OKMULGEE, Okla. – The College of the Muscogee Nation (CMN) is proud to announce that its president, Dr. Monte Randall, was named as a commissioner with the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching in the newly established Carnegie Postsecondary Commission. He will serve a two-year appointment in this role alongside a cohort of other innovative leaders that work to elevate underrepresented, low-income, and first-generation students in the college-to-career pipeline.

The Carnegie Foundation’s newly established commission will focus on identifying the most effective ways to propel college graduates into meaningful careers. For the next two years, the commission will focus specifically on discovering key information that will provoke important discussion, inform future decisions, and guide the implementation of bold solutions. The short-term goal is to develop actionable recommendations and models for postsecondary institutions that will result in college students achieving their postsecondary education goals and securing meaningful careers.

To get there, Dr. Randall says he will use his time on the commission to advocate for tribal colleges and universities (TCUs) to be on a level playing field along with other minority serving institutions (MSIs). He believes having candid conversations to address disparities will educate his peers on issues Indian Country faces in educational systems. He hopes to bring forward issues such as the classification system that impacts education funding mechanisms and the TCU accreditation process, the importance of programs and initiatives such as language revitalization, and elevating environmental work that TCUs and Indigenous peoples have been performing for millennia. “At CMN, we’ve been focused on culturally looking at the concepts of STEM. New Age practitioners bring forward what is believed to be innovative ideas only to learn that these are Indigenous practices our people have passed down over generations. I believe Indigenous people have a lot to offer the education space,” says Dr. Randall.

Additionally, Dr. Randall hopes to provide perspective on how the recent Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action in educational institutions may play out for Native students transferring outside of TCUs. “At my institution alone, we transfer about 50 percent of our students to bachelor’s and master’s degree programs and we have to monitor how this ruling affects our students and their higher education goals,” says Dr. Randall. “While this ruling focuses on race, this is great opportunity to educate about the complexity of our identity as individual sovereign nations across the U.S.”

“We truly are standing on the shoulders of our ancestors. This is the educational legacy our people fought for, for all nations to thrive. I’m truly honored and I will do my best to represent tribal colleges and universities.”

To learn more about The College of the Muscogee Nation, visit: https://cmn.edu

Media Contact:
Marissa Lewis, Marketing Coordinator
(918) 549-2856
mlewis@cmn.edu

The College of the Muscogee Nation is Oklahoma’s premiere Tribal College offering excellent degree programs and vital student services to develop graduates into formidable leaders in tribal and non-tribal sectors.