Beyond the Asterisk

Understanding Native Students in Higher Education

Heather J. Shotton, Shelly C. Lowe, Stephanie J. Waterman, Heather J. Shotton, Shelly C. Lowe, Stephanie J. Waterman

• Publisher: Stylus Publishing
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781579226268
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Higher Education

A Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2013 While the success of higher education and student affairs is predicated on understanding the students we serve, the reality is, where the Native American population is concerned, that this knowledge is generally lacking. This lack may be attributed to this population's invisibility within the academy – it is often excluded from institutional data and reporting, and frequently noted as not statistically significant – and its relegation to what is referred to as the "American Indian research asterisk."The purpose of this book is to move beyond the asterisk in an effort to better understand Native students, challenge the status quo, and provide an informed base for leaders in student and academic affairs, and administrators concerned with the success of students on their campuses.The authors of this book share their understanding of Native epistemologies, culture, and social structures, offering student affairs professionals and institutions a richer array of options, resources, and culturally-relevant and inclusive models to better serve this population. The book begins by providing insights into Native student experiences, presenting the first-year experience from a Native perspective, illustrating the role of a Native living/learning community in student retention, and discussing the importance of incorporating culture into student programming for Native students as well as the role of Native fraternities and sororities.The authors then consider administrative issues, such as the importance of outreach to tribal nations, the role of Tribal Colleges and Universities and opportunities for collaborations, and the development of Native American Student Services Units.
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The book concludes with recommendations for how institutions can better serve Native students in graduate programs, the role that Indigenous faculty play in student success, and how professional associations can assist student affairs professionals with fulfilling their role of supporting the success of Native American students, staff, and faculty. This book moves beyond the asterisk to provide important insights from Native American higher education leaders and non-Native practitioners who have made Native students a priority in their work.While predominantly addressed to the student affairs profession – providing an understanding of the needs of the Native students it serves, describing the multi-faceted and unique issues, characteristics and experiences of this population, and sharing proven approaches to developing appropriate services – it also covers issues of broader administrative concern, such as collaboration with tribal colleges; as well academic issues, such as graduate and professional education. The book covers new material, as well as expanding on topics previously addressed in the literature, including Native American Greek organizations, incorporating Native culture into student programming, and the role of Native American Special Advisors. The contributors are themselves products of colleges and universities where Native students are too often invisible, and who succeeded despite the odds. Their insights and the examples they provide add richness to this book. It will provide a catalyst for new higher education practices that lead to direct, and increased support for, Native Americans and others who are working to remove the Native American asterisk from research and practice.

1
FIRST-YEAR EXPERIENCE FOR NATIVE AMERICAN FRESHMEN

The University of Arizona First-Year Scholars Program

Amanda Tachine (Diné) and Karen Francis-Begay (Diné)

Sara is Diné from a small community on the Navajo reservation and is the first in her family to attend college. Mixed feelings of excitement and fear surfaced when she first stepped onto the vast and unfamiliar campus of the University of Arizona in Tucson. Raised by her grandmother, she respected her traditional upbringing and personified the Navajo values of humility and hard work. She graduated with honors from high school and was determined to go to college. At freshman orientation, Sara stood among her peers, who appeared to be excited about college, and wondered for a moment if she belonged. Students rushed by her in stylish clothes, some talking on cell phones and all having a sense of confidence. Several of the students and their parents were seeking out resources and asking questions of the orientation staff. Many of the parents were inquisitive and appeared to navigate the college campus with ease.

Sara attended orientation with her mother. Her father, a seasoned construction worker, was not able to attend because he was in another state working to provide for his family. Sara’s mom, unfamiliar with the environment, relied on Sara to navigate them through orientation. Sara felt alone and confused going through the orientation experience. Recognizing her daughter’s discomfort, Sara’s mother asked the orientation staff if there was an office that provided services to Native American students. The staff referred her to the Native American student affairs (NASA) office located centrally on campus. While Sara remained in an orientation meeting, her mother visited NASA and met with and talked to the director, sharing her worries about her daughter coming to a big and unfamiliar university. After this brief visit to NASA and learning more about the programs and services the office provided, she started to feel more positive about Sara’s chances of surviving at a big university. When she reunited with Sara, she gave her daughter the director’s business card. Immediately Sara took notice of the director’s last name, “Begay,” a common Navajo surname. Sara was surprised but delighted because she was instantly familiar with the name “Begay” and assumed that the director had ties to the Navajo reservation and was maybe even clan-related. She commented, “Mom, I think I am going to be fine.” Her confidence started to peak once she knew there was a “relative” at a place where she felt alone.

