Coming Into Their Own

“When you compare Native American admissions rates at Harvard to the Ivy League, Harvard has been way behind for decades,” says Malinda M. Lowery, assistant professor of Native American history. “Harvard is only catching up to other institutions of higher education.”

Catching up, indeed. Last week, the Harvard College Admissions Office reported a record high for Native American admissions: 1.4 percent of admitted students, close to the nationwide Native American population, 1.5 percent, according to the 2000 U.S. Census. According to a recent newsletter from the Harvard University Native American Native American Program (HUNAP), there are 56 Native American students currently enrolled.

Much of the recent success can be attributed to the Harvard Financial Aid Initiative (HFAI), said Roger Banks, Undergraduate Minority Recruitment Program (UMRP) director and senior admissions officer. HFAI waives tuition for families earning less than $40,000 annually and reduces the contributions of families making less than $60,000. UMRP has encouraged minority students to apply to Harvard and has worked to provide a welcoming community for those who choose to come.

However, the recent rise in Native American admissions has been a long time in the making. Citing competition from other universities for a coveted group of talented Native American students, Banks says the battle for diversity will not be won until the admitted students accept Harvard’s offers. Some potential applicants “think that Harvard is a country club,” he said. “They do not realize that 70 percent of our students are on financial aid. They do not realize that the majority of our students come from public schools. They are often surprised at the extent of racial and ethnic diversity on campus.”

IN SEARCH OF STUDENTS

Three years ago, Native Americans at Harvard College (NAHC) Vice-President Elijah M. Hutchinson ’06 traveled to his native Brooklyn, recruiting for UMRP for the first time. Hutchinson, who identifies with the Taino native community, hoped to talk to other Native Americans about Harvard. The job was more difficult than he had imagined.

“Recruiting in Brooklyn is tough, because a lot of the time you are just talking about college in general,” he said. “You have to deal with so many other issues with these students, and you have to deal with so many stigmas attached to institutions of higher learning in general—and Harvard in particular.”

Selling Harvard on rural reservations proved an even greater challenge. Native Americans there “view Harvard or institutions of higher education in general as foreign institutions coming in to change who they are and indoctrinate them in another society,” he said. Hutchinson said that staffs of such schools could be very unwelcoming to recruiters from any college. “They do not understand why Harvard is reaching out to people,” he said.

So Harvard gets a head start. “We start talking to prospective students when they are juniors, and we work with them all the way through the admissions cycle,” Banks said. Some Native American students recruited by the UMRP hold phone-a-thons in the admissions office to do what Hutchinson describes as “adding that personal touch and adding a face to the admissions process.”

Hutchinson sees his work for the UMRP as more than a job. “I get paid by Harvard, but really I’m working for the Natives who do not go to Harvard,” he said. “Those are the people I’m working for, the people who are out there and not applying.”

This type of recruiting for underprivileged and minority students has been going on for a quarter century, according to the Harvard College Admissions Office website. “Recruiting for Harvard for many years was kind of sub rosa,” Banks said. “We did not get into the business of recruiting for really most of our history. People had to find Harvard. Harvard did not go out of its way to find most of its students.”

ARE HARVARD’S EFFORTS ENOUGH?

Harvard’s efforts today may be admirable, but they still backfire occasionally. Some undergraduates in NAHC are concerned that students claim Native American connections on college applications to boost their chances of admission. Last year, former NAHC President Erica A. Scott ’06 told The Crimson of cases when students who were not raised in a Native American community or did not self-identify as Native American checked the Native American box on their applications anyway. One such student admitted to NAHC recruiters that she is “basically white”—after she had enrolled in the College. Most of the NAHC have joined the facebook.com group “Students Against Ethnic Fraud: ‘Checking the Box’ is NOT Okay!”

The admissions office recognizes their concerns. “Attempts to manufacture or exaggerate any feature of one’s college application are deplorable,” Banks wrote in a recent e-mail.

BUILDING A COMMUNITY

Ethnic fraud aside, the latest admissions news is heartening for NAHC and their supporters. And according to a recent HUNAP newsletter, more than 40 tribes are represented in the college and graduate schools.

It seems like Harvard’s plan is working—even beyond the admissions process.

Jessica M. Righthand ’09, a member of the Muskogee Creek tribe, was one of the students Hutchinson reached as part of his work at UMRP. He called her after she was admitted to Harvard.

“He was really nice, and he asked if I had any questions about Harvard,” she said. Hutchinson stressed the role of the NAHC on campus. Although she hadn’t considered Harvard’s Native American community as the biggest factor in her ultimate choice, its presence has been a comfort. “It’s really nice to know that there’s a place on campus you can go with any kind of concern,” she said.