Ed Galindo sits in a secluded office surrounded by his students and research almost 30 years after he left the Shoshone-Bannock Indian Reservation for the University of Idaho. In the late 1970s UI’s Native American student services were non-existent compared to those Native students enjoy today.
“Before there was a center or liaisons, we found each other,” said Galindo, a UI professor.
Since then, UI has built a network of multicultural centers, offices, advisers, recruiters, boards and councils. Native American student support grew following the creation of staff positions and establishment of a Native American Student Center about five years ago. Despite increased recruitment and retention efforts, Native student enrollment numbers remain unsteady.
Native American and Alaska Native enrollment jumped 18 percent since 2010, but is almost 4 percent less than it was in 2008 and more than 5 percent less than that of 2001.
The Office of Admissions gained a multicultural recruiter this year in Ricardo Buenrostro, who said his efforts are “population-based opposed to region-based.” Buenrostro, the first to hold his newly created position, said he plans to focus on Latino and Native students in his foundational year because they are the most lucrative student populations at UI.
As of fall 2011 108 UI undergraduate students report American Indian or Alaska Native ethnicity, according to the university’s assessment office. The National Center for Education Statistics found that Native student enrollment in postsecondary educational institutes nationwide has remained at about 1 percent since the late 1990s.
Washington State University reports its multicultural enrollment in a lump sum 18 percent that doesn’t specify ethnicities. North Idaho College offers its Native students an office and student adviser dedicated to their academic and cultural support. Lewis-Clark State College boasts an above-average 2.4 percent Native student population, with 113 of its 4,693 students registered as American Indian or Alaska Native.
As of the 2010 U.S. Census, 1.4 percent of the Idaho population is AIAN. The nine counties in northern Idaho, on average, are 3 percent AIAN. Idaho is the historic homeland of nine Indian tribes and four federally recognized reservations in the state.
Changes to the federal method of reporting race and ethnicity may affect the data presented by institutions, said Arthur Taylor, UI’s tribal liaison. Taylor said the addition of a “two or more races” category makes Native numbers appear smaller because students who would have identified as Native are actually of multiple races.
Taylor, a Nez Perce tribal member, is taking steps to record the tribal identity of UI students to improve recruitment strategies. He said a more accurate count will streamline recruitment and pinpoint which tribes send students to UI.
Taylor works closely with Steve Martin, who directs NASC and has served as UI’s primary Native recruiter since 2007. The two share a belief in the importance of recruiting more than students.
“It’s more than a presentation — it’s a connection — to (Native students’) parents, teachers and grandparents,” Martin said. “It’s more than sitting at a college fair. We’re talking to families and developing a relationship within tribal communities.”
Recruiting trips to tribal schools are more relationally based, Martin said. He said most of his recruiting trips are regional, leading him to Washington, Oregon and Idaho. Each year he goes on about eight trips — five in the fall and three in the spring. Buenrostro joined him on a late-November trip, and Martin said incorporating a new face will take time.
“Reputation goes a long way,” Martin said. “(Taylor and I) have established that in five years.”
He said a trusting, respectful relationship with tribal members is vital to gaining, and retaining Native students. He and Martin nearly stranded themselves on the Duck Valley Indian Reservation in the name of strengthening their bond with tribal members, Taylor said.
The isolated reservation straddles the Idaho-Nevada border, and snow fell all day as Martin and Taylor spoke to students, teachers and parents about UI. By noon, Taylor said students he and Martin joked with began suggesting they stay for the evening’s basketball games. By afternoon teachers insisted they stick around for the festivities, so they obliged.
“We walked into the gym and all the parents were staring at us like, ‘Who are those two brown guys with long hair?'” Taylor said. “But the students knew us, and we sat with them until we had to leave.”
A study conducted on the Duck Valley Reservation in 2011 found that 96 percent of students on the reservation would like to attend college.
Taylor said becoming a part of the community is the most effective way to recruit Native students. To parents and grandparents though, he and Martin are often outsiders. That night, he said, they put in the time and effort to show tribal adults that they’re serious about building trust and being visible in Native communities.
Many of Taylor and Martin’s recruits are first-generation students from low-income environments, which Taylor said creates specific needs. He said Native culture comes with a range of anxieties about higher education, and adults must trust that the university won’t turn students into different people.
“When a Native person leaves the reservation,” Taylor said. “They want to have something to take back.”
Taylor said every involved, trusting student is an ally. He envisions a student on graduation day, and said effort goes into making each individual a whole person.
The Native student center acts as a stand-in for the community of support Native students leave, Taylor said. The goal of the center is to connect Native students to campus and each other, Martin said. As NASC director Martin leads recruitment efforts, scholarship and grant applications, and cultural programming on about $27,000 a year, according to the university’s online budget report.
“To recruit any student to UI takes a significant amount of resources,” Taylor said. “A Native American student has less than average.”
Relatively, the university allocated more than $776,000 to admission recruitment in the 2012 fiscal year. Travel funds come out of NASC’s budget so programming is weighed against recruitment, Taylor said. Martin said he aims to raise more money for both categories.
“We are lacking on Native American student dollars,” Martin said.
Barbara Warnick, who has worked for UI’s Financial Aid Office since 2001, said she works closely with Martin and inquiries about Native scholarships usually come through him. Last-minute applications often make financial aid a struggle for first-generation students who are unfamiliar with timelines and expectations, Taylor said.
Martin estimated less than 10 Native students receive Native-specific scholarships through UI each semester. Warnick said 23 tribal agencies not connected with the university hold private scholarship accounts that have supported Native students at UI. Some tribes have funds to support higher education, and they often determine criteria, select students and mail a check directly to the university. One account, for example, supports about 10 students a year at $3,000 each. Warnick said national outside scholarships are also available.
Taylor said a paradigm shift must occur in the minds of tribal parents and schools to help Native students attain higher education. He said he communicates with tribal leaders and elders the way he communicates with his own parents and grandparents.
“The common bond is that we’re Native, and that opens the door,” Taylor said. “But keeping it open is all about becoming part of that community.”