Native Student Success

[Heitshu, Sara]

The University of Arizona Library has Serving Native American Students
as may many other libraries.  You need to look under the journal title
New Directions for Student Services to find it in our online catalog.
It is volume 2005, issue 109.


Sara

 

Sara C. Heitshu

Librarian, Social Science Team

American Indian Studies, Linguistics, Anthropology

heitshus at u.library.arizona.edu

520-307-2781

fax 520-621-9733

University of Arizona Main Library

PO Box 210055

Tucson, AZ 85721-0055

-----Original Message-----
From: Indigenous Languages and Technology
[mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU] On Behalf Of Andre Cramblit
Sent: Sunday, April 30, 2006 10:10 PM
To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
Subject: [ILAT] Native Student Success

 

Pathways for Indian Student Success

American Indian students are the least likely of all college-goers to
earn a degree, and they're more likely than members of any other racial
group to drop out, according to federal data. Research to date hasn't
been able to explain all of the hows and whys behind this phenomenon,
but many student affairs professionals say that it's time to tackle the
problem.

Leaders of the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators,
an organization that represents about 11,000 student affairs officials
in higher education, have taken note of the complex issues that face
American Indian students. While the organization has been holding its
annual convention for 88 years, this year, for the first time ever,
addressing the recruitment and retention of American Indian students has
played a substantial role at the meeting, due largely to the concerns of
administrators who serve such students - both at mainstream institutions
and at tribal colleges and universities.

"We wanted to make sure that there was always a place for indigenous
peoples in NASPA," said Gwendolyn Jordan Dungy, executive director of
the organization, at a special day-long "Summit on Serving Native
American Students: From Discussion to Action," which was held on Sunday.
The forum highlighted the formation of a new NASPA-affiliated group
called the Indigenous Peoples Knowledge Community, which is intended as
a network for administrators nationwide to share best practices for
serving Indian students. A new listserv is also in the works.

"We are past the time for talking," said Henrietta Mann, a professor
emeritus in Native American Studies at Montana State University at
Bozeman, during her keynote address. "We need to establish effective
action plans to maintain our historical cultures and to shape the future
for Native American students in higher education."

George S. McClellan, vice president for student development at Dickinson
State University, in North Dakota, said that Indian students tend not to
use student services, and that those services that they do use tend to
be focused on financial aid. His findings came as a result of a recent
study by researchers at the University of Arizona, which has one of the
largest Indian populations of all mainstream institutions in the
country. He said that colleges need to incorporate incentives for
getting students to seek service. At the University of North Dakota, for
example, a student must visit the Native student affairs at least two
times a year in order to be eligible for tuition assistance programs

"Both Native and non-Native professionals and professional associations
must play a role in bringing about the needed changes in higher
education with respect to better serving Native American students," said
McClellan. "A critical component in achieving the goal of increasing
rates of participation and persistence is to recognize and act on the
knowledge that building student success begins long before Native
students arrive on campus." Based on his own observations, he said that
having American Indian faculty members and staff tends to help Indian
students feel more connected to their campuses.

Shelly Lowe, a student service provider at the University of Arizona,
said that higher education professionals need to become aware of and
make use of indigenous theories, models and practices in seeking to
support Native American students, staff and faculty. She said that a
book she co-authored with McClellan and Mary Jo Tippeconic Fox, Serving
Native American Students, which is available online
<http://www.josseybass.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0787979716.html
> , provides several examples that have been helpful for some Indian
students.

"Footnotes indicating that findings on Native Americans are not
statistically significant and so are omitted from the research are too
often the only reference to Native Americans in much of the literature
in higher education," added Lowe. She suggested that although
qualitative research is often more time-consuming than quantitative
research that this methodology could be helpful.

Ruth Harper, a professor of counseling and students affairs at South
Dakota State University, said that qualitative research is one of the
best ways to understand Indian students, even though one cannot make
generalizations from it. She recently used the method to study several
Lakota male students who attend Sinte Gleska University, in South
Dakota. For these men, she said integrating aspects of American Indian
culture with counseling was important to them, as were ways to address
concrete issues, including travel, costs and child care. One man told
Harper that the Lakota language courses he has taken at the university
"mean my life."

Many administrators at the summit said they weren't under the impression
that forming an action-focused committee would be a magic bullet. With
562 federally recognized tribes and many state-recognized tribes - all
with different cultures and languages, Indian students are one of the
most heterogeneous groups around. Further complicating matters is that
fact that some students are deeply concerned about making Native culture
and language an integral part of their education, while others don't
hold this as a priority.

Still, most said that focusing on culture is crucial - not only in
helping Native students succeed, but also in fostering generations of
students who are connected to their unique histories.

Along these lines, Mann said that indigenous people have a right to
their own identities, languages and cultures, but that mainstream
institutions of higher education often have not provided students with
avenues to achieve these rights. "Language is the lifeblood of our
cultures and is rooted in the Earth," she said. She added that no matter
where an Indian student attends college, administrators have the
obligation to honor students' cultural heritage and spirituality,
especially if they are expressing the desire for this kind of support.
She said that her own institution has worked diligently to strengthen
its Native American Studies program, which currently offers a minor and
master of arts degree.

"Cultural pluralism is a gift," added Mann. "But too often we are left
out of programs on campuses. We need to change that."

Several administrators who have collaborated with tribal colleges, said
that such institutions are able to infuse language and culture into a
student's learning experience in ways that mainstream institutions often
do not. Research indicates that tribal colleges have improved
participation and persistence rates of American Indian students by
creating culturally relevant learning environments.

Still, because many tribal colleges are two-year institutions, there was
a general concern that the institutions cannot meet the full educational
needs of many Indian students. Student affairs professionals at the
summit said that mainstream institutions must find ways to collaborate
with tribal college officials to learn what works for their students,
and to determine what actions can be taken on campuses nationwide to
improve the experience for Indian transfer students.

- Rob Capriccioso <mailto:rob at insidehighered.com> 

The original story and user comments can be viewed online at
http://insidehighered.com/news/2006/03/15/indians
<http://insidehighered.com/news/2006/03/15/indians> .

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