The University of California system said this week that all in-state students who are members of federally recognized Native American, American Indian, and Alaska Native tribes will have tuition and fees — about $14,000 each year — waived starting this fall.
Native American students make up less than 1 percent of the UC system’s total enrollment.
Native American students who are already enrolled should also qualify, as will graduate students, said Mishuana Goeman, a professor of gender and American Indian studies at the University of California at Los Angeles.
Goeman also serves as special adviser to the chancellor on Native American and Indigenous affairs.
The tuition and fee waivers, part of the UC Native American Opportunity plan, will expand student diversity and make UC campuses more affordable and accessible for the state’s Native American students, according to a letter from Michael V. Drake, the system president.
The university-system president said, according to Sarris, that he wanted all of the state’s Native students to go to UC campuses tuition-free.
Goeman said she hopes that the UC system’s efforts move the needle on enrollment and attainment of Native students. »