Education (Colleges & Universities)
Here's a look at documents from public, private and community colleges in the U.S.
Featured Stories
Virginia Tech: Why Coronary Arteries Struggle to Heal After Surgery
BLACKSBURG, Virginia, Nov. 15 -- Virginia Tech issued the following news:
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Why coronary arteries struggle to heal after surgery
A new study by Scott Johnstone of the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC identified a target for new therapies to improve recovery and reduce complications after stent procedures and bypass surgeries.
By Matt Chittum
Surgeons in the United States perform nearly 600,000 coronary artery stent procedures and bypass surgeries every year.
They are the most common cardiovascular operations, and yet many fail within a few years because treatment damages the
... Show Full Article
BLACKSBURG, Virginia, Nov. 15 -- Virginia Tech issued the following news:
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Why coronary arteries struggle to heal after surgery
A new study by Scott Johnstone of the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC identified a target for new therapies to improve recovery and reduce complications after stent procedures and bypass surgeries.
By Matt Chittum
Surgeons in the United States perform nearly 600,000 coronary artery stent procedures and bypass surgeries every year.
They are the most common cardiovascular operations, and yet many fail within a few years because treatment damages theendothelium -- a microscopically thin layer of cells lining blood vessels. Healthy endothelial cells are crucial to healing and long-term success.
Now, Scott Johnstone, assistant professor with Virginia Tech's Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, and collaborators have identified a protein vital to the healing process. The study was published this month in Heart and Circulatory Physiology.
"For the first time in a living, functioning system, we understand pathways that are super important for endothelial wound healing to occur," said Johnstone, who is part of the institute's Center for Vascular and Heart Research. "This is crucial when we're thinking about drug treatments, to ensure we don't interfere with the normal healing process."
The study aimed to discover how endothelial cells recover and vessels heal normally when torn or broken in surgery, to learn how to aid healing.
Endothelial cells line every blood vessel in the body in a layer just a single-cell thick. They are about 10 times thinner than a human hair but they form one of the most important barriers in our body controlling blood vessel health.
In a previous study, Johnstone found the endothelium is often damaged or lost during heart coronary bypass operations that use a section of saphenous vein transplanted from the leg. It's also well-known that when stents are applied, the endothelium is destroyed and won't regrow over the stent.
"Impaired endothelium repair is at the center of why some surgeries fail," Johnstone said. "When the endothelium is lost, it can lead to an expanded immune response by the body where other cells arrive and block the vessel over again."
A protein called connexin 43, which forms channels between cells to allow them to signal to each other and coordinate their responses, is known to be involved in skin wound healing, but the protein's role in endothelial healing was unknown.
Johnstone and his team analyzed nearly 11,000 individual cells in blood vessels to learn whether connexin 43 plays a part in vessel healing. They found that after injury to a large blood vessel, the endothelial cells produced more of the protein. When the researchers created animal models that deactivated the protein, the animals' blood vessels healed more slowly.
All experiments and analyses were conducted in mice, providing insight into endothelial healing mechanisms relevant to human vascular injury.
This suggests that connexin 43 helps the blood vessel heal after damage. Johnstone and his team think the protein could be a target for new therapies to improve recovery and reduce complications after vascular surgery.
"We want to find out how to get back to a healthy vessel, so we need to understand what makes a healthy vessel," said Johnstone, who also holds a faculty appointment in the Department of Biological Sciences. "And if we can do that, we can inform doctors what types of treatments may stop these essential cells from healing a vessel to allow it to perform in the way that it should."
This study was funded by the American Heart Association, the National Institutes of Health, Virginia Tech, and the Seale Innovation Fund at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute.
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Original text here: https://news.vt.edu/articles/2025/11/research_fralinbiomed_johnstonecx43.html
Virginia Tech: Researchers Awarded Forest Service Grant to Advance Forest Monitoring Science
BLACKSBURG, Virginia, Nov. 15 -- Virginia Tech issued the following news:
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Researchers awarded Forest Service grant to advance forest monitoring science
With support from the U.S. Forest Service, Virginia Tech researchers are developing next-generation tools to track how forests recover, grow, and adapt over time.
