Native Student Services (NSS) was founded in 1987 through petitioning and advocacy work by Elaine Abraham and Native students at the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA). In 1990, NSS was moved under Minority Student Services (MSS) for “budgeting” and “redundancy”(1.) reasons. Three years later, in response to student protests, NSS was moved out of MSS and became its own office again. NSS provides a home away from home for Native and Indigenous students attending UAA (a colonial institution) through student support, advocacy, advising, and building a community within and beyond the university.

On March 19, 2025, UAA students and NSS staff were notified that NSS would be shut down and the staff would be laid off. Leadership claims they will be “reorganizing” and moving NSS under Multicultural Student Center and renaming NSS the “Indigenous and Rural Student Center (IRSC).”(2.) This is once again being attributed to “fiscal issues” and “redundancy of services.”(3.) However, the change will dismantle the community NSS created and fosters by removing the necessary services they provide, including “academic, advising, and cultural support; help finding resources; study with classmates; attend culturally empowering events,”3 and the staff who make it possible. UAA is removing the service portion of Native Student Services, the only office at UAA that serves Native students without regard for degree or class standing. 

The University of Alaska Anchorage does not support Indigenous students nor the people who work with them. UAA is taking away the only safe space created by, with, and for Native students with disregard for student, community, and staff input. NSS has only two staff members, who are already overburdened with servicing over 1,000 Native students. Now, UAA has dismantled NSS to a single staff member, by placing one staff member on administrative leave, isolating and removing their ability to communicate with staff, students, and faculty. 

As supporters of Native students and Native Student Services, here are the requests we have for the University of Alaska Anchorage:

1. Keep Native Student Services as it is, an independent office that offers support and services to Native students.
2. Ensure current staff stay as permanent staff, are properly compensated and given the support needed to run NSS.
3. Change who NSS reports to, moving them to the Office of Student Success.
4. Ensure student worker positions, including tutors, are kept and funded.
5. Ensure all positions at NSS have long-term stability and credibility.
6. Keep Native Student Services as its own organization, not underneath another department or office at UAA.

1. Book -  Native American Studies in Higher Education: Models for Collaboration Between Universities and Indigenous Nations
2. Email from UAA Leadership
3. NSS Website