Bacone College seeks tribal status to bolster American Indian education opportunities while trying

[TexasTowelie]

Bacone College seeks tribal status to bolster American Indian education opportunities while trying to regain financial stability


MUSKOGEE — Bacone College, known as Oklahoma’s oldest higher education institution, has been associated with financial instability since its 1880 inception, according to President Ferlin Clark.

But Clark is charting a course that may deliver a measure of sustainability and unite a number of tribes across Oklahoma under an educational umbrella.

Clark took the helm of a floundering Bacone 14 months ago from an interim president. He aims to transition the four-year private institution into a public college with a tribal designation — not exclusively Indian — through a consortium of tribes.

There are 37 Tribal Colleges and Universities in the U.S. established by a tribe or the federal government to provide access to higher education for American Indians.

Read more: https://www.tulsaworld.com/news/state-and-regional/bacone-college-seeks-tribal-status-to-bolster-american-indian-education/article_a94585bc-0594-5841-a38a-ded2387fa917.html

[tirebiter]

1. Sounds more complicated

Than the the title implys.

[TexasTowelie]

2. One of the problems that Bacone encountered is that they tried to establish a football program

and since they were also a NAIA school they could award athletic scholarships. My alma mater (Southwestern University) reinstated their football program at the same time after a 63 year hiatus (as a Div. III program with no athletic scholarships awarded). Bacone never was larger than 900 students and has virtually no endowment fund, while Southwestern has about 1,400 students and a generous endowment of about $240 million. While I understand that Bacone was trying to attract more students, that football program cost money that they didn't have.

As for my alma mater, it was good move--the ratio of female-to-male students was at 5-3 so it corrected closer to our long-term ratio of 4-3. The gender ratio has some importance since men are normally paid better than women in most careers which also means that they have more money to donate to the university. There appears to be more school spirit and alumni donations have also increased. Finally, the freshman that joined the first year of the program also had the good fortune of winning the conference their senior year which is an accomplishment considering they were 0-10 that first year.

It certainly is an interesting contrast looking at what became of both programs a few years down the road.