By Chris Moody
Researchers from the College of Natural Resources and Environment have received a new grant from the U.S. Forest Service Southern Research Station to advance forest monitoring science through innovative uses of remote sensing technologies. The project aims to
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BLACKSBURG, Virginia, Nov. 15 -- Virginia Tech issued the following news:
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Researchers awarded Forest Service grant to advance forest monitoring science
With support from the U.S. Forest Service, Virginia Tech researchers are developing next-generation tools to track how forests recover, grow, and adapt over time.
By Chris Moody
Researchers from the College of Natural Resources and Environment have received a new grant from the U.S. Forest Service Southern Research Station to advance forest monitoring science through innovative uses of remote sensing technologies. The project aims toimprove how scientists measure forest recovery and growth across the Southeast.
The research is led by Professor Val Thomas, with co-principal investigator Professor Randolph Wynne, both from the Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation, in collaboration with Todd Schroeder of the U.S. Forest Service. The joint venture agreement supports a two-year project titled Exploring Forest Growth with Multi-date LiDAR, 3D NAIP Point Clouds, and Spectral Trajectories.
"Remotely-sensed changes in canopy vertical structure, coupled with higher temporal resolution changes in canopy spectral reflectance, have strong potential to improve forest science and management at a range of scales," Wynn said.
The study will combine repeat collections of airborne LiDAR and photogrammetric point clouds from the National Agriculture Imagery Program with spectral data to measure forest growth and change over time. By aligning these datasets, researchers aim to overcome long-standing challenges in detecting how forests respond to logging, storms, or fire.
The $142,000 award provides funding to Virginia Tech, with additional Forest Service contributions of staff expertise and data resources. The investment will support a doctoral student, research assistance, and the development of new modeling approaches for mapping changes in forest structure at unprecedented resolution.
The project has four primary goals:
* Refine methods to distinguish between stand-replacing disturbances and gradual regrowth for more accurate forest condition assessments.
* Characterize drivers of forest growth across environmental gradients, including climate, soils, and management factors.
* Validate techniques by linking remote sensing observations to the U.S. Forest Service's Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) network, ensuring results are robust and operationally useful.
* Generate high-resolution models and maps to inform both scientific understanding and practical forest management decisions.
Results will be shared through conference presentations, peer-reviewed publications, and student theses.
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Original text here: https://news.vt.edu/articles/2025/11/cnre-lidar-grant.html
University of Michigan: Big Sex Differences Found in How Diet, Insulin Rewire Muscle for Better Blood Sugar
ANN ARBOR, Michigan, Nov. 15 (TNSjou) -- The University of Michigan issued the following news:
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Big sex differences found in how diet, insulin rewire muscle for better blood sugar
New research found that restricting calories dramatically rewires proteins in rat skeletal muscle, causing molecular changes that boost insulin sensitivity--crucial for blood sugar control in older adults, say scientists at the University of Michigan and the University of Sydney.
Surprisingly, roughly 70% of the molecular changes that the muscles used to adapt were sex-dependent. The study also identified two
... Show Full Article
ANN ARBOR, Michigan, Nov. 15 (TNSjou) -- The University of Michigan issued the following news:
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Big sex differences found in how diet, insulin rewire muscle for better blood sugar
New research found that restricting calories dramatically rewires proteins in rat skeletal muscle, causing molecular changes that boost insulin sensitivity--crucial for blood sugar control in older adults, say scientists at the University of Michigan and the University of Sydney.
Surprisingly, roughly 70% of the molecular changes that the muscles used to adapt were sex-dependent. The study also identified twokey proteins, Lmod1 and Ehbp1l1, that were associated with greater muscle glucose uptake and which are known to have strong genetic associations with regulating human blood sugar.
Funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Australian Research Council, the study is important because its sex-specific findings underscore the need for tailored strategies to develop interventions that combat age-related diabetes and diabetes in general. The identified proteins could serve as therapeutic targets for conditions such as type 2 diabetes, the researchers say.
