Grants helps Northern attract, keep Native students

Montana State University-Northern has been awarded a five-year $1.9 million grant from the Native American Serving Non-Tribal Institutions program.

The program, administered by the Department of Education, provides grants and other assistance to non-Native institutions that serve Native Americans in order to enable the institutions to improve and expand their capacity to serve Native Americans and low-income people.

The funds from this grant will be used to improve retention and increase the American Indian students' completion rate of a bachelor's degree.

Northern is the first college in Montana to receive such an award.

"MSU-Northern has the highest percentage rate of Native students of any University in the Montana University system at 12 percent," said Chancellor Greg Kegel. "We would like to see it grow to 20 percent."

"This grant will enable Northern to recruit and market Northern to the Native American populations in this region the way it should be done," Kegel continued. "It will also help with retention. We lose our native students faster than any other demographic, and this grant will help us address these issues."

"The primary focus is to reach out to experts in the field, including at the regional tribal colleges and national figures," said Randy Bachmeier, grant director. "These experts will help us develop and implement culturally appropriate models and strategies of mentoring, tutoring, teaching and socially engaging our American Indian students."

The official start date of the grant was Oct. 1. During the first year, Northern will hire and train the staff needed to implement the grant and remodel the necessary classrooms on campus in order to implement curriculum that meets Native American's learning styles.

"Northern is very excited about what this grant will allow us to do for our students," said Kegel.