ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the strengths in certain Native American Student Services Unit (NASSU) programs, and provides a short history of the NASSU and its unique characteristics. It discusses the difference between Native American Studies programs (NAS) and NASSU, the history of NASSUs, and the complicated development that included the varied placement, funding, and administration of these units. The rationale for NASSU was largely in response to a lack of support on campus for Native students, even though other ethnic or multicultural support units had been established. The placement of NASSU is shaped by campus history and by an administration's Native American knowledge base. Like many ethnic programs, a NASSU can find itself in a rather marginalized area on campus, inhibiting growth and hampering visibility. There are collaborative efforts of multiple communities and departments to jointly support programming, private and alumni donations, fund-raising sales, scholarship drives, corporate and small-business grants, not-for-profit grants, and endowments.