"I think now we agree that we need to study men and women; you can't study one and assume it means the truth for the other," said principal investigator Greg Cartee, professor of movement science at the U-M School of Kinesiology. "And even when the outcome is quite similar, the pathways to getting to that outcome can be different."
Cartee said the "discovery study," published in the Journal of Gerontology: Biological Sciences, aimed to identify the specific changes in muscle protein phosphorylation that explain why calorie restriction enhances insulin-stimulated glucose uptake in the skeletal muscle of aged rats of both sexes. Phosphorylation acts like a chemical switch on a protein that can either dim or enhance a function, or turns it on or off.
The 24-month-old rats were fed 35% less food for eight weeks. Researchers found that calorie restriction enhanced insulin-stimulated glucose uptake in both sexes, but glucose uptake was greater in females, regardless of diet.
Insulin caused altered phosphorylation on more than twice as many protein sites in females compared to males, with 60 overlapping sites. However, calorie restriction caused altered phosphorylation on about 30% more protein sites of males compared to females, Cartee said. In other words, males and females don't use identical internal strategies to adapt to the low-calorie diet, but both strategies lead to the same positive result: better muscle sugar metabolism.
"The key functional outcome that we studied--insulin-stimulated glucose uptake--was similarly increased by calorie restriction in each sex even though the two sexes differed considerably in their protein phosphorylation patterns," Cartee said. "An imperfect analogy is that when you use Google Maps, you typically are given multiple routes to reach the destination. Males and females don't use completely separate 'roads' to achieve increased glucose uptake; they may travel the same roads but use different lanes or drive at different speeds along the way."
Two proteins, Ehbp1l1 and Lmod1, were identified as having insulin-responsive phosphorylation sites that correlated directly with insulin-stimulated glucose uptake across individuals. Both proteins have known genetic associations with glycemic traits in humans.
Cartee said researchers recently performed a parallel experiment using a similar design, but instead analyzed the levels of a large number of metabolites--chemicals in the body that originate from the diet or from the body's metabolism.
"Of the approximately 1,000 different metabolites that we measured, the levels of about 40% were altered by calorie restriction within each sex," he said. "A number of the metabolites were altered in both sexes, but significant numbers of these CR-responsive metabolites were altered in only one sex."
Co-authors include: Haiyan Wang, Amy Zheng and Edward Arias, University of Michigan; Soren Madsen, Jacqueline Stockli, Harry Cutler and David James, University of Sydney; Elise Needham, University of Sydney and University of Cambridge; and Sean Humphrey, University of Sydney and Royal Children's Hospital.
Study: Sex-specific Phosphoproteome Responses to Calorie Restriction and Insulin in Skeletal Muscle from Older Rats (DOI: 10.1093/gerona/glaf231)
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Original text here: https://news.umich.edu/big-sex-differences-found-in-how-diet-insulin-rewire-muscle-for-better-blood-sugar/
Research and the Kansas State University Reaches Heights
MANHATTAN, Kansas, Nov. 15 -- Kansas State University issued the following news:
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Research and the State reaches new heights
Annual forum helps strengthen emerging scholars and reinforce K-State's mission to serve and innovate Kansas communities.
By Julia Hall
The energy inside Regnier Atrium on Oct. 28 was unmistakable as 99 graduate students from eight colleges at Kansas State University gathered to share their work at the annual Research and the State poster forum. This year's event marked the largest participation yet, with 33 master's and 66 doctoral students presenting their research
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MANHATTAN, Kansas, Nov. 15 -- Kansas State University issued the following news:
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Research and the State reaches new heights
Annual forum helps strengthen emerging scholars and reinforce K-State's mission to serve and innovate Kansas communities.
By Julia Hall
The energy inside Regnier Atrium on Oct. 28 was unmistakable as 99 graduate students from eight colleges at Kansas State University gathered to share their work at the annual Research and the State poster forum. This year's event marked the largest participation yet, with 33 master's and 66 doctoral students presenting their researchto peers, faculty, staff and community members.
More than just a showcase of academic achievement, Research and the State is a celebration of graduate student development and the impact of their work across Kansas. The forum offers graduate students an opportunity to gain experience translating complex research into accessible knowledge, an essential skill for professional success within and beyond academia.
