The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 42, No. 2 - 113

A Second Home

how to align efforts toward recognizing Indigenous history and moving toward transformational changes that facilitate and increase
Native student success.
A note about terminology is important at
this juncture. We use a variety of terms for
Native Americans in this article. They include
Indigenous, Native, American Indian, Alaska
Native, and our own languages. The wide
variety of terms is indicative of the diversity
within this population.

REWIND: THE FOUR RS-RESPECT,
RELEVANCE, RECIPROCITY, AND
RELATIONSHIPS
More than 20 years ago, Kirkness and Barnhardt stated that university policies "do not yet
provide a hospitable environment" (1991, p. 4)
for Indigenous students. Citing poor retention
and graduation rates and problematic institutional policies that required Native students to
leave their culture behind, they questioned the
continuance of such policies and practices that
were not working for Native students. Kirkness
and Barnhardt suggested the Four Rs-respect,
relevance, reciprocity, and responsibility-as
being interconnected and foundational for
Native student retention policies.
1. Respect. Respect is foundational in many
Native American cultures. This involves
respecting Native students as people and
recognizing the multitude of cultural wealth
they bring, including oral traditions, treaties,
and Indigenous knowledge systems.
2. Relevance. An institutional curriculum,
including the extracurriculum, should
include relevant topics, such as Indigenous
history or governance, and service learning
opportunities within Indigenous communities

or centers that Native students can relate to.
This also means that how a Native individual
is evaluated should be culturally relevant.
3. Reciprocal Relationships or Reciprocity.
Learning is not one way; the mutual sharing of
culture and traditions and placing equal value
on Indigenous and institutional knowledge is a
way to develop good relations. The Indigenous
community and its members should be
included when designing institutional programs
such as learning communities.
4. Responsibility. Indigenizing programs
and curriculum is not just the responsibility
of the institution. It is also an Indigenous
responsibility to take action by speaking
out against wrongs and participating in
curriculum and programming design.
The Four Rs provide an opportunity for colleges and universities to increase "the domain
of human knowledge" (Kirkness & Barnhardt,
1991, p. 8), meaning that institutions can
broaden their understanding by learning about
Native peoples' cultural values and traditions.
As mentioned earlier, Indigenous peoples'
connection to place and land is a critical cultural perspective linked to the Four Rs construct. We will brieﬂy elaborate on place-based
knowing and its connection to the Four Rs and
student housing.

The Importance of Place and Land for
Indigenous Students
An Indigenous perspective on land and place,
as a relationship, is an example of what Native
students bring with them when they leave
home to attend college. Harmonizing Native
epistemology (ways of knowing) and ontology
(ways of being) with the dominant culture and
customs of NNCUs can be the most intense,
invisible task that Native students endure
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The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 42, No. 2

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