Michigan State University (MSU) will offer in-state tuition to out-of-state Native American students through their Native American Tuition Advantage Program (NATAP), beginning in Fall 2025.
Dr. Kevin Leonard, director of the Native American Institute at MSU, was speaking with a Native, out-of-state student whose tribal affiliation was in Michigan when she began to share the struggles that come with paying out-of-state tuition. Leonard went to Dr. Dave Weatherspoon, vice provost of enrollment and academic strategic planning at MSU, to see if the student’s status could be changed to in-state.
“Borders crossed our people. We didn’t cross them,” said Leonard, who is a member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians and part of the Three Fire Confederacy. 
After looking into and providing a solution to assist the student, Weatherspoon wanted to know what more the institution could do.
“Why shouldn’t this be more permanent?” says Weatherspoon in an interview with Diverse. “Why do we have to have this big discussion each time, when we understand this philosophically?”
Leonard and Laura Kennedy, an admissions officer at MSU, were tasked with researching institutions with similar initiatives.
“We started having conversations about what it would take, what this would look like, what the criteria would be, and having conversations with tribal leaders and different individuals who have been doing this work out in the Indigenous world,” says Leonard, who added that the goal of NATP is two-fold.
“The primary goal is helping increase the number of Native students enrolling in MSU and successfully completing a degree at MSU,” says Leonard. “One of the challenges for some of our students once they get to MSU is maintaining the ability to pay for tuition costs.”