"It is inspiring to interact with researchers early in their careers and learn about the innovation and creativity that continues to emerge from their work," said Phillip Payne, interim dean of the Graduate School. "It is an honor to listen and learn from graduate students about the breadth of research being conducted throughout our university. You can tell they are completely invested in their work and understand the scale at which its outcomes impact the world around us."
Participation in the forum helps graduate students strengthen communication and presentation skills, gain confidence in discussing their research, and make interdisciplinary connections that can spark new collaborations.
Amy Winstead, a master's student in biology, studying soil and grass quality, Fort Riley, noted that her own research improved through a relationship she built with Klara Stevermer, a graduate student in biology who was studying grass lineage, Shawnee, and they began to share resources.
For many, it's also a first step in learning how to articulate the significance of their research to the broader public.
Faculty mentors play an essential role in supporting that growth. This year, their encouragement helped drive a 230% increase in participation over the last four years. Among them were 21 mentors with two or more students participating.
"Faculty mentorship is the foundation upon which the success of this event is built," Payne said. "When faculty invest time in helping students prepare, it reinforces that collaboration and communication are an integral part of the research process."
Research and the State also reflects K-State's deep commitment to serving Kansas communities. Volunteer judges, including faculty, postdocs, staff, alumni and community members, evaluated how well the students communicated their research to a general audience and demonstrated the relevance of their research to the state of Kansas. From improving agricultural sustainability and food security to advancing health care and educational innovations, the research presented highlighted the university's role as a catalyst for improving the lives of Kansans.
Ten graduate students were selected to represent K-State at the Capitol Graduate Research Summit in March 2026, where they will present their research to state legislators alongside graduate students from other Kansas Regents institutions. Each received a $250 award for their outstanding presentation at Research and the State.
Research and the State awardees
Amy Winstead, master's student in biology, Fort Riley, for "Soil and grass quality are impacted by fire and grazing." Winstead's major professor is Lydia Zeglin, associate professor of biology.
Vydehi Gadiparthi, master's student in agronomy, Guntur, India, for "Beneath the Surface: How Farming Practices Influence Soil Health and Microbial Life." Gadiparthi's major professor is Charles Rice, university distinguished professor of agronomy.
Md Suzauddula, doctoral candidate in food, nutrition, dietetics and health, Satkhira, Bangladesh, for "Bioengineered Purple Tomato-Derived Anthocyanins Reduce Colorectal Cancer Progression." Suzauddula's major professor is Weiqun Wang, professor of health sciences.
Kelechi Igwe, doctoral candidate in biological and agricultural engineering, Abuja, Nigeria, for "Closing the Water Budget Gap: Leveraging Satellite-Based Insights for Accurate Irrigation Water Use Estimation across the Western U.S." Igwe's major professor is Vaishali Sharda, associate professor of biological and agricultural engineering.
Mohsen Davoudkhani, doctoral candidate in psychology, Tehran, Iran, for "Odor Identification and Blood-Based Markers Reveal Early Signs of Mild Cognitive Impairment." Davoudkhani's major professor is Heather Bailey, associate professor of psychological sciences.
Mia Reyes, master's student in agricultural education and communication, Fresno, California, for "Growing Pains: The Entrepreneurial Journey of Kansas Agritourism Operators." Reyes' major professor is Nellie Hill-Sullins, assistant professor of agricultural and natural resources.
Nayara Mota Miranda Soares, doctoral candidate in grain science, Sao Jose dos Pinhais, Brazil, for "Effects of graded levels of red sorghum bran on processing parameters and palatability in dry dog food." Mota Miranda Soares' major professor is Julia Guazzelli Pezzali, assistant professor of grain and food science.
Vidya Nadar, doctoral candidate in chemistry, Kalyan East, India, for "Small Molecules, Big Impact: Building the Next Generation of Cancer and Antibiotic Drugs." Nadar's major professor is Ryan Rafferty, associate professor of chemistry.
Dylan Couch, doctoral candidate in electrical and computer engineering, Fayetteville, Tennessee, for "Improving brain cancer detection rates using a quantum computing framework." Couch's major professor is Samee Khan, professor of electrical and computer engineering.
