Dartmouth College and Stanford University, recognized for their commitment to higher education for Native Americans, are working together to form a consortium of Native American program directors that will work to improve graduation rates of these minority students at schools nationwide.
Seventy to 90 percent of Native American students enrolled at Dartmouth and Stanford graduate, while other colleges and universities nationwide have an average Native American graduation rate of less than 10 percent.
The consortium will provide a forum for the exchange of information, experience and ideas.
"Basically, this is an opportunity to share information," said Leisha Conners, director of the College's Native American Program. She added that the collaboration is still in the planning stages.
Jim Larimore, director of Stanford's American Indian Program, described the consortium's goal as "a sharing of ideas and resources."
"In effect, we're hoping to capture what's been successful at some schools, and make it more broadly accessible," Larimore said.
Representatives of colleges and universities in different areas of the country are currently forming planning groups for the program. Once chosen for the program, faculty members will attend training sessions in the spring and fall.
The consortium's first meeting in the spring will be held in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The Native American Program directors will prepare case studies based upon experiences at their schools and will have the opportunity to discuss problems with their peers, Conners said.
Both the Native American Program at Dartmouth and Stanford's American Indian Program are 23 years old. Both programs sponsor educational and cultural programming on their respective campuses and provide support for Native American students.
The success of Dartmouth and Stanford in retaining their Native American students can be attributed to their size and their ability to track students over time, Larimore said.
"It's virtually impossible to go through a career at Dartmouth unnoticed. At Stanford, it's the same way," he said.
Both schools also have "an institutional commitment to have an established office and a network of people familiar with working with Native Americans," Larimore said.
"These are things which are much more difficult to replicate in larger settings, such as state universities, but are also things that haven't necessarily been tried at other colleges and universities," he said.
The College now has more than 140 Native American undergraduates, more than all other Ivy League schools combined, representing 55 tribes.
The consortium is being funded on a two-year pilot basis by a $110,000 grant from Intel Corporation, a computer chip company, Conners said.
