Students protest UAA Native Student Services name change [Video]

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Dozens gathered outside the University of Alaska Anchorage Consortium Library on Thursday to protest the University’s renaming of Native Student Services (NSS) to the Indigenous & Rural Student Center.

Along with the name change, the program will be merged into the Community and Belonging Department, effective July 1. Student Affairs, which previously managed NSS, has been in the process of what the University calls a “reorganization” of the office.

“It matters because it’s diversity in a way that’s not exclusionary,” Anthropology Student Taytum X̂anix̂ Robinson said. “It’s not a way to separate native students, but rather a way to empower them to create a safe space for them to really create that sense of kinship and community at school, especially for students that are coming in from more rural villages.”

Though she hoped to continue her graduate studies at UAA, Robinson said the recent changes within NSS have …