Asmita Mahara, doctoral candidate in biological and agricultural engineering, Kathmandu, Nepal, for "The Ultimate Future of Wastewater Treatment: Harnessing nature's remedy to Tackle the Untreatable." Mahara's major professor is Mark R. Wilkins, professor of biological and agricultural engineering.
Additionally, three graduate students received special recognition and a $100 award from K-State's chapter of Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Honor Society, which co-sponsors the event each year. Sigma Xi awards recognize excellence in research presentation and contribution to scientific advancement, further emphasizing the high caliber of work shared during the forum.
Sigma Xi awardees
Alireza Monavarian, doctoral candidate in biological and agricultural engineering, Mashhad, Iran, for "Modeling the suitability of maize cultivation under future climate scenarios." Monavarian's major professor is Vaishali Sharda, associate professor in biological and agricultural engineering.
Olusola Olagunju, doctoral candidate in grain science, Alakuko, Nigeria, for "VRI-YOLO11: An Optimized YOLO-Based Model for Automated Hard Red Winter Wheat Grading." Olagunju's major professor is Yonghui Li, associate professor of grain and food science.
Avery Neer, master's student in regional and community planning, Manhattan, for "Engaged Urban Design and Planning: Student Learning Outcomes and Service-Learning." Neer's major professors are Susmita Rishi, associate professor of landscape architecture and regional and community planning, and Shakil Kashem, associate professor of landscape architecture and regional and community planning.
Research and the State continues to grow as a cornerstone event for graduate student development. Helping to strengthen emerging scholars and reinforce Kansas State University's mission to serve and innovate across the state of Kansas.
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Original text here: https://www.k-state.edu/news/articles/2025/11/research-and-the-state-celebrates-graduate-student-research-and-impact-across-Kansas.html
Radford University: Senior's Research Focuses on Helping Alzheimer's, Dementia Patients
RADFORD, Virginia, Nov. 15 -- Radford University issued the following news release:
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Senior's research focuses on helping Alzheimer's, dementia patients
Julia Miller is dedicating much of her senior year at Radford University, working alongside two Department of Psychology faculty members, to explore methods that they hope will soon help improve the quality of life for individuals living with moderate to advanced dementia.
"I knew this is something I was meant to do," Miller said, recalling her initial meeting with Professor of Psychology Jenessa Steele, who runs the Well-Being and Engagement
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RADFORD, Virginia, Nov. 15 -- Radford University issued the following news release:
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Senior's research focuses on helping Alzheimer's, dementia patients
Julia Miller is dedicating much of her senior year at Radford University, working alongside two Department of Psychology faculty members, to explore methods that they hope will soon help improve the quality of life for individuals living with moderate to advanced dementia.
"I knew this is something I was meant to do," Miller said, recalling her initial meeting with Professor of Psychology Jenessa Steele, who runs the Well-Being and Engagementacross the Lifespan Lab (WELL) at the university.
Miller first became involved in undergraduate research during her freshman year at Radford, working with Steele in the Highlander Research Rookies program. Three years later, she joined the important work in the WELL lab, which welcomes Radford students who are "interested in investigating how cognitive and social engagement impacts physical and mental well-being across the lifespan," Steele said.
This year, Miller received a prestigious grant from the Office of Undergraduate Research's Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships, colloquially known around campus as SURF, to help further her work with her faculty mentors.
"My mentors, Dr. Clark and Dr. Steele, and I focused on establishing a trusting relationship with our local long-term care facility," she said, explaining the work she completed for his summer SURF award. "This is important in establishing a strong foundation and ensuring that the work we do does no harm. We became more educated, made sure that IRB [institutional review board] approval was obtained with accurate detail, and set the tone for beginning steps this semester."
In her current research, Steele, along with Assistant Professor of Psychology Michaela Clark, is engaging students like Miller while working with individuals living at a long-term care facility near Radford. The researchers are using non-pharmaceutical, everyday cognitive training interventions, such as Montessori methods and spaced-retrieval practices, to assess memory progression, engagement and indicators of physical well-being," explained Miller, a psychology and sociology double major from South Boston, Virginia.
