Dr. Gerald E. Gipp, a 39-year-old member of the Standing Rock Sioux Indian tribe of North Dakota, has been named President of Haskell Indian Junior College.
Presently Deputy Assistant Secretary for Indian Education in the U.S. Department of Education in Washington, D.C., Gipp will assume his new duties upon the retirement of President Wallace Galluzzi in early January. He will be the first Indian ever to head the junior college.
In announcing the new President of the 100-year-old school in Lawrence, Kansas, Thomas W. Fredericks, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, called Gipp a superbly qualified and experienced teacher and administrator.
''We are fortunate to obtain the services of Dr. Gipp and I am confident that he will continue the high educational standards we have come to expect from one of the oldest Indian education institutions in the country," Fredericks said.
Dr. Earl Barlow, Director of the Office of Indian Education Programs for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, termed the selection of Dr. Gipp an excellent choice who has the best of credentials. ''We look forward to working with him in continuing to meet the educational and cultural needs of our students at Haskell," Barlow said.
Haskell Indian Junior College, formerly Haskell Institute, has more than 1,000 Indian and Alaskan Native students and is accredited by the state of Kansas and the North Central Association.
Gipp, a native of Fort Yates, N.D., has served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Indian Education since June 1977 where he has been responsible for the program management of Indian Education programs in the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education. He has provided ·leadership and direction to approximately 55 employees with the responsibility of implementation of $75 million in formula and discretionary programs.
The new President has more than nine years teaching and administrative experience in BIA schools in North Dakota and in Washington, D.C. From 1973 to 1977, he was with Pennsylvania State University, first as Associate Director of Native American Administrators Programs and then as Assistant Professor of Education. His first teaching experience was with the Verona North Dakota Public School District in 1962-64.
He holds a B.S. Degree in Industrial Education/Physical Education from the Ellendale. Branch of the University of North Dakota and received his Master’s Degree in Education from Pennsylvania State University in 1971. He received his Ph.D. in Education Administration from that same University in 1974.
Dr. Gipp is married and has four children. He currently resides in Springfield, Virginia.
