U.S. Education Department awards NEO funding under Native American-related program

The United States Department of Education has awarded Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College cooperative funding under the Native American Serving Non-Tribal Institutions (NASNTI) program.

The program provides grants and related assistance to Native American-serving, nontribal institutions to improve and expand their capacity to serve Native American and low-income students.

NEO’s 2,040 square-mile, three-county primary service area – Ottawa, Craig, and Delaware counties – has a total population of 88,298 people, 30 percent of whom are Native American. The counties are home to 10 tribal jurisdictions.

In the fall of 2021, Native American students represented 29 percent of the college’s overall enrollment. NEO offers degrees and certificates in 38 transfer and occupational programs.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, NEO expanded online and hybrid class offerings and added real-time remote classes using Zoom videoconferencing technology.

NEO was awarded just over $1,596,000 over five years as the lead institution for the nearly  $2,750,000 grant, a two-initiative project to develop a robust virtual campus. The partner institution, Carl Albert State College, was awarded almost $1,154,000.

The first initiative is titled “Strengthen Faculty Capacity to Provide Effective Virtual Campus Instruction.” Institutions will develop new onboarding modules to orient faculty to virtual campus teaching.

The second initiative is titled “Address Gaps and Weakness to Provide Efficient Virtual Campus Student Support.” Institutions will integrate new or redesigned student support into the coaching and mentoring systems and develop student orientations to virtual learning.