Agency Halts Indian Funds At Ed School

The Bureau of Indian Affairs will not approve funding for the American Indian Program (AIP) at the Graduate School of Education next year, thus eliminating the main support for the program. Frank A. Ryan, director of the AIP, said yesterday.

The AIP is seeking $250,000 from the bureau to subsidize 25 students, but will not receive the money because forrest Gerard, assistant secretary of the Interior Department, denied Harvard's request, Ryan said.

The Education School does not yet have enough endowment to support the AIP without federal funding, because the school is relatively young, Ryan said.

"There is no rational reason why the Bureau of Indian Affairs should want to terminate our program" because all of its graduates are working in either Indian education or Indian affairs, Ryan said.

Rick C. Lavis, deputy assistant secretary for Indian Affairs, said yesterday no one in the bureau holds a grudge against the AIP. "We got a lot of heat from Indian tribal leaders for funding the Harvard program," he added.

The bureau spends about $12,000 annually for each student it sends to Harvard, but only $3000 to $4000 to send students to some other Western schools, Lavis said.

"We want to fund the student, not the institution," and Bureau funds could aid more students if regional tribal offices received them, he added.

If Gerard terminates AIP funding he will "cut adrift" ten doctoral candidates and about 15 other students currently enrolled in the program, Ryan said. The eight-year-old Education School program is the only one in the country designed to train Indians in the field of education, he added.