Deep in the Sonoran Desert, near the Arizona and Mexico border, picnic tables under ramadas at Tohono O’odham Community College sit empty. A new amphitheater for songs, prayers, and ceremonies is silent under a November sun.
But the college, located on the Tohono O’odham Nation, about an hour west of Tucson, has more students than ever – just not on campus.
During the pandemic, the college, founded in 1998 to serve its tribe, moved all its courses online and offered them without charge to any Na...