU has been sitting in on Interior's
    planning session for the National Native American Economic Policy
    Summit.

[Higher Education Reauthorization]{.underline}

Amy Raaf Jones, House/Committee on Education and Labor, addressed the
Board regarding the reauthorization (H.R. 609) of the Higher Education
Act. One of the results of the mark up process of the Bill was that the
student loan provisions were pulled out of H.R 609 and were addressed
through the reconciliation process. All the discretionary programs
(including the Title III program for TCUs) were reauthorized through
H.R. 609, which was passed by the House but not by the Senate.

Congress passed the Native American Language Preservation Act, which
awards grants to support and strengthen Native American language
immersion programs including language survival schools and language
restoration programs. The push now is to reauthorize the Higher
Education Act and the No Child Left Behind Act.

[Focus on TCU Issues through the Senate Indian Affairs
Committee]{.underline}

Sara Garland, Senate Committee for Indian Affairs, addressed the
concerns of the Board regarding the FY 08 budget. Within the Department
of Education three programs have been eliminated---education for Native
Hawaiians and Alaska Native education equity programs and the
strengthening Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian serving institutions.
United Tribes Technical College and Navajo Technical College were level
funded in the education budget. In the Interior budget, two new programs
were added---the BIA Indian Education Initiative and the BIA Safe Indian
Communities Initiative.

The confirmation of Carl Artman as BIA's Assistant Secretary for Indian
Affairs, a position that has been vacant for two years, continues to be
a priority as well as the reauthorization of the Indian Health Care
Improvement Act.

Other areas of interest are getting forward funding for TCUs, filling
the postsecondary position (associate deputy director) at BIE,
sponsoring an economic development summit that is not duplicative of
other summits being planned, and initiating a series of listening
sessions in a number of locations.

[Department of Education]{.underline}

Jim Manning, Delegated the Authority of Assistant
Secretary-Postsecondary Education, talked generally about the
Department's commitment to increase Pell grants incrementally over the
next few years, to reauthorize No Child Left Behind and the Higher
Education Act, and to hold a summit on higher education in March.

[Energy Technologies through the ACT and Advanced Energy
Initiative]{.underline}

Joseph Martinez, Office of Science, Department of Energy, provided
information relative to the American Competitive Initiative, the
American Enterprise Initiative, and renewable energy technologies being
made available to American Indian tribes. With regard to Title V of the
energy bill, TCUs were encouraged to determine their renewable energy
interest and needs, and to seek ways to take advantage of the provisions
under Title V.

[White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs]{.underline}

Rudy Fernandez, Assistant Deputy Director, informed the Board that
Maggie Grant has replaced Ruben Barrales as Director and that Veronica
Leal has joined the staff as his deputy.

The White House-led working group, with representatives from the federal
government who deal with Indian country issues, has been working on ways
to improve the communication between the administration and other
parties who have an interest in Indian issues. The working group has
several sub-committees---one being education---that are working on
tangible goals, which can be achieved during the next two years.

Members of the Board were thanked for their efforts on behalf of TCUs
and were told that the White House looks forward to the submission of
their FY 05 Report to the President.

### Bureau of Indian Education

Tom Dowd, Director, spoke of the struggle to implement a restructuring
plan that would help move BIE toward a more highly performing
organization that provides good service to the communities, schools and
students it serves. Notwithstanding the lawsuits that have been filed as
a result of the restructuring effort and the current budget situation,
BIE continues to work toward the implementation of the following
priorities: providing a safe, secure and helpful learning environment
for its students; increasing academic achievement; and helping school
officials and students recognize the value of transitioning from high
school to postsecondary education.

The BIE along, with other partners including WHITCU, is planning for the
National Bureau of Education Conference that will be held in July 2007.
The conference will address pre-K through postsecondary education issues
that BIE faces in its system.

During the Q & A session, members of the Board were informed that the
Central Office West (compliance and monitoring oriented) has been
changed to Albuquerque Service Center (solution oriented), and that BIE
plans to forward fund TCUs during the '09 budget process.

### Discussion with AIHEC Executive Committee

Ferlin Clark, President of Diné College and Vice-President of AIHEC,
thanked WHITCU for the opportunity to share information and to find ways
for both entities to support and work more effectively with one another.
AIHEC's strategic plan, AIMS Fact Book 2005, and a copy of the report
(The Path of Many Journeys) funded by USA Funds were distributed and
were discussed. A brief history of the TCUs and an overview of AIHEC's
strategic plan were presented. WHITCU addressed its top priorities:
energy, economic development, and technology.

Examples of struggles to obtain funds from federal agencies for needed
programs after working with Congress to secure funds for such programs
were shared with the Board. Suggestions were made on ways to interact
with federal agencies to detect problem areas, to provide useful
information, and to recommend solutions. The need to get the Higher
Education Act reauthorized and to pass the Indian Healthcare Improvement
Act were voiced. Concern, however, was expressed regarding the
bureaucracy that advisory boards deal with and members of the board were
challenged to overcome the bureaucracy when working with federal
agencies on behalf of TCUs

To affect the ongoing work with federal agencies and the development or
receipt of reports, AIHEC was requested to provide WHITCU with TCU
priorities that contain detailed and specific information. AIHEC also
indicated an interest in intervention prior to decisions being made by
WHITCU.

### Working Lunch

Jackie Johnson, NCAI Executive Director, provided information relative
to the up coming National Native American Economic Policy Summit
scheduled to take place in Phoenix May 2007.

### Ethics Briefing

Sean Dent, Office of General Counsel, briefed members of the Board
regarding regulations affecting advisory boards.

[Next Meeting:]{.underline} Mount Pleasant, Michigan, June 18 and 19,
2007

### Final Review of 2005 Report to the President

The final draft of the FY 04/05 Report to the President was discussed.
Comments were to be reviewed during the final modification process with
the vetting process beginning immediately afterwards.

### Public Comments

Time was provided for public comments of which there were none.

### Adjournment: 

### The meeting was adjourned at 3:30 p.m.

Deborah J. Cavett

Designated Federal Official

White House Initiative on Tribal Colleges and Universities

Approved on behalf of the Board

Ron His Horse is Thunder

Chair, President's Board of Advisors on

Tribal Colleges and Universities