The Native American Indigenous Student Alliance (NISA) has restructured and is planning to increase its advocacy efforts on campus. In a Daily Message published on Feb. 27. NISA announced that it will allow non-Native students to join the group and fill certain leadership roles for the first time since the group’s creation in 2021.
NISA’s co-founder and President Daisy Rosalez ’25.5, wrote in a statement to the Record that the change is partially due to the lack of Native students on campus. “The number of Native students is on a decline, and I fear there may be a day soon where we no longer have a single Native student on campus,” she wrote. Rosalez said she knew of nine Native students enrolled at the College this academic year, five of whom will be graduating in the next two years.
“Disillusioned, struggling with lack of participation and lack of support from the school, I sent out a call for help,” Rosalez said of her decision to broaden membership to non-Native students.
“The restructuring of NISA to include non-Native leadership positions is a way of strengthening all of our work,” she wrote. “Since our work is intersectional, it makes so much sense.”
NISA is also hoping to garner more support from the Minority Coalition and other affinity groups on campus, according to Edan Zinn ’27, one of the group’s new non-Native project leaders.
“With only nine Native students on campus and no Native faculty or liaison, advocacy work is a lot to juggle along with our academic responsibilities,” Rosalez wrote. “Despite repeated requests for a Native liaison, the [College] has not provided us with the structural support we need.”
Along with calling for the appointment of a Native liaison between NISA and College administration, the group has presented several demands to the College, including the establishment of an Indigenous studies department and scholarships to increase Native student enrollment at the College.
Rosalez sent a petition listing NISA’s demands in November that had 158 signatures as of publication. “On Nov. 5, 2024, I met with President Maud [S. Mandel] and delivered her our petition and requested to hear back by Nov. 22, 2024, but we have yet to hear back from her,” Rosalez said.
“We appreciate student engagement on these issues,” Chief Communications Officer Meike Kaan wrote in a statement to the Record. She noted that Associate Dean for Institutional Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion José Constantine and Chair of Arabic Studies Amal Eqeiq submitted a proposal for a Native American and Indigenous studies coordinate program to the Committee on Educational Affairs last week.
Rosalez wrote that she had not received any advance notice of the proposal. “As a leader of the student group that has adamantly advocated for the immediate hiring of a Native liaison, Native faculty, and the creation of a Native American and Indigenous Studies program, it is disappointing that we have not been notified or thought of,” Rosalez wrote. “This only further highlights the urgent need for a Native liaison to ensure transparency, consideration, and communication between the institution and Native students.”
The College’s Native American and Indigenous Working Group (NAIWG), which includes students, has been advocating for the program, according to Kaan.
“We’ve had ongoing conversations with the NAIWG about our struggles with institutional support and representation,” Rosalez said.
The working group, which operates under the Office of Institutional Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, was created in 2022 to consider and respond to a list of student recommendations for College policy towards supporting Native students and communities. The group operates with guidance and collaboration from representatives from the Stockbridge-Munsee Community.
In 2021, Rosalez and Berenize Garcia Nueva ’24 co-founded what was then called the Native-American Student Alliance. The group’s became NISA in 2023. The group is the first Native affinity group on campus to be led by Native students. Another, called the Native American Student Alliance at Williams, was established in 1998 by Elizabeth Hoover ’01. Hoover claimed to have Native heritage at the time, but admitted in 2023 that she had lied about her background for most of her life, and has no Native ancestry.
Members of the group emphasized that Native advocacy at the College is not new, and that their efforts have been ongoing. “This is not just a rebrand,” Julian Arenas ’27, another new non-Native member of NISA leadership, said. “It’s a deliberate restructuring as a result of anti-Indigenous violence at the hands of the College. This restructuring is going to be in place as long as it takes for the College to recognize the demands of Indigenous students that they have been asking for for years.”
Lauren Ryan ’25, who is also part of NISA leadership and is pursuing a contract major in Indigenous studies, said that NISA views student support as crucial to its efforts. “A big reason that the College has been hesitant about the Indigenous studies push is because they’re saying ‘Oh, there’s not enough interest,’” she said. “So the biggest thing that non-Native allies can do is show up and express interest.”
“Coalition building is what got us Asian American studies a few years ago, and got us Latino/a studies in the 2000’s,” Arenas said. “So we really need to continue fostering a community framework to achieve these goals.”
