Dr. Eber Hampton leaving FNUC presidency

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The First Nations University of Canada (FNUC) is doing something it's never had to do in the past 13 years.

The university, formerly known as Saskatchewan Indian Federated College (SIFC), is looking for a new president. Dr. Eber Hampton, who has served in that position since 1991, is stepping down effective July 1. Hampton is returning to his first love, teaching.

"I'm leaving the presidency with mixed feelings," he said in an interview. "It's hard to put into words how fortunate I feel to have been president, to have worked with this staff and the chiefs of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations.

"I've worked with the men and women who make the difference in the big picture of our society. Now, when I go to the classroom, I'll be working with men and women who will make the difference in the next generation."

A university is more than just teaching the next generation, said Hampton. The university is also the place where the knowledge and wisdom of the past is stored, nurtured, and expanded upon.

"Teaching students also means that you are expanding that knowledge base. In the FNUC's example, it means that a forum now exists to do this from a First Nations' point of view."

Hampton is a member of the Chickasaw Nation, and was born in Talihina, Oklahoma in 1942. As a child, he moved with his family to California. His father, who served with the U.S military, was discharged soon after the Second World War, and decided to stay and live and work in that state.

As a child, he experienced both the best and worst education had to offer.

"It was always expected of me, by my parents, that I would go to university," he said. "Frankly, I don't recall a time when I didn't expect to go to university, when I was growing up."

He credits his parents with instilling a love of learning in him.

"My father possessed only a sixth-grade education. My mother only had her high-school education, but when I was a child, she went to night school and got her teaching certificate," he said.

"But there was a love of learning at home. My mother taught me to read before I went to school."

But when he did go to school, the teachers didn't seem to feel the same way as his family.

"There was quite a lot of racial discrimination in California against Chicanos. And I was lumped in with them, where it was clear by the attitudes of teachers and others in the school system that not much was expected of us."

Despite this, Hampton graduated from Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California in 1964 with a baccalaureate in psychology. In the late 1980s, he was a doctoral student at Harvard University when he sat in on a presentation by several chiefs from the FSIN on the activities, roles and responsibilities of SIFC.

"I was very impressed with what they had to say about SIFC," he said. So much so, that he applied for a job to teach at the college. When he didn't hear back, he went to work at the University of Alaska's Fairbanks campus.

In 1991, SIFC came calling. They were looking for a president. Would he be interested in the job? They didn't have to ask twice.

One high point for Hampton was in the mid 1990s, when the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations chiefs' assembly passed the SIFC Act, giving its legal recognition to the university.

In 1994, the university was accepted into the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC). SIFC was the first Aboriginal-based post-secondary institution to receive that recognition.

"With that, we were recognized by other Canadian universities as offering university-level education. That was about the time that we decided to consider a name change," said Hampton.

The school's new name, the First Nations University of Canada, was made official in June 2003 when the college moved from its old offices in the University of Regina to its new home across the campus.

Designed by famed Aboriginal architect Douglas Cardinal, the $30 million facility as officially opened by Prince Edward, the Earl of Wessex, in a gala ceremony. The new building is home to the university administration and faculty and provides classroom space for the more than 500 students who take classes at the Regina campus. In total, about 1,200 students are registered at FNUC through its Regina, Saskatoon and Prince Albert campuses.

How does the FNUC compare to other Aboriginal-based post secondary education institutions in North America? It's a leader, said Hampton.

"What makes FNUC unique is that it possesses such a broad range of support from all the First Nations in such a large and diverse geographical area. For example, the composition of most Aboriginal colleges in the United States is that they are run through one tribal council, such as the Dine University based on the Navajo Nation. FNUC offers more of a cross-cultural experience, because you have different First Nations, such as the Cree, Dene, Lakota and others, all teaching their languages here."