This story is true and common for many first-year Native American students attending college. It illustrates what students like Sara face when they first arrive on a large, predominantly White college campus. Not all Native American students are the same and they should not be generalized as having experiences similar to Sara’s, but we want to make a point that Sara’s story is real and, unfortunately, often not heard.

This chapter highlights the First-Year Scholars Program (FYSP) at the University of Arizona (UA), a first-year retention program framed on a living-learning community model incorporating Native American concepts. The program has been successful at increasing retention rates of full-time Native American freshmen from the first to the second year of college and is considered a “best practices” program. We begin this chapter with an overview of the program’s development and essential components, as well as student perspectives on the program. We conclude with a discussion of challenges facing student support programs for Native American students and provide recommendations on how to advance the persistence and success of Native Americans in higher education.

College Access and First-Year Retention Factors

It is important to understand the history of Native American education and the challenges Native American students face as they prepare for college. (See the introduction of this book.) The freshman year is a crucial time when many are overwhelmed and depart college, sometimes for good.

The first year in college is considered the most critical time for all students (Astin, 1993; Ishler&Upcraft, 2005). Astin’s (1993) input-environment-output model hypothesizes that students enter college with a preestablished set of characteristics (inputs) that influence their exposure to their environment (outcomes). Tinto’s (1975) interactionalist model of student persistence postulates that academic and social integration influences a student’s commitment to the institution and graduation. The more a student is academically and socially integrated into the institution, the higher the rate of persistence. Tierney (1992) challenges Tinto’s model of social integration, writing that Native American students are assumed to integrate into the institution. Tierney’s position is that rather than students having to integrate, institutions should change to fit the students’ cultural needs. Retention models have been largely designed based on mainstream perspectives and lack Native American viewpoints.

A number of factors have been identified as predictors of persistence. The strongest predictor of persistence into the sophomore year is the student’s prior academic achievement, including high school grades and scores on college admissions tests (Astin, 1993; Pascarella & Terenzini, 1991). Students with higher socioeconomic status (SES) tend to persist at higher rates than do students from a lower SES (St. John, 1990). Ishler and Upcraft (2005) identified institutional variables, such as selectivity; institutional type (two-year or four-year, private or public); and student variables, such as first-year grade point average and enrollment status (full-time and part-time), as contributors to persistence to the second year.

Many factors affect the persistence of college students, yet many Native American students who enter college encounter a new environment in which differences in values and customs are immediately evident. Having deep-rooted cultural values and strong ties to their tribal communities creates an interdependent value system for Native American students, a contrast to mainstream American society, which prides itself on independence (Huffman, 2008). Markus and Kitayama (1991) refer to the model, independent view of self, in which individuals are viewed as autonomous, largely distinct from their relationships, grounded in a variety of features, and interacting with other similarly independent entities. Independent societies mirror aspects of individualistic cultures in which people are more likely to elaborate on independent aspects of themselves that are distinct from others, and to strive to be self-sufficient (Heine, 2008). These values are contrary to most Native American communities, which embody more of an interdependent view of self and recognize the importance of connecting with others (Fryberg & Markus, 2007; Markus & Kitayama, 1991). This difference is important to consider when working with Native American students, as they may question their identity and values while in college and when their “way of life” contradicts mainstream values.

Based on family, spirituality, life experiences, and institutional culture, Colbert, Saggio, and Tato (2004) provide strategies for practitioners to increase first-year retention for Native American students. These students are strongly connected to their family and their spirituality and are guided by life experiences. Unfortunately, institutions have fallen short of adapting their services to meet the needs of Native American students. HeavyRunner and Marshall (2003) assert that persistence is derived from self-resilience:

Resilience is the natural, human capacity to navigate life well. It means coming to know how you think, who you are spiritually, where you come from, and where you are going. It involves understanding our inner spirit and finding a sense of direction. (p. 2)

Self-resilience is a means of persisting in academia because it empowers students to recognize that the “inner spirit” and acknowledging “where you come from” attribute to your success.