This process, Miller noted, involves stimulating activities and interacting with individuals.
"Participants [living at the care facilities] are working with our team of researchers with the goal of improving their procedural memories," Miller said. "The researchers visit the participants three days a week - Monday, Wednesday and Friday - for about 30 minutes for a total of 18 sessions. Affect and engagement are coded from video, and heart rate variability is collected through a Garmin watch."
Miller isn't visiting the facility yet. She'll begin work there during winter break. For now, and throughout the fall semester, she is busy coding the collected data, looking at the engagement level and affect of the participants. "For example," she began, "are participants constructively engaging with activity, or are they passively engaged, self-engaged or non-engaged?"
The most challenging part of the research is patience, Miller said. "I have realized that conducting a complicated, applied research project with a vulnerable population is quite a large undertaking, and it requires a lot of coordination from many involved research staff, university staff and outside facility staff."
While building patience, Miller is also fueling her passion. "I feel so ready to help," she said.
The work is rewarding for Miller because she knows the research by Radford students and faculty is going a long way toward providing a basis for future research aimed at helping individuals with Alzheimer's and dementia. Miller said the group plans to spread the word about their research by presenting their results at the Southeastern Psychological Association meeting in New Orleans in March 2026, just two months before she is scheduled to graduate from Radford.
Participating in meaningful research, along with her involvement in Radford's Honors College, has helped her find her place at Radford.
"Everyone here has helped me and encouraged me to make Radford University my home," she said. "They have opened so many doors of opportunity that I would not have had otherwise. I have definitely found my place at Radford."
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Original text here: https://www.radford.edu/news/2025/julia-miller.html
Hunter Adjunct Selected for Fulbright Specialist Post in Togo
NEW YORK, Nov. 15 -- Hunter College, a constituent college of the City University of New York, issued the following news:
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Hunter Adjunct Selected for Fulbright Specialist Post in Togo
A Hunter adjunct faculty member will be traveling to Africa as part of the U.S. Department of State and the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board for its specialist roster.
Jacqueline M. Cofield, an adjunct assistant professor at Hunter's School of Education, will serve as a Fulbright Specialist at the University of Lome in Togo. Her project, "Toward a Digital Renaissance in Humanities Research," will support
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NEW YORK, Nov. 15 -- Hunter College, a constituent college of the City University of New York, issued the following news:
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Hunter Adjunct Selected for Fulbright Specialist Post in Togo
A Hunter adjunct faculty member will be traveling to Africa as part of the U.S. Department of State and the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board for its specialist roster.
Jacqueline M. Cofield, an adjunct assistant professor at Hunter's School of Education, will serve as a Fulbright Specialist at the University of Lome in Togo. Her project, "Toward a Digital Renaissance in Humanities Research," will supportthe University of Lome in integrating digital humanities and artificial intelligence into teaching and research while honoring the Fulbright mission of mutual understanding.
Under the award, Cofield will spend about 37 days in Lome beginning in January. She will conduct workshops on digital humanities, advise on curriculum design, and collaborate with faculty and students to develop a master's program in digital humanities. She will also lay the groundwork for an international conference on digital arts and humanities and engage local arts communities to explore the intersection of digital tools and creative practice.
"It is an honor to collaborate with the University of Lome to design an innovative digital humanities program that merges arts, technology, and scholarship," said Cofield. "I look forward to co creating inclusive learning experiences with faculty, students, and artists, and to highlighting West Africa's contributions to digital humanities on a global stage."
Cofield's work bridges education, museum studies, arts integration, and Black diasporic studies. She looks forward to working on projects that advance arts-based education and community engagement.
"My work has always been guided by the belief that the arts are essential to liberatory education," Cofield said. "I am deeply honored to work globally through the Fulbright Specialist Program and build new partnerships that foster creativity, equity, and imagination across borders."
About the Fulbright Specialist Program
The Fulbright Specialist Program, a program of the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, is a field-driven initiative offering short-term, project-based opportunities for U.S. academics and professionals. The program is designed to share knowledge, build institutional capacity, and create sustainable linkages between U.S. and overseas host institutions.
