RORY MACLEAN
News Editor

After several weeks of violent restructuring, the fate of the First Nations University of Canada looks grimmer than ever.

In the fallout over allegations of misspending and wrongful dismissal from Murray Westerlund, former chief financial officer of FNUC, funds have been cut from the federal and provincial government, amounting to over $10 million — or about half — of the university’s budget. Further, the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations, the parent of FNUC, removed its board of governors.

The next step could see the school renamed and rebranded, or even dissolved. According to Rob Norris, provincial minister of education, all the options are still on the table, but to restore funding would require drastic changes.

The province has for several years asked FNUC to alter its governance structure and it began to tie funding to expectations that the university would move toward a smaller, less politicized board.

This has not happened, said Norris.

“Over the course of the last two years, we have worked, I think, with a spirit of generosity and a great deal of patience,” he said. “What we have seen has been an unwillingness, or an inability to meet those expectations.”

Things have only been further complicated by the firing of Westerlund, leaving questions about FNUC’s finances, he said.

As a federated college of the University of Regina, the U of R is required to ensure that FNUC’s nearly 700 students will be able to continue their education.

What is unclear is the fate of its staff and faculty.

“Our primary obligation of course is to students, who are our students,” said Barbara Pollock, vice-president of external affairs at the U of R.

Faculty and staff are, however, employees of FNUC and, though there may be opportunities for them at the U of R should the school dissolve, it is too early to speculate what the future has in store for them, she said.

Cadmus Delorme, vice-president communications for the FNUC students’ association said they the students are behind the faculty.

“We stick together…. There is a bond; the faculty have no one representing them because it’s their bosses that are being talked about.”

She explained the contingency plan is still fairly informal.

“There’s no capital-c capital-p (Contingency Plan), if I can put it that way. I’m not trying to make light of the situation, but we always have contingencies in mind for any kind of business interruption,” she said.

What is certain is that FNUC as we know it is over.

The federal government has not provided any options for the renewal of its funding, and the province is beginning to indicate it is ready to move on.

“I think for us, this chapter is coming to a close,” said Norris.

“Even as efforts are being made — I don’t want to underestimate those efforts — but I don’t want to overstate them,” he said. “Those efforts do not a university make. There are questions as fundamental as whose in charge.”

Norris emphasized, however, that “nothing is off the table regarding proposals about combinations of institutions and ideas regarding renewal.”

Still, he could not tell whether FNUC would be fit to accept students by September.

Even if the $5.2 million in provincial money won’t be going to FNUC, it will still be spent on First Nations education, he said.

Norris said he remains in talks with Chuck Strahl, federal minister of Indian affairs, to try to ensure the pulled $7 million of federal money remains in the province.

A vision: Indian control of Indian education

FNUC represents a movement that has its roots in Saskatchewan — Indian control of Indian education. Throughout the 1970s and ’80s, a number of First Nations-run education programs sprung up in the province under the authority of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations. This led to the creation of the Saskatchewan Indian Institute of Technologies and the precursor to FNUC, the Saskatchewan Indian Federated College.

The original intent of SIFC was to serve the academic, cultural and spiritual needs of First Nations students. It began its first year with nine students, offering a Bachelor of Arts in Indian studies within the faculty of arts at the University of Regina.

In 2003 the university expanded and became FNUC. By 2005 it had more than a thousand students.

But in 2005, acting on his authority as chair of FNUC board of governors, then-FSIN vice-chief Morley Watson seized control of the university in an unprecedented coup d’état.

Seven finance and four human resources staff members were evicted from the building. Watson’s coup marked the beginning of FNUC’s era of turmoil, leading to the current laundry list of problems, including high profile firings, allegations of misspending, student-led uprisings and government bailouts.

“FNUC is way beyond just administrative control issues,” said Anna Hunter, who teaches aboriginal public administration at the University of Saskatchewan.

“They ran FNUC like a corrupt Indian band office, but the solution was not to cut all the funding; that was overkill. That’s Indian politics 101,” she said.

“No matter what FNUC does now, they’ll never get the funding.”

Hunter taught a fourth year social policy class to social work students at FNUC’s Saskatoon campus several years ago.

She mourns the loss of FNUC but thinks the dream of Indian controlled education will never die.

“I refuse to believe that First Nations people can’t get together and operate their own university education. It’s completely feasible and doable, and the loss of funding just gives them better impetus to do it. I think they should just keep going. Go back to the roots and start again. They tried to do something too big,” she said.

“The First Nations University has always been more than an institution, it’s been about the people. I taught a fourth year social work course there and it was a total dive, but you didn’t do it for glory or because they had the best technology — they didn’t even have wireless there — you just did it because it was the right thing to do.”

– –

(With reports from the Carillon)
photo: Austin Davis