The UA and Native American Students

The UA is a public, land-grant, research university in Tucson, Arizona, adjacent to both the Tohono O’odham reservation and Yaqui tribal lands. In 2008 overall enrollment was 37,000 students. The UA continues to have a steady increase in student enrollment, including Native American students. In 2010–2011 the Native American student population reached its highest enrollment—1,153, 3% of the total student body; 225 of these were first-year students. In 2009–2010 the overall first-to-second-year retention rate for all students was 78.1%. The first-to-second-year retention rate for first-time, full-time Native American freshmen ranged from 58.2% in 2006 to 70.9% in 2008, the lowest among other ethnic minority populations (UA Office of Institutional Research & Planning Support, 2010).

Before the FYSP was conceptualized, other student support services and programs existed for Native American students. As illustrated in chapter 5, the UA is rich with unique programs and departments that serve Native Americans. The primary Native American support program on campus is the office of NASA. NASA houses the Wassaja Student Center, which evolved in 1989 after Native American student leaders advocated for a physical space on campus to gather and socialize as a community. Soon after, three other ethnic student support programs were established on campus: Chicano-Hispano Student Affairs (CHSA), African American Student Affairs (AASA), and Asian Pacific American Student Affairs (APASA). The student support programs were originally under the Department of Multicultural Affairs and Student Success (MASS). Over time, there has been a transformation in this department, and the centers currently fall under the dean of students.

History and Impetus for First-Year Scholars Program

In 2003 the director of MASS asked that each center create a first-year “signature” retention program targeting the population it served. NASA already had two unique first-year programs, a residential theme wing in one of the residence halls and a Freshman Composition course for Native American students. The Freshman Composition courses, English 101 and 102, developed in 1990 in partnership with the Department of English, resembled a “learning community” (Smith, MacGregor, Matthews, & Gabelnick, 2004). One section of each composition course, which had seating for 20–25 students, was reserved exclusively for Native American students. These sections incorporated Native American topics on identity, community, history, culture, and language. The course used textbooks and readings on contemporary Native American issues, many authored by Native American scholars. Because the class incorporated a more bicultural curriculum, students were more comfortable and willing to participate in class discussions. As a result, many of these students became better writers and earned better grades.

The second program, known as the “O’odham Ki Wing” (meaning the “Peoples House” in the O’odham language), was created to foster a supportive living community for Native American students. The wing incorporated cultural programming and social activities organized by an upperclass Native American student who served as the hall’s resident assistant (RA). The wing’s resident headcount grew from 15 students in 2000 to 45 students by 2003.

The Freshman Composition course and the O’odham Ki Wing started out strong, but over time faced some challenges. Although there were efforts to promote the programs to incoming first-year Native American students, participation levels declined. Students and the campus community started to stigmatize the Native American section of the Freshman Composition classes as remedial. A few Native American students who didn’t register for the Native American sections expressed more interest in the mainstream Freshman Composition courses because they did not want to identify as being in a “special” (Native American) section. They noted that their non-Native American peers would tell them that the section was for students who had difficulty adjusting to the UA and the class was “easier” than the other section offerings.

A challenge for the O’odham Ki Wing was its reputation as being a “party wing.” Early on, there was little monitoring, supervision, or programming in the wing by the NASA office owing to limited staffing and resources. An effective partnership between NASA and Residence Life was also lacking, and students were not valuing the idea that the wing was focused on creating a healthy and respectful living community for its residents. There needed to be more communication and collaboration between NASA and Residence Life to support the students socially, academically, and culturally. There was also little to no emphasis on programming to promote a healthy and alcohol-/drug-free environment for the wing’s residents.

Low participation in the Freshman Composition course and the O’odham Ki Wing also needed to be addressed. It was important to assess whether the programs were having any significant impact on students’ making a successful transition to the UA. Early assessments were done but not consistently. It was evident that both programs had positive qualities and, with some restructuring, could be more effective in improving retention. It was determined that changes needed to be made to strengthen the two programs.

First-Year Scholars Program

NASA leadership took action to create a more cohesive and structured program that would integrate both the Freshman Composition course and the O’odham Ki Wing into a learning and living community concept. It was time to bring all components together and develop a holistic model that would provide a supportive community for first-year students. After seeking guidance from the National Resource Center for the First-Year Student Experience and Students in Transition, a clearinghouse for scholarship, policy, and best practice for all postsecondary student transitions, and consulting with campus departments, the FYSP was created. The program emerged as a living-learning community that integrated, reinforced, and strengthened Native American values and traditions into the foundation of the program. In addition to embedding Native American cultural values, family connectedness and valuing and promoting a sense of community became key components of the program.