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Original text here: https://www.hunter.cuny.edu/news/hunter-adjunct-selected-for-fulbright-specialist-post-in-togo/?news-feed=all-news&source=/news/
CSU Office Strengthens Tribal Collaboration
LONG BEACH, California, Nov. 15 -- California State University issued the following news:
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CSU Office Strengthens Tribal Collaboration
By Alex Beall
The CSU Office of Tribal Relations leads the CSU in complying with NAGPRA as well as supporting Native communities and deepening Tribal partnerships.
Established in 2024, the CSU's systemwide Office of Tribal Relations (OTR) exists to further four key goals: facilitate engagement with Native American Tribal Nations and associated government entities to build strong Tribal partnerships, ensure compliance with state and federal laws, conduct
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LONG BEACH, California, Nov. 15 -- California State University issued the following news:
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CSU Office Strengthens Tribal Collaboration
By Alex Beall
The CSU Office of Tribal Relations leads the CSU in complying with NAGPRA as well as supporting Native communities and deepening Tribal partnerships.
Established in 2024, the CSU's systemwide Office of Tribal Relations (OTR) exists to further four key goals: facilitate engagement with Native American Tribal Nations and associated government entities to build strong Tribal partnerships, ensure compliance with state and federal laws, conductgovernment-to-government Tribal relations, and support academic programs for Native American programs and students.
Heading the office is Executive Director Samantha Cypret (Mountain Maidu), who was named in December 2024 to lead efforts to foster stronger relationships and collaboration between the CSU system and Tribal Nations. Before coming to the CSU, Cypret served as the Chief of Staff for Wilton Rancheria from August 2023 and as the Tribal Court Director there starting in 2020. She also teaches Federal Indian Law at the University of the Pacific's McGeorge School of Law.
"For generations, Native communities have had a complicated relationship with higher education--but now, the CSU has the opportunity to show what it looks like to move forward in a good way," Cypret said. "My priority is making sure we are in compliance with the law, building real relationships with Tribes and doing this work in a way that truly respects and upholds Tribal sovereignty while centering Native voices. The fact that all three of us in the Office of Tribal Relations are Native is really important. And, if the largest public university system in the nation does this well, it serves as an example for other colleges, universities and systems across the nation."
Efforts on NAGPRA Compliance
A significant amount of OTR's work has been dedicated to the CSU's compliance with the federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) and the California Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (CalNAGPRA). These efforts, however, have been ongoing since before the creation of the systemwide office, under the guidance of Adriane Tafoya (Kitanemuk), the senior manager and systemwide NAGPRA coordinator, who was appointed to the role in 2022.
"Our focus is making sure that we're going through this process, we're doing it legally and respectfully, and we're moving at the pace of the Tribes," Cypret said. "NAGPRA has been in place for 35 years, but there is now a large, albeit very overdue, push for compliance. There are 22 CSUs*, 10 UCs, 116 California Community Colleges, museums, state agencies, and other entities now trying to comply with NAGRPA all at once, but the Tribes have varying levels of resources and are getting inundated with consultation requests. We are going to respect the sovereign nations and the timelines they lay out. We are actively working to remove any of the internal barriers or roadblocks for campuses to ensure that whenever the Tribes are ready, the campuses are ready."
In line with California legislation, the CSU introduced an interim systemwide NAGPRA policy by the July 1, 2025, deadline, and the policy was formally adopted in November 2025 following input from Tribal partners. One year after the final policy is adopted, OTR will work with CSU campuses and Tribal Nations to reassess and improve the policy.
The office has undertaken a number of efforts to oversee the CSU's NAGPRA compliance and guide campuses through the process. This has included campus visits to meet with university presidents, NAGPRA coordinators, presidential designees, Tribal faculty and Native student groups; monthly meetings with all CSU presidential designees and NAGPRA coordinators as well as separate regional coordinator meetings; and bimonthly written reports from the 21 campuses with NAGPRA collections.
