Dear Campus Community:

I am pleased to share with you that our President’s Native American Advisory Council has worked hard to develop a job description for what we will call the Tribal College, University, and High School Outreach Specialist. The job will be posted within the next few weeks.

Back in November, I had the opportunity to spend a full day with Tribal College presidents or their representatives from across our state. These leaders helped me begin my journey in learning how to be a better member of the Montana community. This coming weekend, I will continue my learning while joining a group of UM staff and faculty on a tour of Tribal Colleges in the eastern part of the state. 

I’m humbled by the many opportunities for UM to partner with our Native communities as a way to seek mutual learning, shared benefits, and respectful partnerships. One outgrowth of my time with the Tribal College presidents last fall was the suggestion that UM invest in a position that is institution-wide and focused entirely on building and sustaining partnerships with tribal educational institutions as well as with other educational institutions that serve a high number of Native American students. 

While the person in this role certainly will recruit new students to UM, this person also will connect UM faculty to Tribal College faculty, help to identify new academic programming agreements that allow for more flexible learning and more seamless pathways to UM, and strengthen relationships between the leaders of tribal educational institutions and the leaders of UM. The person in this position will report to both the Office of the President and the Office of the Provost and will collaborate with faculty and staff across sectors. 

I am very grateful that the person serving in this important role will join a campus community of engaged faculty and staff, many of whom have already done a tremendous job of building UM programs that support and partner with Native communities. My hope is that the person in this position will enhance what UM already does and build new partnerships among us. 

I am excited to support and build on the work so many of you do to partner with tribal communities.

Seth