WEATHERFORD, Okla. – Come May, an Oklahoma tribal college is shutting its doors.

Citing a lack of continued tribal funding, the board of regents for the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribal College voted at its March 27 meeting to close the school at the end of the spring 2015 semester. Established in 2006, the college is part of Southwestern Oklahoma State University and is housed at its Weatherford campus while seeking independent accreditation through the Higher Learning Commission.

According to SWOSU’s Office of Institutional Research, 130 students were enrolled under one of the four associate degree programs offered by the college as of fall 2014, the most recent semester with available numbers. With up to a dozen classes offered each semester, the CATC curriculum offered 46 courses, including classes in the Tribes’ languages, histories and shared constitution.

Officials with SWOSU confirmed that they are working to make the necessary arrangements to allow currently enrolled students the opportunity to finish their degrees, but that it would be contingent upon hiring the necessary adjunct instructors to teach courses not already regularly offered by the university.

“SWOSU is certainly interested in retaining courses that deal with Cheyenne and Arapaho language and culture,” university spokesman Brian Adler said. “Many of those courses were recently included in the new general education curriculum as options, and we hope to be able to hire the CATC adjunct faculty members to teach them periodically.”

Students who were already admitted to start during the summer or fall 2015 semester have been notified and are in the process of being matched with SWOSU academic advisers to determine their next course of action should they choose to stay at the regional institution.

Through a press statement, one of the two claimant Cheyenne and Arapaho governments emphasized that while it does not have the authority to dissolve the college, it cut off tribal funding for the college over concerns about the program’s financials. The college had requested $787,500 in tribal funds for 2015.

“Foremost is determining what is in the best interest of our tribe,” claimant Gov. Eddie Hamilton said. “From the beginning of our administration, we have been diligent in being good stewards of our tribal funds.

“We shared financial information regarding CATC at our last shareholders meetings but it bears repeating. To date, the Cheyenne & Arapaho Tribes has invested $3,477,414.25 into CATC since its inception in 2008. Since that time, 21 Cheyenne & Arapaho tribal members have graduated. In essence, we spent $165,592.15 per student to obtain a two-year degree.”

With its accreditation through SWOSU, enrollment at the college was not restricted to Cheyenne and Arapaho citizens. Tribal citizenship and CDIB information are optional fields on the college’s online application, which as of April 23, was still active on CATC’s portion of SWOSU’s website. According to CATC officials, over the last nine years, more than 20 tribes were represented among its students and 55 graduates.

In its statement, the Hamilton administration also took issue with the fact that the college was not independently accredited through the Higher Learning Commission or a member of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium, a national non-profit organization made up of tribally run colleges and universities.

The Hamilton administration has stated its intent to conduct an assessment to determine how to provide direct services to tribal citizens pursuing a college degree, but no timeline has been publicly announced.

As part of a public Facebook rebuttal to the Hamilton administration’s concerns, Gail Wilcox, one of the college’s three full-time employees, pointed out that the college is not eligible for AIHEC membership because it does not have its own autonomous building. The college shares a building with two departments, the School of Allied Health Sciences and the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

“If students are a top concern, where was the governor, or official representatives, during many student activities in which he was invited?” Wilcox asked rhetorically.

Henrietta Mann, the college’s president, deferred all comments to Pauline Harjo, chairwoman of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribal College’s board of regents. In a prepared statement, Harjo thanked Mann, Wilcox and the college’s vice president, Alden Whiteman, and encouraged students to continue pursuing a degree, whether through SWOSU or another institution.

“I…express confidence in our students to positively continue their education as our future leaders and future guardians of our languages and cultures,” she said. “I would like for SWOSU administrators, faculty and staff to know that I have always felt a deep sense of gratitude for how they cooperated with us in our mutual vision of tribal higher education.”