Page 8 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, May 17, 1983

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Daily Photo by DEBORAH LEWIS
Writing on the wall;
The artistic talent of some Residential College students seems to have transcended the boundries of the East Quad prin-
tmaking studio into the hall outside.
Sioux college wins accreditation

Jackson
prison
inmates
get college
degrees
Jackson (UPI) - Friends and family
of those involved brought driver's
licenses, matchbooks and cigarettes as
gifts for the graduates but almost
everything else was taken away by
security officials.
The unusual ceremonies took place
Saturday in the auditorium at the State
Prison of Southern Michigan, where 23
inmates graduated with various
degrees from nearby Spring Arbor
College.
THE COLLEGE has for four years
run a special, in-prison program that
allows inmates to complete the final
two years of work on degrees in
psychology, busines, or social science.
The tuition is $4,400, but government
grants and loans cover half the cost and
the college's grants cover the balance.
The students complete their first two
years of college in a Jackson Com-
munity College program.
Getting the diploma meant "accom-
plishing a victory against the odds of an
institution," said Ed Scott, who has
served eight years of a 15- to 25-year
sentence for assault with intent to rob.
Scott earned a bachelor's degree in
psychology.
"IT'S DIFFICULT enough to serve a
sentence here; studying is even more
difficult. There's all the distractions of
lockups, plus you're living with
society's abnormals. When you decide
to step out and say, 'I want to make
something of myself. I want to go to
school,' then you become abnormal
among abnormals."
Scott said he worked in the prison
eight hours a day and studied three
hours a night toward his degree.
"It was grueling. But it was the one
thing where I had freedom of choice. I
could choose subjects. I could choose to
excel. That becomes very important
here," he said.
Scott said he hopes to be released as
early as this fall on parole and then find
a job and get a master's degree at
Wayne State University. He said his
goal is to work with juvenile offenders.

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MISSION, S.D. (AP)-In the late
1800's, Chief Sinte Gleska of the
Rosebud Sioux called on his people to
combine their traditional education
with the learning of the white man to
survive ina changing world.
Today, Sinte Gleska's descendants
are following his advice at a college
that bears his name. After a 12-year
struggle, the school recently became
the first Indian college in the nation to
win accreditation for an independent
four-year degree program.
"BACK IN THE mid-70's, people
looked on us as a passing tribal fad,"
said Lionel Bordeaux. president of Sin-

te Geeska College since 1973 and also a
member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribal
Council." We showed that Indians
could support an institution of higher
education."
All students must take three courses
dealing with the language, philosophy,
history and culture of the Lakota Sioux
tribes of the Dakitas. Students use a
Dakota-Ennglish dictionary, a textbook
dealing with the Dakota language as
well as other, more general books on
Indians.
"It's important for our children to
know our language and the history of
our people, it's something to be proud

of," said Boris Leader Charge, a
Dakota studies instructor. "It helps
them succeed in everything if they feel
a pride in who they are."
THE EDUCATION at Sinte Gleska
"lets us combine our educational goals
and the Dakota culture in a meaningful
way," said Moses Traversie, 31, a
senior working toward a bachelor's
degree in elementary education.
Traversie, who dropped out of the
University of South Dakota in 1974, said
the small Sinte Gleska classes-which
have an average of seven students-en-
courage discussions between students
and instructors and promote learning.
"At USD, there were 150 students in
some classes. It didn't seem you got
much of a relationship with a professor,
and the teaching was geared to the
white middle-class culture," said
Traversie, a member of the Cheyenne
River Sioux Tribe.
"ACCREDITATION BRINGS
tremendous pride here," siad Jerry
Mohatt, a white who was college
president from the time the idea for the
school was approved by the Rosebud
Sioux Tribal Council in 1970 until 1973.
Mihatt stepped down so an Indian could
become college president.

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