American Indian students get helping hand

Between 1981 and 1994, 69 percent of American Indian students left the University of Arizona within the first four years of their college career, the study stated.

Low retention rates for American Indian students have become a concern for tribal leaders, students and college administrators who have joined forces to research strategies that will reverse the trend.

"A lot of people are afraid to admit we have a problem like this, but low retention is a major concern at institutions all across the country," said Bruce Meyers, assistant dean for Native American Student Affairs.

Meyers was one of 23 UA administrators and students who traveled to Tempe over the weekend for a four-day national conference on American Indian student retention.

For RETAIN '97, representatives from 60 major colleges and universities proposed retention strategies and presented programs that have been successful in keeping American Indian students in school.

Since 1988, American Indian enrollment at the UA has increased 60 percent, however, drop out rates remain consistently high.

Between 1983 and 1995, only 24 percent of the UA's American Indian students graduated within seven years. In comparison, 41 percent of the Hispanic students and 57 percent of the Asian American students enrolled during the same period graduated within seven years.

Dean of Students Melissa Vito said the retention of American Indian students is an issue of major concern for the UA administration.

Although budget constraints limit the university's ability to expand funding for student retention, Vito said existing funds must be redirected to American Indian student services and scholarships.

"We obviously need to focus our attention here because retention rates haven't really changed much over the years, and they are really abysmal," she said.

Tracking student performance for the 1981-1994 time period, the Native American Resource Center's study found an average dropout rate of 46.25 percent for American Indian students after their freshman year and a 60.25 percent dropout rate after their second year.

Meyers said the abundance of early dropouts points out the need for aggressive student intervention programs.

"If you don't get to some students by the middle of their first semester it is basically a lost cause," he said.

In an effort to improve retention, Meyers established the Academic Intervention Student Advocacy program.

With five retention specialists on staff, AISA works closely with academic advisers, faculty and administration to track the progress of American Indian students.

The program also identifies professors who have been known to work well with American Indian students, Meyers said.

"We want to work with the faculty who want to work with us," he said. "This is an aggressive effort to get our students feeling academically, culturally and socially adjusted."

Meyers said cultural barriers between American Indian students and their professors often contribute to high dropout rates. He said many professors see American Indian students as passive or deficient because they tend to be quiet in the classroom.

"A student from a large, white, urban high school has learned to play the role of student and to be competitive in the classroom," he said.

"But we have students who come from small, rural classrooms where people are taught to avoid standing out and not to question elders - professors are definitely seen as elders."

Tommy Begay, a Navajo graduate student in public health, agreed that American Indian students are often unprepared to succeed in a typical university classroom.

At the RETAIN conference, Begay proposed a retention program aimed at high schools on American Indian reservations.

Begay said high school students on the reservations need to be prepared for the academic and social challenges they will face at large state universities.

"It is a brutal process of learning that game of education," he said. "We are looking for programs that make the process a little easier."

Leaving the reservation is difficult because American Indians have strong spiritual and cultural ties to their homeland, said Kyle Ethelbah, an anthropology senior.

Ethelbah, a White Mountain Apache, said many American Indian students are intimidated by the differences they encounter in a university environment.

"Most people don't understand why it is so difficult," he said. "They don't understand that when you come from a reservation, you are not coming from the mainstream of society."

Ethelbah presented information about the UA's Maximum Educational Results in Two Semesters program as part of the RETAIN conference.

MERIT is an intervention program that matches peer advisers with freshmen from minority backgrounds.

Ethelbah said the conference was a step in the right direction because it opened a national dialogue between academics and tribal leaders.

"Overall, I felt like it was a very concentrated effort towards improving retention," he said.