UIC Native American Task Force releases report

The UIC Native American Task Force has released its official report on the status of Native Americans on the UIC campus. 

The task force was convened by Amalia Pallares, associate chancellor and vice provost for diversity, and Rex Tolliver, vice chancellor for student affairs in 2019. 

The report makes recommendations in four key areas — access, achievement, inclusion, and engagement — and identifies strengths, challenges and areas for improvement, with the goal of building an optimal learning environment for Indigenous students. 

The report is the culmination of over a year of work spanning 2019-2021 that marked the 50th anniversary of the UIC’s Native American Support Program (NASP).

“This year also marked our perseverance through a global pandemic with overlapping medical, societal, economic and political crises that are having disproportionate impacts on Native communities, and thus are reshaping the realities documented in this report,” the task force writes. “We see this as a critical time to contribute the findings of this Task Force to the efforts to strengthen and deepen the relationship between Native communities and the University, and to chart a course toward UIC becoming a leader in the advancement of Native visibility and voice.”