By Vic Cox

Running a section of the UCSB Educational Opportunity Program requires some of the same skills Leslie Koda says she brings to her avocation of making cakes: planning, organization, attention to detail, and time management.

Add to that a good measure of creativity and a generous dollop of humor and one has an idea of how Koda confronts the challenges of coordinating UCSB’s American Indian Cultural Services, and being designated counselor to some 450 EOP students. As she says of her cake creations, “I think of it as a form of art.”

Koda, who identifies herself “primarily as American Indian: Cherokee, Oswegan, and Powhatan,” officially devotes half her time to academic and personal counseling. While she and other counselors each support a portion of the students in EOP, when available they will counsel any student who comes in, Koda says.

In addition, most EOP counselors also direct programs or services. As cultural services coordinator for UCSB’s 160 or so self-identified American Indian students—most are not in EOP—Koda, an assistant, and two student interns organize cultural and social events each year to which staff, faculty, graduate students, and other supporters are welcome. They show films; bring speakers to campus, including local Chumash elders; cosponsor programs, such as last week’s evening with American Indian poet and author Joy Harjo; and make time to write grant proposals and work on academic projects.

One long-term academic goal—establishing a minor in American Indian and Indigenous Studies—has become reality in the Department of Religious Studies, reports Koda. Ines Talamantez, associate professor of religious studies, will guide development of the new minor. The timing was fortuitous since November is American Indian Heritage Month, “when we count the blessings of the harvest,” says Koda.

American Indian Cultural Services, in cooperation with counterpart African American Cultural Services, maintains a modest library and a lounge in Building 434. AICS also has a new Web site <www.sa.ucsb.edu/eop/aics> to raise its visibility and help it connect with what Koda calls “the invisible minority” on campus.

Part of that invisibility is due to generations of genetic mixing that has produced a spectrum of people with American Indian heritage but wide variation in appearance. “I have a friend who is more Cherokee by blood than I am,” recalls Koda, “but she is a blonde with blue eyes.” Koda’s own phenotype displays a blend of European and Indian heritages. An adopted child, she painstakingly researched her biological lineages for years to establish her own sense of identity.

When they enter the university, students and employees self-identity their ethnic groups, if they choose to do so. Under federal privacy laws cultural groups like AICS have no access to this information. They must encourage people to contact them.

For Koda, this challenge is but one of the many ingredients that makes her relish the 14 years she has worked at UCSB. She transferred to campus from De Anza College in the Bay Area to graduate with a B.A. in psychology. “Coming to UCSB, I felt really at home,” she recalls. She understood her feelings better when she later tracked down her paternal grandmother who told her family history that placed an important relative in the Ojai-Saticoy area.

“When she told me that, I went, ‘Whoa. It was hair-raising to hear,” Koda recalls. “When you are patient, you really can come home.”

Her plans are to work harder at making the invisible minority visible. She hopes to see more American Indian students come to campus. Perhaps some will graduate with a stronger sense of their identities.