U of A Native student director appointed

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Dr. Reinhild Rodrigues, newly appointed director of Native Student Services at the University of Alberta began her job on August 17.

Rodrigues, 42, has a doctorate in anthropology. Although her specialization was in East Africa, she has worked extensively with Canadian Natives and remarks that "most theories apply across the world" and has found many applications in her work for those theories.

Her most recent position was with Athabasca University where she was regional coordinator for the outreach program in northern Alberta. In this position, she worked at bringing the university onto the reserves by administering programs at the students' locale. Locations for this project include Blue Quills (St. Paul), the Sunrise Project (Slave Lake), the Yellowhead Tribal Council and others.

Native Student Services, which is a separate entity from the Native Studies Program at the University of Alberta, looks after Native students by providing a variety of services. It serves as a central referral agency for Native students on campus. It also provides referrals and a location for the Native Student Club to meet.

A second purpose of NSS is to provide outreach to Alberta native communities. Doreen Richardson has the responsibility of visiting the communities to promote the University of Alberta and to provide academic counselling.

NSS also sponsors an introductory year on campus in cooperation with Athabasca University. The introductory year is designed for students who are not qualified to enter the University of Alberta as regular or mature students. They are permitted to take one U of A course as unclassified students; Athabasca University will permit them to take an additional two courses to make up three courses which are required tin order to be eligible for financial assistance as a full-time student.

Rodrigues is looking forward to her orientation period and her work at Native Student Services. Issues that may come up this year include possible cutbacks in the funding for students in the cooperative program due to Indian Affairs policy. It remains to be seen how many of the 21 students accepted into the program will receive funds under the new policy.