The Learning Community Component

The learning community component of the program is Courses in Common (CIC). Research shows that students who have opportunities to engage with faculty have a higher persistence rate (Tinto, 1993). Therefore, NASA formed relationships with several academic departments to create CIC offerings, which included the Freshman Composition courses for Native American students. Other courses, such as Many Nations of Native America, College Algebra, “Connections” (Freshman Seminar), Chemistry, and a study hall, were added. Each semester, students in the FYSP were required to enroll in the one-unit study hall course, a “Connections” course, and one additional CIC course, which made up half of their full-time semester course load. The study hall and “Connections” course were mandatory in the hopes of being able to monitor the students and do some early intervention work should it be necessary. A NASA staff member was the primary instructor for the study hall course. Students were monitored every week, and referrals were made weekly to academic services, such as tutoring and the Writing Skills Improvement Program, if needed. It was in study hall that the staff usually learned about the nonacademic challenges students were having, such as concerns about financial aid, worrying about an ill family member back home, or not getting along with friends and/or roommates. The study hall was a great way to connect with and support the scholars, as well as allow them to form study groups and support each other.

The Living Community Component

The living community component of the program incorporates the O’odham Ki Wing and includes 30 residential slots for both male and female scholars. Scholars and a Native American RA sign a contract to live in the wing for an entire academic year. After the first year of the program, 10 scholars are invited to return to the wing and serve as mentors to incoming freshmen. Each mentor is expected to work with two to three scholars throughout the year. These students are offered scholarships for their leadership and service as mentors. The wing has grown to house up to 50 scholars, 10 mentors, and two RAs, the largest number of participants to occupy the wing.

One activity that has become an annual cultural tradition for NASA is the blessing of the O’odham Ki Wing. It is a strong belief among many Native Americans that one should bless their living space before they occupy it (see chapter 2). The NASA office invites a community elder or spiritual leader to come to the residence hall to conduct a blessing before the students arrive. The blessing involves prayer and the burning of sweetgrass or sage throughout the living quarters. The blessing is a form of cleansing and is intended to provide protection, safety, and harmony for the residents. Members of the hall staff and other student affairs administrators are invited to participate, and the university administration supports this traditional practice and cooperates with NASA to make the necessary arrangements for the blessing.

Cultural, Social, and Community Activities

Cultural, social, and community engagement among students throughout the year is an integral component of the FYSP. One activity is the FYSP welcome and orientation when students arrive on campus in the early fall and move into the O’odham Ki Wing. A university administrator welcomes the scholars, and parents have an opportunity to meet the NASA staff, CIC faculty, student mentors, and many other campus staff. Parents and family members are given an overview of the FYSP and are encouraged to return to campus for Family Weekend in October when the FYSP plans a special program for family members.

A second fall activity for scholars, mentors, and the NASA staff is a hike to one of the landmarks and scenic destinations in Tucson. During this hike the staff share personal stories about their college experiences and give advice on how to be successful in college. Several icebreakers are conducted so students can open up and get to know one another. A third activity occurs during Family Weekend in October when NASA hosts a barbeque and provides football game tickets to the scholars and their family members. Before NASA organized this family event, few Native American families participated in UA Family Weekend festivities. NASA felt it was important to incorporate parents and family m...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Thanksgiving
• Foreword
• Introduction
• 1. First-Year Experience for Native American Freshmen: The University of Arizona First-Year Scholars Program
• 2. Incorporating Native Culture into Student Affairs
• 3. Extending the Rafters: Cultural Context for Native American Students
• 4. The Historically Native American Fraternity and Sorority Movement
• 5. The Role of The Special Advisor to The President on Native American Affairs
• 6. Tribal College Collaborations
• 7. Academic and Student Affairs Partnerships: Native American Student Affairs Units
• 8. How Institutions can Support Native Professional and Graduate Students
• 9. Fancy War Dancing on Academe’s Glass Ceiling: Supporting and Increasing Indigenous Faculty Role Models in Higher Education
• 10. Best Practices for National Organizations to Support the Native Experience in Higher Education
• Conclusion
• About the Editors and Contributors
• Index
• Back Cover