A group of Native students at the University of Arizona say that the administration has just eliminated one of the rare spaces where they felt safe, connected and welcome on campus.

Diné student Tommey Jodie said that she depended on the Native American Student Affairs Cultural & Resource Center not only for studying but also for connecting with other Native students in a space where she could “just be a Native person.”

“ It’s one of the only places on campus where I didn’t have to explain who I was or why I was there,” she said. Unlike in other situations on campus, where the student body is overwhelmingly white, she said she never had to justify her existence as a Native person.

Many Indigenous UA students shared the same sentiment.

Lakȟóta and Tohono O’odham student Winona Little

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