UW’s New Regent, Leonard Forsman, ’87, Looks Ahead By Chris Talbott
LEONARD FORSMAN Forsman is chairman of the Suquamish Tribe and president of the Affiliated Tribes of the Northwest Indians. As a student, he majored in anothropology and worked as an intern at the Suquamish Tribal Archives in a partnership with the Burke Museum.
As the first Native American member of the UW Board of Regents, Leonard Forsman comes with a long to-do list to make life on campus more welcoming to American Indian students and those from underrepresented communities. “Indian students come in and have to be introduced to the campus as kind of outsiders,” Forsman says. “We want to make it so that the University is learning from the Indian students and faculty as well, so that we cannot only get an education, but provide an education to the to the institution,” Forsman says. “I can’t do that by myself. But there’s great students and people on faculty who are ready and willing and trying to bring that forward.” The chairman of the Suquamish Tribe and president of The Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians sat down recently with Viewpoint to discuss the priorities he’ll tackle during the early stages of his sixyear term:
When your appointment was announced, you said recruitment and retention of Native faculty and students was a priority. How do you accomplish that? 4
V I E W P O I N T : : U Wa l u m .c o m / v i ew p o i n t
You’ve said you’d like to see Native American faculty and students develop curriculum and research in certain areas of interest. What do you envision there? I think that we’re talking about research into salmon recovery, climate change, better health outcomes, development of curriculum for public schools and training school teachers on history and culture of tribes. These aren’t being ignored, but they need to be emphasized and amplified in a way that makes it more relevant and accessible to tribes.
Many of the topics you mentioned aren’t tribal or local issues, they’re global. Oh, yeah, they are, and I think that one of the places that it comes into play for us is salmon recovery and ocean acidification. On salmon recovery, we’ve got challenges with habitat, restoration and preservation. So not only restoring, but also preserving what we do have has created a dynamic of diverging priorities with ag, timber, urban development and the fish and habitat. All these things are coming together, so we need to have more engagement with University help identifying potential solutions to these challenges.
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There are different ways. One starts with the faculty, the programs and investing in the curriculum—essentially the classes that are important to them to have on campus because American Indians will seek out those programs. Even though they may be in another major, they’ll seek out those experiences with fellow students. That’s one of the reasons why we push so hard for the Intellectual House to have a place to nurture that, and that’s why phase two [of — Intellectual House] is super important. My experience when I got there was the Educational Opportunity Program was solid and they had a different ethnic cultural counseling center. So there was counseling available for all different types of groups— American Indians, Asian Americans, economically disadvantaged Americans—and that went away. It got consolidated essentially, so we lost some of our identity there, and that was kind of a blow to us.
GABRIELA CHAVARRIA
New Leader at the Burke Last month, Gabriela Chavarria became executive director of the Burke Museum. She brings more than 20 years of experience in science, management, influencing policy, developing new scientific collections and leading research efforts both nationally and internationally. “What excites me the most about joining the Burke Museum is that I’m coming to an institution that has created a totally new way to showcase collections,” says Chiavarra. “There’s no other museum in the world that wants to show the public the work behind the scenes to the extent that the Burke does.” Looking ahead, Chavarria is prioritizing expanding the museum’s approach of giving visitors up-close views of science at work as well with outreach to the community. “In a world where we’re trying to be more inclusive and diverse, more equitable, the Burke has much room to grow, incorporating new ideas and thoughts,” Chavarria says.
New Name, New Vision The Graduate Opportunities & Minority Achievement Program (GO-MAP) has served graduate and professional students from underrepresented communities for decades. Now it has changed its name and expanded its mission to meet the times. Last fall the program was renamed and recast as the Office of Graduate Student Equity & Excellence (GSEE). “We are living through another historical moment of racial reckoning. Racialized injustice, violence, and stunted opportunities remain too ubiquitous in American society,” write Graduate School Dean Joy Williamson Lott and GSEE Director Carolyn Jackson. The term “minority” is outdated and does not signify the change-making the Graduate School is committed to in the current historical moment. Expanding its work, the GSEE will focus on improving departmental climate and equity for students in their academic homes.
