Alberta's aboriginal students benefit from federal spending

Lack of student input on projects still a concern

NATALIE CLIMENHAGA, CUP ALBERTA AND NORTHERN BUREAU CHIEF

EDMONTON (CUP) — While money is rolling in from the federal government for aboriginal housing, Alberta’s aboriginal students are wondering why nobody has asked them what they need.

Last month, Strathcona MLA Rob Loughheed presented a $550,000 cheque to the University of Alberta’s Aboriginal Student Services Centre. The money will provide for the refurbishment of residences allocated specifically for aboriginal students.

“There are a lot of barriers for aboriginal students who come to school. I think there should be some incentive to keep aboriginal students on campus,” said Aboriginal Student Council (ASC) president Derek Thunder of the need for aboriginal-specific housing.

The funding presented by the Lougheed went towards the refurbishment of four residences.

The Belcourt-Brosseau House, a six-person unit that first opened in 1999 as a Métis house, has since become equally accessible to First Nations students. Additionally, a four-person house in East Campus Village will see improvements, so will two row houses in the Michener Park Complex. These final two were previously open to all students, but will now be reserved for aboriginal students.

According to Aboriginal Student Services coordinator Melissa Gillis, though, this is only scraping the surface of demand.

“We could probably do about 30 times that, if not more,” Gillis said.

But Loughheed said that the money was only a small part of $250 million coming from the federal government over the next three years for aboriginal housing initiatives across the country. While that money is not specifically targeted for student initiatives, he added that as more of the funding becomes available, the possibility to build new units for aboriginal students may open up.

“There is more [money] coming,” he said. “But this was the immediate fix-up that was required.”

Angela Bigstone, a fourth-year elementary education student, noted that aboriginal-specific housing is an important component in helping students be successful.

“A lot of aboriginal students come from really remote communities, so when they come into a student housing . . . that’s set aside for aboriginal students, they at least have a sense of identity and somebody to have a sense of community with,” she said.

Bigstone would also like to see future funding consider the needs of students with families.

“As a single student, I’m more mobile and so I hope sometime in the future there is more housing available for families,” she said.

Thunder added that, while ASC doesn’t retain responsibility for dealing with aboriginal housing on campus, the student group is still interested in getting involved and providing input.

“Nobody asks what the student needs are; it’s interesting that even the news comes to us to ask us what we think, but the university in general doesn’t ask what students need or want for student housing,” said Thunder.

“If the university wanted to do talks about improving aboriginal issues on campus, they need to listen to the students first.”