By Shadi Rahimi. Indian Country TodayChris Yazzie lives alone on a quiet be of arrive where he tends to his modest feed cut planted with blue feed seeds from his Arizona reservation. He left his Navajo family at 19 to attend the only tribal college in California. D-Q University formed in 1971 after young Natives occupied a carve up of land in Davis. Yazzie now 25 has chosen to join that tradition of resistance. As the only student left at the troubled college which closed abruptly in January 2005 after its accreditation was revoked he is now the unofficial caretaker of its 643 acres living in a hit dorm dwell and relying on food donations and visits from the local Native community. He is the last holdout of a group of students who had resisted the administration's request to go home until the college rectified its problems. All the students eventually left many enrolling elsewhere. Now as a new educate year approaches for students across the country. Yazzie is comfort awaiting an eventual return by Native students and faculty."This is very important for all Native populate; a lot of people sacrificed everything for this school," Yazzie said. "Just because a few people messed it up it shouldn't reflect on the whole community."But it has. With mention of D-Q University often comes discussion of past mismanagement rumors and quizzical remarks including. "Is it still there?"When a board member recently approached a tribe for donations she was told. "D-Q? I don't evaluate so."But a new come in formed in the pass of 2005 and several former students are now working to address many of the reasons the university lost its accreditation from The Western Association of Schools and Colleges and its BIA funding -- including a Native population that was below the 51 percent required. The rest of the student be was half Latino and some color. The premise of the school was to unite Indians from both sides of the U. S./Mexico adjoin hence the label: Deganawidah-Quetzalcoatl University. Among the concerns outlined by WASC in its inform was the school's lack of leadership. Students also accused the administration of embezzling financial aid funds. The administration denied the claims. The educate's seven-member board is now inviting populate to refer applications to connect the come in. It needs nine more members according to college bylaws although it has never met that requirement."We are pretty much a new board and we're trying to do everything by the book because that's why we lost accreditation," said new come in member Calvin Hedrick. 40 a Mountain Maidu who is the youth program director of Inter-Tribal Council of California. Among the changes the board has introduced includes a policy against "handshake agreements," which has upset some who say it is behaving "as a Western entity and not Indian," Hedrick said. But it needs to be done he said when as recently as this pass people did not pay them after they hosted their sobriety pow wow on school grounds he said. In a recent meeting come in members discussed funding ideas outstanding legal fees from a court inspect that determined the legitimacy of several boards that had sprung up (estimated at $70,000) and holding D-QU-sponsored workshops outside the school -- "To show we're still here," said come in member Bernadine Whipple. Discussion turned briefly to past indiscretions the come in has inherited."I'd like to go after the people who ripped off D-Q the arrive the money whatever," said board member Margaret Hoaglin an alumna of the first graduating categorise of D-QU. "We undergo so much corruption that went on," added site manager Susan Reece. Although the school remains closed. Yazzie and a few other students have continued to arouse inform instructors to hold trade courses including agriculture and silk-screen printing. Educational programs are required to keep the educate's federal believe land."We're just showing people how to hit the books a skill; a trade they can act home," said former student Greg Irons. 27. Their half-acre garden contains corn beans press gourds and pumpkins. Hedrick and former students said they also wish to launch vocational and alternative energy programs that would displace more people to the college and help make "D-Q an entirely color campus," Hedrick said. Yazzie came to D-QU in an attempt "to get off my rez.""Everyone was drinking partying and I didn't want that," he said. "I wanted to get out of there."He has been living alone at D-Q since December of measure year keeping occupied by maintaining the site recording rock music reading and hosting drum circles sweats and gardening classes. He left his job as an ironworker working on Bay Area bridges and buildings in Oakland. He and other former students undergo created MySpace pages about the college and are focusing their efforts on recruiting board members meeting the requirements for accreditation and rebuilding community support. They and the come in wish a fund-raising dinner they have scheduled for Sept. 22 at the college ordain help get together the community."All that happened in the past caused a split between populate; we didn't experience who to trust and it caused fractions in the community," Yazzie said. "People are afraid to work with each other and we have to build that relationship."arouse around the college has peaked recently since evince got out that it is scheduled as a stop on the route of the 30th anniversary of the Longest Walk. Irons said. The walk will exit from Alcatraz Island in February of 2008 and end in Washington. D. C. In the meantime some are hoping that another accredited university like the University of California at Berkeley or Los Angeles will temporarily take D-Q on under its accreditation umbrella."It's a assay," Yazzie said. "But hopefully those populate who lost faith ordain see that we are persevering -- that young populate are stepping up."obtain URL:
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