Gonzaga University says a graduate-level business program it launched eight years ago to prepare American Indians to teach entrepreneurship at tribal colleges is evolving as it attracts a broader mix of participants and faces funding challenges.

The three-year program, which results in a Master of Business Administration degree with an emphasis on American Indian entrepreneurship, so far has been offered free to participants. It has been funded with a combination of university funds and a grant from the Johnson Scholarship Foundation, of West Palm Beach, Fla., which invited Gonzaga to develop the program in 2000.

Though originally targeted at tribal college faculty members who could teach entrepreneurship to American Indians in hopes of spurring economic development on reservations, the increasingly popular program now is attracting more than just educators, including Indian entrepreneurs who will put the skills they learn to use for their tribes, says Stacey Chatman, coordinator of the program.

While other colleges and universities here have outreach programs for American Indians, Gonzaga says its graduate program is the only one of its type specifically geared to American Indians.

So far, the program has churned out 20 graduates, and another 24 students currently are enrolled who will graduate over the next three years. A new group of between six and 10 students will begin the program each June.

Currently, students spend six weeks at Gonzaga each summer for in-class course work, then complete distance-learning courses during the fall and spring semesters. Also, students spend one weekend on campus each semester for workshops and to meet with faculty members.

Chatman says that as Gonzaga seeks to serve an expanding pool of potential students, it also must face the expected loss of two-thirds of the program's funding in grants that have helped support the program. The Johnson Scholarship funds are scheduled to be phased out over the next five years, she says.

All told, the program costs about $500,000 a year, Chatman says. The costs include $32,000 in tuition for each student, plus housing, textbooks, transportation to and from the campus three times a year, and a stipend for each student for their on-campus time each summer.

Starting with the group of students who will start the program next June, Gonzaga will no longer provide the program free to all participants, but rather will offer scholarships to cover between 48 percent and 100 percent of the cost to students based on their financial circumstances, Chatman says. Gonzaga also is seeking to replace some of the Johnson Scholarship funds with donations from other sources, she says.

Meanwhile, the Spokane university might reduce the program to two years, from three, to make it more manageable for its now broader array of students, Chatman says.

She says it's more of a challenge for students who aren't faculty members at a college to take six weeks off from their jobs in the summer to take classes at Gonzaga.

"Now that it's opened up to urban Indians and others in tribal government, it's harder for them to get the six weeks away," Chatman says.

Gonzaga hasn't made a final decision to convert the program to two years yet, but could make that change in time for it to take effect with next June's crop of new students, she says.

Currently, the course work for the three-year program includes a total of 45 credits of 500- and 600-level business courses, such as microeconomic and macroeconomic analysis and accounting analysis, as well as team building and leadership courses.

In a two-year program, some of the 500-level courses would be rolled into the 600-level courses, and the graduation requirements would change to 35 credits overall, Chatman says.

The specialized MBA was developed in response to a request by what was then the Theodore R. and Vivian M. Johnson Scholarship Foundation Inc., which approached Gonzaga as a possible location for such a program because of the university's geographical proximity to a number of American Indian tribes' reservations, Chatman says.

She says the program draws participants heavily from tribes in the Inland Northwest, including from the Kalispel, Spokane, and Coeur d'Alene reservations, but also attracts students from as far away as Arizona and New Mexico.

Originally, students were faculty members from nine colleges, located in North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Wisconsin, that were designated by the Johnson scholarship program, but enrollment later was opened up to applicants from other schools, and to people who live on a reservation, work for a tribe, or have a specific goal of bringing something back to a tribe when they complete the program, Chatman says.

The program has at times accepted non-Indians, allowing, for instance, non-Indian faculty members of tribal colleges. Currently, on a case-by-case basis, some non-Indians can be accepted if they're working for tribes or if they're tribal descendants but aren't enrolled tribal members.

The program originally was designed to be short term, with the intention of graduating just one group of students after three years, but it was successful enough that Gonzaga and the foundation decided to continue it, Chatman says. Now, however, the foundation plans to phase out its financial commitment to the program so it can focus on other things, she says, though she adds that it's still possible the foundation could decide to contribute to a separate $3 million endowment Gonzaga hopes to create to help fund the program.

Gonzaga wants to continue the program, which fills an important niche because the tribal colleges are generally two- or four-year schools, so graduate programs geared to American Indians are in short supply, Chatman says.

One graduate of the program, Spike Bighorn, now is chief of staff at the Bureau of Indian Education in Washington, D.C. Prior to entering the program, he was a teacher at Fort Peck Community College, in Poplar, Mont. Bighorn graduated from the program in 2005.

Another graduate who was a financial counselor at a tribal college was promoted to vice president of her college, Chatman says. Yet another student became a business instructor and now is in charge of a tribal college's business school, she says.

"It gives them mobility, or they stay in their current job and get a pay raise," Chatman says.

Though being fully funded has made the program highly accessible, and has helped a number of graduates to advance in their fields, the high cost of the program makes it difficult to continue to operate that way, Chatman says. Gonzaga is looking at ways to get financial participation from students in the program, their employers, and tribes that see the benefit in launching more entrepreneurial efforts in their communities.

Other programs

Though Gonzaga offers the only graduate program specifically for American Indians here, other colleges and universities offer courses or outreach programs for American Indian students. According to a study by Eastern Washington University, American Indian high school drop-out rates are increasing in Washington state compared with those of other ethnic groups.

Spokane Falls Community College has sought several ways to encourage American Indian high school students to consider attending college. It offers college-level transfer courses for American Indian students at Medicine Wheel Academy, an alternative high school in the Spokane Public Schools.

Courses have included psychology, sociology, college composition, and history, and this spring it will offer intercultural communications, says Mary Harnetiaux, spokeswoman for the Community Colleges of Spokane. SFCC also started offering Salish language classes this fall, she says.

In the past, Spokane Community College has offered a summer program for American Indian high school students aimed at increasing cultural awareness, improving academic success, and supporting college as a goal after high school.

Students in Whitworth University's master's degree in teaching program take a multicultural class, and the program places student-teachers at both the Wellpinit School and the Coeur d'Alene Tribal School, as well as at the Medicine Wheel Academy, says Whitworth spokeswoman Emily Proffitt.