The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 42, No. 2 - 121

A Second Home

absence of cultural competence development
can negatively impact the experiences of not
only Native students, but all students.
Situations like this one are rife with opportunities to recognize cultural knowledge as a
skill and, in turn, to consider this ability-on
the part of Native and non-Native staff-as a
cultural competency. What is more, it reveals
how cultural integrity, as embedded in the
Four Rs, is integral to college persistence:
If we cannot create an environment in which
[Native] students began to "feel at home" at
the university, all the special programs and
support services we can dream up will be of
little value in attracting and holding them in
signiﬁcant numbers. (Kirkness & Barnhardt,
1991, pp. 4-5)

FAST FORWARD: MOVING
FORWARD WHILE
ACKNOWLEDGING THE PAST
The relevance of the institution to the student
and the history of place becomes visible
when Indigenous epistemologies are embraced. Western designs for education that
compartmentalize experience and prioritize
instructional learning in the classroom are
counterintuitive to Indigenous modalities of
learning. Understanding residential environments to be as important as the classroom is
an example of this special understanding of
learning in a larger context as part of a community-based process. Success for Native students
can be heightened in institutions that value
individuality, meritocracy, and discrete production of knowledge, if Indigenous values can be
blended into their residential communities.
Helping Native students remain grounded in
their traditional values (Huffman, 2008) as

they venture into academic systems is key for
their development.
Creating an articulation of place and building relationships with tribal communities is a
way to learn about the history of marginalized
people. All institutions of higher education
occupy Indigenous land-an Indigenous community was removed, and an institution now
occupies that place. Higher education institutions are increasingly becoming more sensitive to Native students' needs, as seen in their
developing a policy for use of traditional medicines, engaging in Indigenous connection to
place and environment, building multicultural
advocacy and community in residential settings,
developing markers and legacy traditions that
help in addressing contemporary issues, and
recognizing ways to increase knowledge about
the histories of the land.
Intentional design and implementation of
respectful processes for creating environments
where students will live and engage are still
needed. Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) standards have accelerated a
higher order of best practices in how architects,
planners, and stakeholders consider facility
construction and design (U.S. Green Building
Council, 2015, para. 3). The newest standard
for high-performance green buildings is LEED
v4. To reduce the carbon footprint of a facility,
this new standard is described as "bolder, more
specialized, and designed for an improved user
experience" (U.S. Green Building Council,
2016, para. 2). Rarely, however, in the planning is there an account for integrating historical and present ecological and environmental
sensibilities of design into the students' daily
lives and patterns of living. Kerry Anne Dixon,
a LEED project manager, explains how intelli-

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

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