Montana State University-Bozeman Diversity Report

January 2001

 

III.        Campus Report

 

A.         Enrollment Management

 

MSU’s recruitment activities aimed at Native Americans include hiring a Native American recruiter (who is Native American) to work in New Student Services and assigning the Native American student advisor to assist in recruiting.  These efforts involve traveling to tribal community high schools and tribal colleges, presenting at career fairs, and working with high school career counselors.   Our outreach to reservations and surrounding communities involves currently enrolled students talking to high school students and tribal leaders about the value of higher education and their satisfaction with MSU. The Montana Apprenticeship Program (MAP) brings junior and senior high school students to campus for six weeks during the summer.  Middle and high school science and mathematics teachers also participate in summer enrichment programs on campus.  The Native American Student Advisor coordinates campus visits of students and teachers from tribal community schools.  Despite these efforts, our enrollment of American Indian students peaked at 2.5% in Fall 1996 and has declined to 2.0% in Fall 2000.

 

The University makes no special efforts to recruit Hispanic or Asian American students.  A significant percentage of the African American students enrolled at the University have been recruited for their athletic abilities.  The following chart traces enrollment patterns by percentage of Native American, other ethnic and racial minority students, and percent of total known, U.S. citizens or permanent resident aliens.  Students listing “Other” were included although, at this time, it is impossible to determine whether anyone so identifying him- or herself is using this category to denote a mixed racial heritage.  The data show that the percentage enrollment of all ethnic and racial minority groups has remained constant (between 4.2% and 5.1%) over the past eight years.

 

Student Enrollment by Race/Ethnicity