Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
The Enabling Act of 1889 granted 190,000 acres of seized Tribal land to Washington to support what would become Washington State University. None of the revenue generated by these lands over the last 133 years has directly benefited Native students at WSU, even though they face disproportionately greater economic hardships due to the expropriation of their traditional homelands. As a land-grant institution WSU is committed to improving support for Native students while acknowledging that we can never completely alleviate the systemic inequity caused by U.S. policy. Our goal is to create in close collaboration with our Tribal partners a documented plan for an exciting new WSU system-wide Native American scholarship program, called Native Coug Scholars, that emphasizes tribal nation building principles. This plan will be transferrable to other land-grant universities. We will (Obj 1) analyze institutional data to clarify the scope of unmet financial need among Native undergraduate students at WSU. Through close and continued consultation with regional Tribes and university leaders we will (Obj 2) establish priorities and practices for Native student recruitment, enrollment, retention, and the awarding of scholarship funds. Consultation with Tribal leaders will also help us (Obj 3) identify additional forms of institutional support scholarship recipients need to succeed. The funds we are requesting will be used to build a long-overdue Native scholarship program that directly addresses the severe unmet financial needs of Native students, emphasizes tribal nation building principles, and improves measurable outcomes in Native student recruitment, enrollment, and retention at WSU and beyond.
Animal Health Component
0%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
20%
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
80%
Goals / Objectives
Our overarching goal is to create in close collaboration with our Tribal partners a documented plan for an exciting new WSU system-wide Native American scholarship program, called Native Coug Scholars, that emphasizes tribal nation building principles that improves measurable outcomes in Native student recruitment, enrollment, and retention at WSU and beyond. Weidentifythe followingobjectivesas essential to enacting NativeCougScholars at WSU:Objective 1: Analyze institutional data toidentifythe unmet financial needs of Native American undergraduate students across the WSU system.Objective 2:Establishpriorities and practices for student recruitment, enrollment, and the awarding of scholarships through consultation with regional Tribes and university leaders.Objective 3:Establishexpectations and support for student scholarship recipients to improve retention and knowledge of tribal nation building principles.Objective 4: Create a documented plan for a new Native American scholarship program that supports tribal nation building principles in student recruitment, enrollment, and retention.
Project Methods
The 2020 NBTS grant (Culturally Sustaining/Revitalizing Approach to Native American Undergraduate Recruitment, Retention, and Nation Building) will be used as a guide for measurable outcomes, data collection, and analysis in this current grant project. Data to support all project objectives will be collected from three primary sources:WSU institutional data from sources including Student Financial Services, Admissions, and Registrar. Data from these sources will be retrieved and collated by project Co-I Stephanie Kane from WSU's Office of Strategy, Planning, and Analysis.Self-report data will be obtained from WSU Native American students by WSU's Native American Programs (e.g., the Native American Programs Self-Report Scholarship Feedback Survey).Project team members will collect interview data from WSU Native American student scholarship participants.Measurable outcomes from project data collection efforts are outlined in Table 1 below.Measurable Outcomes for ObjectivesOutcome TypeDescription of MeasuresDemographicsDemographic measures collected from Institutional Research and the self-report scholarship feedback survey (see Appendix E), including age, gender, race/ethnicity, first generation status, Pell eligibility, high school or transfer GPA.Enrollment measuresThe change in the number of students enrolled per semester or per year (i.e., day 10-semester census).Scholarship measuresNumber of scholarships applied for by Native students each semesterNumber of scholarships awarded by WSU each semesterNumber of scholarships accepted by Native students each semesterReduction in financialunmet need from 2023 averagesUnmet need after scholarship fundingEmployment statusNumber of student family dependentsRetention measuresNumber of Native students re-enrolled each semesterThe graduation rate of Native studentsMeaningful Factors (identified by the New Beginnings for Tribal Students grant)Attendance at various social and university activities while enrolled at WSUAttendance at pre-enrollment university activities such as WSU ALIVENumber of STEM and remedial classes takenDFW rates of classes taken (this is a measure of the proportion of grades D, F, and W in the classes a student takes)Faculty contact hours - Spring and FallScholarship Feedback Survey - QuantitativeMeasures on the sense of belonging at WSUInstitutional, family, community, and Tribal supportMentoring and school climate.Cultural identity and resilience.Scholarship Feedback Survey - QualitativeAccess to health and wellness servicesPerceptions of whether mental/physical healthcare needs are being metPerceptions of collaborative learning opportunities with other students at WSUIdentify the resources students need for orientation and mentoring supportAnalysis: The initial analysis of institutional data will consist of examining descriptive quantitative statistics from WSU Native American student scholarship applicants/recipients. Descriptives will include frequencies, means, standard deviations, and correlations. Meaningful outcomes identified from the 2020 NBTS grant (see Table 1) will be examined for consistency and differences with student profiles obtained from the 2020 NBTS grant results. Specifically, descriptive statistics will be used to provide an initial look at changes in student measures around persistence and success that resulted from the scholarship program. For example, it is expected that Native students'unmet financial need will be decreased.The use of regression modeling based on findings from the 2020 NBTS grant will be used to gauge student persistence and success toward graduation during the life of the grant. Theoretical and cultural considerations will be employed in the interpretation of statistical results. The primary outcome (dependent variables) for these analyses will be measures that reflect persistence to re-enrollment or graduation. Results will be evaluated and contextualized using quantitative self-report survey data and qualitative interview data from the Native American student scholarship recipients.Moving beyond the analysis defined in our 2020 NBTS toolkit will be the estimation of moderated regression models. Specifically, moderating effects have been identified from the qualitative results of the 2020 grant, such as student gender, first-generation college status, and amount of unmet financial need, among other measures. Moderating effects can help provide deeper insight, in conjunction with qualitative results, into more subtle effects that impact student persistence and success. Ultimately, the success of predictive modeling of the effect of the scholarship program on Native American persistence and success in graduating will inform how other institutions can implement and evaluate similar scholarship programs.Results and methods developed as part of the grant will be disseminated using the Objective 4 document plan intended for regional university leadership, northwest tribes, and Washington state representatives and legislatures (e.g., Report at WSU Systemwide Leadership Council, Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians, preliminary and final report to WA legislatures and representatives to request permanent state budget line for Native scholarships).Evaluation will consist of an iterative mixed-method effort to use qualitative feedback from Native American student scholarship recipients and tribal stakeholders to give meaning and context to the results of quantitative methods developed and employed for implementing the scholarship program. For example, quantitative methods can tell us whether more Native students are enrolling, graduating and whether their unmet financial need is being reduced as a result of the scholarship program - while qualitative interview feedback will put the quantitative results into a meaningful context that will allow the research team better to interpret the overall impact of the scholarship program.