Indigenous tuition waiver announced

By Rob Levin

College of the Atlantic this year announced the creation of a full tuition waiver program for Wabanaki students.

Sparked by the COA Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Strategic Plan that was passed by All College Meeting in 2021, the waiver follows numerous conversations on campus, including through an informal Indigenous working group, and with Tribal leaders, Bar Harbor’s Abbe Museum, and the Wabanaki Center at the University of Maine. 

“For time immemorial, MDI has provided us with everything we needed to sustain us.  Now, it will provide future Wabanaki COA students with sustenance for their minds,” said John Bear Mitchell of the University of Maine Wabanaki Center. “The work that College of Atlantic has done, working with the Wabanaki post-secondary community, will provide a valuable opportunity for our students to gain a unique educational experience. The opportunity College of Atlantic is providing is beyond generous and really considers the importance that higher education plays in our tribal communities.”

The tuition waiver is available for any enrolled COA student who is a Maine Tribal member or a direct descendant of Maine Tribal members. COA will also meet additional demonstrated financial need without loans for Wabanaki students, using the college’s regular institutional financial aid methodology. In order to be eligible, students must apply and be admitted to COA using the college’s undergraduate admission processes.

"The Wabanaki tuition and fee waiver is something we should have done decades ago, but is nevertheless a piece of very good progress on the work we are doing at COA to collaborate more holistically with our Wabanaki partners," said COA President Darron Collins '92. "As a college dedicated to a place-based approach to education where our specific geography here on the Maine Coast is crucial to what and how we teach, this work represents a must have for COA and appropriately goes beyond simply acknowledging our historical impact on the Wabanaki people with words spoken before a public event." 

Working groups at the college have also discussed, and plan to implement, several other elements to a more robust Indigenous land acknowledgment.