Great Moments: LE,NONET

Charting new paths for Indigenous success

In 2005, UVic entered into an emerging national debate about Indigenous education—not with rhetoric, but with research. Formalizing longstanding efforts to make the campus welcoming to Indigenous students and to support their postsecondary success, UVic drew upon in-house expertise and the guidance of Indigenous partners to create the pilot, or research phase of LE,NONET—named with a SENĆOŦEN word for “success after enduring many hardships.”

Aimed at creating a culturally-grounded environment for Indigenous students in a traditional university setting, LE,NONET proved to be different than many Indigenous education programs at other Canadian institutions because the component parts of its program—bursaries, emergency relief funding, peer mentoring, a preparation seminar, community internships, research apprenticeships and a training program for staff and faculty—supported students while also tracking their impact on Indigenous student success rates. The qualitative and quantitative research results were unequivocal: graduation rates increased substantially and more than 90 per cent of LE,NONET participants said the program aided their academic success and helped them feel connected—both to their university experience and to their Indigenous identities.

Though its research component has been completed, LE,NONET continues as a UVic support program, though its research component has wound down. And the program has left a legacy, demonstrating that Indigenous students can set their own criteria for success, and achieve it in a traditional university setting—just one of the reasons Indigenous enrolment at UVic has jumped to ten times its level in 2000.

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