Over the summer, the office held an in-person two-day training at Sacramento State for NAGPRA coordinators and related staff. The training covered the legal components of NAGPRA compliance, the CSU's new NAGPRA policy and cultural considerations for working with local Tribes.
The systemwide NAGPRA committee, made up of three CSU faculty and four Tribal representatives, was likewise finalized and held its first meeting October 2. Its purpose is to hold the CSU accountable, monitor systemwide progress, provide recommendations and review appeals from the campus level.
In addition, the office is providing systemwide resources, such as contracting attorneys who are NAGPRA experts and an osteologist, a scientist specializing in bones who can determine their origin without damaging them. If a campus locates undocumented ancestral remains in its collection, the osteologist can be dispatched to determine their origin. The office is also developing legally vetted template documents of those necessary to follow NAGPRA policy.
"I see my role as an advocate and partner to our campuses, making sure they have the support and resources they need to comply with both the letter and the spirit of repatriation laws," Cypret said. "A key goal of my office is to identify the challenges that slow or hinder compliance and then work alongside campuses to remove those barriers, so that together we can move this work forward. We're helping give the campuses the tools and support they need, because they're really the ones who are implementing the policy."
Finally, OTR is exploring the possibility of developing a NAGPRA certificate program that would cover the policy's legal components, technical aspects, consultation processes and Tribe-specific information and could be replicable across the system. In accordance with recommendations from a 2022 state audit, individuals must have a year of experience to serve as a NAGPRA coordinator, which limits the field of technically qualified candidates. This program would provide that required experience, growing the NAGPRA workforce and helping more Native candidates meet the requirements to fill the coordinator role.
"You have people who have all of the knowledge they need to functionally do this work, but they don't have the formal education," Cypret said.
Strengthening Relationships with Tribes
The Office of Tribal Relations' forward-facing mission, however, extends far beyond NAGPRA compliance. Currently, OTR is working on a survey for all CSUs to gauge the status of Tribal relations across the system and is conducting outreach with Tribes to promote the office and its work.
On September 26, 2025, the Office of Tribal Relations had a booth at the 58th Annual California Native American Day Celebration, held at the California State Capitol in Sacramento, alongside Sacramento State, Cal State San Marcos and other campus representatives. Individual CSUs have attended the event in the past, but 2025 marked the first time the CSU had a systemwide presence. That day, Governor Gavin Newsom also signed legislation--drafted in partnership between Assemblymember James C. Ramos and the CSU's Office of Tribal Relations--that calls on the CSU to consult with Tribes on repurposing university land for the reburial of Native American human remains.
"The California State University is committed to addressing the painful legacy of Native ancestors and cultural items held within our system," Cypret said in Ramos' press release. "AB 977 represents an important step in fulfilling our responsibility to work in true partnership with Tribal Nations to ensure their ancestors and cultural belongings are laid to rest with dignity and respect. We are deeply appreciative for Assemblymember Ramos' leadership and look forward to working closely with Native voices across California as we move this work forward."
Looking forward, Cypret hopes OTR can increase its focus on recruiting and retaining Native students, faculty and staff through efforts like introducing and expanding targeted services, recognizing and addressing educational barriers that exist for Native people and providing culturally appropriate training for all staff.
"The way we recruit and retain Native students and Native faculty is by creating systems on campuses through which they feel supported," Cypret said. "Those seem like they're two different goals, but they are very tied together in how we can do better."
Finally, OTR aims to bolster its Tribal engagement, working more intentionally with Tribal partners and recognizing them as valuable industry partners.
"Across California and the nation, Tribes are major economic drivers, and we need to think about how to develop majors and academic programs that respond to that reality," Cypret said. "We must see Tribal Nations as true partners, respecting their sovereignty and recognizing the unique opportunities they bring that other government entities or businesses do not. There are meaningful ways for us to collaborate that will create strong, mutually beneficial partnerships."
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Visit the CSU's NAGPRA website for more information on the Office of Tribal Relations and the new policy.
*Transition to 22 universities in progress (Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and Cal Maritime integrating)--official fall 2026.
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Original text here: https://www.calstate.edu/csu-system/news/Pages/CSU-Office-Strengthens-Tribal-Collaboration.aspx
