OSU to allow in-state tuition for enrolled members of all federally recognized Tribal nations

Aug. 3, 2022

Dear OSU Community Members,

Oregon State University is pleased to announce that beginning with fall term 2022, any enrolled member of a federally recognized Tribal nation will be considered an in-state OSU student for purposes of tuition.

This policy will apply to all new and currently enrolled students for any for-credit course, whether at the undergraduate or graduate level, and as a part of any academic program. Additionally, students who are enrolled members of the Nine Tribes of Oregon may be eligible to enroll in the state of Oregon’s newly announced Oregon Tribal Student Grant Program, which provides assistance up to the cost of attendance at Oregon public and private non-profit colleges and universities.

For more information about these programs, please visit the Admissions Residency website.

Through the Morrill Land Grant College Act of 1862, which established land grant universities across the country, the federal government seized – with little or no compensation – nearly 11 million acres of land from 250 sovereign Tribal nations, many of which had historical and customary ties to the western part of what is now the United States. This resulted in displacement, hardship, familial and cultural disruption and destruction, and the denial of educational opportunities for many members of Tribal nations.

In 1868, the Oregon Legislature designated Corvallis College as Oregon’s land grant institution. Soon after, the state of Oregon received 90,000 acres of federal lands — taken from the Klamath, Coos, Lower Umpqua, Siuslaw and Coquille people — to be sold to create an endowment supporting the growth of the new college, which would later become Oregon State University.

OSU acknowledges the impacts the Morrill Land Grant Acts have had on Tribal nations in Oregon and throughout the nation. The university also recognizes that although the lands seized and granted to Oregon to support the university's development are located in present day Oregon, the benefits accruing to OSU under the Morrill Land Grant Acts are inseparable from the negative impacts these acts had on Tribal nations throughout the country.

In Corvallis, OSU is located within the traditional homelands of the Marys River or Ampinefu Band of Kalapuya. Following the Willamette Valley Treaty of 1855, Kalapuya people were forcibly removed to reservations in western Oregon. Today, living descendants of these people are part of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde Community of Oregon and the Confederated Tribes of the Siletz Indians.

In Bend, Oregon State University-Cascades is located within the traditional homelands of the Wasq'u (Wasco) and Tana'nma (Warm Springs) people who legally retain customary hunting, fishing and gathering rights within the region, and who have been stewards of the region since time immemorial. Numu (Northern Paiute) peoples also were forcibly relocated to this region from the area of Lake, Harney, and Malheur counties in Oregon. Today, living descendants of these people are a part of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs.

Tribal citizens from throughout Oregon and the country represent multiple sovereign nations and are valued, contributing members of the OSU community. This new tuition policy advances OSU’s commitment — in the spirit of self-reflection, learning, reconciliation and partnership — that the university will be of enduring benefit to Tribal nations and their citizens throughout Oregon and the country.

Sincerely,

Becky Johnson
Interim President

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