Higher education leaders can take cues from Tribal colleges and universities (TCUs) to better support Native American students, according to a research brief published by the Penn Center for Minority Serving Institutions (CMSI) at the University of Pennsylvania.
The brief “Native American Student Success: The Effect of Tribal Colleges and Universities on Native American Student Retention” examines the culturally relevant experience offered at TCUs and ways for mainstream institutions to establish partnerships for Native student success.
“By attending a Tribal college or university, Native American students are four times more likely to receive their bachelor’s degree than their peers that attend a mainstream four-year institution immediately after high school,” Rachel Bryan, a CMSI research assistant and graduate intern for the Office of Multi-Ethnic Student Affairs at the University of Michigan, wrote in the brief. “TCUs understand the needs and values of their student population and provide resources specific to those needs.”
TCUs incorporate Native American values, tribal languages and tribal history into their curriculum and support structures, offering students an education and a community, the report said.
Native students’ relationship with the faculty and staff at TCUs similarly plays a significant factor in their success outcomes. TCU faculty and staff serve as tutors, advisors or even “follow-through” mentors for those students who have an interest in transferring to a mainstream four-year institution. These individuals are “present in many aspects of students’ lives,” the report added.
Alternatively at mainstream institutions, Bryan notes that Native students are exposed to a Eurocentric curriculum and often experience “isolation, hostility and racism” from classmates and professors. This can contribute to their low retention rates and a negative experience on campus.
Students “often feel very invisible, not just in the climate of the college, but also in the representation that exists,” said Dr. Cheryl Crazy Bull, president and CEO of the American Indian College Fund. “They don’t see themselves reflected in the curriculum. They don’t see themselves reflected in the images the institution has unless there’s a deliberate effort on the part of the institution.”
