Like many TCUs, Navajo Tech has invested in family housing to cater to students with dependents.

Today, many tribal college and university (TCU) students are not straight out of high school. They have often started a family or have had a job. As the job market has trended toward having a degree, these “non-traditional students” have returned to college to attain a degree. Rather than leaving a family to fend for itself, student family housing accommodates not only the student’s ability to attend classes, but to keep the family intact. This can make the difference in the success of Native American students completing their course of study.

Navajo Technical University (NTU) is one of these TCUs that has housing available for married students and students with dependents. At NTU, the Diné philosophy of education—nitsáhákees (thinking), nahátá (planning), iína (living), siihasin (reflecting)—is woven into its mission and supports the students residing on campus. NTU’s 29 housing apartments are specifically for full-time Native American students attending the university. A total of 42 students currently reside in the apartments. In addition to the family housing, there are two efficiency apartments that house 102 men and 76 women. Wilson Gilmore, NTU’s residential housing manager, says, “Students who apply for family housing do so because it is affordable, the family stays together, childcare is available on campus, and both parents are able to attend the university.” To support the students, Gilmore and his staff keep an open-door approach for all the student residents and provide them access to resources on and off campus.

Enrollment at NTU predominantly consists of Navajo students. A big factor in deciding to enroll is the close proximity to home, especially for those who help their extended family and need to be close to them. Many of these students see NTU as an opportunity to begin their college or university experience, whether they take a course or two and then transfer to a mainstream college or university or attain their degree at NTU. Benefits of campus housing include better proximity to university resources like the library, tutoring, child care center, and recreation facility; exposure to students from different areas of the reservation; the ability to fully immerse oneself in the university experience by remaining on campus after classes are finished for the day; ease of meeting other students and building relationships with those in a similar season of life; and providing an economic housing option to cash-strapped students.

Most of the students residing on the NTU campus in Crownpoint, New Mexico, come from the Navajo reservation but as far away as Tuba City, Arizona, which is about 200 miles to the West. One student who resides in family housing expressed that she would not have been able to continue her education toward a bachelor’s degree if it weren’t for the availability of housing on campus. She is grateful for NTU’s family housing because it allows her family to actually have a place to call “home” with resources such as on-campus childcare and a local pre-school and kindergarten. “Without a place to stay as a family, I would have probably stopped and not continued my education,” she reflects. “NTU has provided me the opportunity and I look forward to graduating soon.”