In August, a group of roughly 50 students came to Sacramento from reservations all over the country seeking a college education.
By the start of the fall 2024 semester, nearly half turned away from Sacramento State.
The California Tribal College, a non-profit organization seeking accreditation through Sac State, recruited a group of roughly 50 students to attend college in the Sacramento area by making promises the organization allegedly did not have the authority to make.
As a result, an unknown number of students went home shortly before the semester. No exact number of students who arrived or stayed at Sac State was given to The State Hornet by the CTC or Sac State officials.
Shanoah Platero is a Navajo Nation nursing student from New Mexico who came to Sac State under the pretenses of reduced costs and a spot on the basketball and cross country team.
Platero said she was disappointed at the way she was treated when she and her mother arrived, and that CTC promised students in-state tuition for out-of-state students and the opportunity to play on a sports team for Sac State. The CTC affirms that this was promised to students. According to the CTC, these promises were not made by Sac State.
“There [were] problems once I got there,” Platero said. “I was promised housing would be $200 a month and for tuition it would be $40 a credit.”
The issue arose when the students arrived at Sac State only to find that classes, tryouts and housing were not ready for them. Platero said she and other students were temporarily housed in local apartments and hotels for nearly a week before a decision was made.
“I came 18 hours from home just to get here,” Platero said. “I feel like they didn’t really want to help us. Once they told us that the tuition was going to be high, I was just disappointed.”
Sac State operates on a total cost model, not the per-unit pricing that these students were told. Juliet Maestas, the president of the CTC, said the organization intended on funding the remaining costs through scholarships and fundraising, but were unable to meet those goals.
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The CTC is aiming to become California’s first 4-year tribal college for Native American students, having started a space sharing program with Sac State at the beginning of 2024. Maestas said the goal is to graduate its first class of students in the next 4 to 5 years.
As of now, the CTC office in Sacramento Hall only staffs three people to support the students in their program.
“It was premature to do 50 [students], we knew that,” Maestas said. “We are sorry, this was an unfortunate situation. We wanted to make it happen, it was unfortunate we couldn’t make it happen for everybody.”
Maestas said that the CTC was only able to raise and disperse $20,000 to the remaining students in scholarships. Going forward, the CTC said they are aiming to raise 110% of the costs for every student under their purview.
Mark Wheeler, the senior advisor to the university president and a philosophy professor at Sac State, said the struggles between the CTC and Sac State can be attributed to miscommunications and California State University deadlines not being met.
Wheeler said that Sac State attempted to be amicable with application extensions when they became aware of the situation.
“They were doing this late in the game. Normally, the Cal State application shuts [down] late November, early December,” Wheeler said. “They brought a fair number of students, not all the students were qualified and some of the students who were accepted ultimately decided not to come.”
President Luke Wood said that Sac State is working to resolve the internal administrative conflicts so the program can continue.
“We have a commitment to ensuring that we are serving our Native American and indigenous students. We seek to partner with entities that share that commitment,” Wood said. “We’re glad that we were able to create opportunities out of a difficult situation.”
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Maestas said the CTC will continue on despite these setbacks with the intention of resuming recruitment as soon as possible. She said that they are still on track to be accredited and that those students who remained at Sac State are being supported.
Maestas said she hopes for Sac State to continue to work with the CTC to further support Native students.
“I feel like Native students are invisible,” Maestas said. “We’re all excited for this campus to have Native representation.”
Platero is no longer enrolled at Sac State or the CTC. She said she hopes that in the future, academic institutions such as Sac State can be more sensitive to the struggles of Native American students.
“Understand that, we all come from different backgrounds and in the Native American community we don’t have much support,” Platero said. “It didn’t feel right.”
