Graduate Certificates
Apply online for the Fall 2025 or Spring 2026 Cohorts! Application deadlines: August 1 & November 1. (Please note that many scholarship deadlines occur on or before May 1.)
About These Programs
Our graduate certificate programs were designed as focused offshoots of our full 36 credit Masters of Tribal Administration and Governance and Tribal Resource and Environmental Systems degree programs. Online course delivery, including five synchronous weekends each semester, provides interaction with experts in each curriculum area, including faculty, staff, special guests, and students. These certificates are 12 credit certificates designed to take one course (3 cr.) each semester across two academic years.
Tribal Sovereignty and Federal Indian Law
Designed to meet the professional needs of individuals interested in tribal governance and tribal relations. The courses in this program emphasize the inherent authority of tribal nations, federal Indian policy, and the legal status of tribes as contemplated within federal courts. This certificate ensures students understand fundamental governance and legal principles associated with tribal nations and prepares them to participate in tribal governance and tribal relations.
Tribal Sovereignty and Federal Indian Law Certificate Program Requirements
Tribal Administration and Leadership
The Tribal Administration and Leadership Postbaccalaureate Certificate is designed to meet the professional needs of individuals interested in tribal governance and tribal relations. The courses in this program emphasize the leadership qualities and skills necessary for tribal contexts, strategic management, operations management, and human resources management. Topics addressed include Indigenous conceptions of leadership, strengths-based orientation, leadership styles, strategic planning and implementation, organizational frameworks, personnel, workplace conflicts, effectiveness, and efficiency.
Tribal Administration and Leadership Certificate Program Requirements
Indigenous Environmental Systems and Resource Management
Designed to meet the professional and leadership needs of individuals interested in natural resources and environmental programs considering both Indigenous and Western knowledge systems. The courses are based on the interrelationship of biological, physical, and cultural systems and address program operations, sustainability, and integrated ecosystems studies. The certificate prepares students with a foundational understanding of tribal knowledge systems and resource management practices needed to engage with local, regional, and national tribal nations.
Indigenous Environmental Systems and Resource Management Certificate Program Requirements
Tribal Natural Resource Stewardship, Economics, and Law
Designed to meet the professional and leadership needs of individuals interested in Tribal natural resources and environmental programs considering multiple perspectives regarding economic value and exchange of decision-making affecting the natural resources of Tribal Nations. The courses in this program provide a transdisciplinary area of study that aims to address the connections between human economies and natural ecosystems. The certificate prepares students to understand the connection between economic decisions and stewardship of natural ecosystems.
Tribal Natural Resource Stewardship, Economics, and Law Certificate Program Requirements
Admission Requirements
- Bachelor's degree - Anyone who has or will obtain a bachelor's degree from a regionally accredited institution in the U.S. or a comparable degree from an officially recognized college or university outside the U.S. may apply for admission.
- Undergraduate transcript(s) are required.
- GPA - Preferred minimum undergraduate Grade Point Average (GPA) of 3.0 (on a 4.0 scale) or higher for admission.
- Resume/CV
- Personal Statement - The personal statement should give the committee a better picture of who you are and is an opportunity to share your personal qualities. You should describe what has prepared you and motivates you toward this certificate as well as how you plan to apply the certificate. It can include a summary of your educational and professional journey. It should be 500 words or less and be proofread for grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors.
Graduate Assistant Pay
Under Article 24 of the GA collective bargaining agreement, there is a requirement for departments to post their minimum GA pay rate.
Subsection 2.2: DPS Positions and Publishing Minimum Rate
Individual DPSs shall publish on their departmental websites the minimum GA pay rate of their department, program, or school and make updates to the departmental website annually when modified.
For those that do not already have minimum GA rates published on departmental websites, please work with departments in your campus, college, or units to post this information as soon as possible, but no later than March 21st. There is no specific website location defined in the CBA; however, placing this information under a webpage that discusses GA appointments makes the most practical sense. The exact location can be a decision made by each department. The text on the website can be as simple as "The current minimum GA rate of pay for the department of _______ is _____.” Once this has been completed for the departments in your campus, college, or unit, please send an email to Pam Tuma ([email protected]) who will be tracking the acknowledged completions.
Finally, in the coming weeks, a GA pay rate template will be shared with HR Leads. This tool will also help with implementation of GA pay rate increases, as defined by the CBA, over the next fiscal years.