The University of Wyoming and President Laurie Nichols are taking steps to increases enrollment of Native Americans at UW.
“Currently we are not bringing as many Native American students to campus as we should be, and thus not offering the immense opportunities to better one’s life by opening doors, developing career opportunities, and achieving greater financial security,” Nichols said.
Wyoming Indian high school principal Pamela Gambler agrees that Native American enrollment at UW needs to be improved.
“More of our native students need to look at UW for their professional careers, because it is a good school,” Gambler said.
The University planing to do this through a three-step approach that is aimed at developing more support for Native American students.
First, the university is developing a summer institute that is intended to provide K-12 students a chance to come to the university and meet with professors. The Native American Summer Institute will be held June 11-17 on campus for high school students from the Wind River and Wyoming, Chad Baldwin, Director of UW Institutional Communications, said.
“We anticipate about 35 students and this is a week-long experience to expose Native American student to college life, career awareness, campus living and to envision themselves at college,” Nichols said. “It is a pipeline program to recruit students to college.”
Gambler said this program will be effective in helping ease the transition to campus.
“It brings students down to build that bridge, tour the college but also looking at different colleges and programs they have,” Gambler said. “So I thought that was a great Idea.”
Additionally, the university will be developing an American Indian Center, designed to help provide cultural and resource based support for students. It will be a facility on campus where specialized staff will work with Native American people and programs.
“It’s a home away from home, it’s a very good idea sometimes that culture is too much for them and they don’t have that support they have back home,” Gambler said.
Gambler said it can be hard coming to campus as a Native American student. Many Native Americans grow up in a tight nit family structures and it can be a culture shock leaving that and coming to campus life.
“Alot of them have been living their culture and tradition so when they go off to college it’s a culture shock for them,” Gambler said
When Gambler said when she attended UW she felt there was a lack of support and decided to attended another university as a result.
“There wasn’t that support their for native students, I ended up needing to transfer to another university that had more support for Native American students.
President Nichols is also working to develop a working relationship with tribal officials and schools. At the beginning of March, President Nichols visited both tribes of the wind river reservation to help develop these strategies.
“I have been to the Wind River three times and will continue to make trips there as we work on recruitment and retention,” Nichols said. “I believe there is much we can do to forge stronger working relationships and ultimately bring more Native students to campus.”
