First published Dec. 15, 2021 in Stories Beneath the Shell.
By Grace Walker
Native American students make up less than 1% of the over 40,000 students at the University of Maryland, according to the university’s Office of Multi-Ethnic Student Education.
The American Indian Student Union has just five members, president Ayden Allston said. She said she wasn’t prepared for the realities of being a Native student at UMD when she stepped on campus.
“Honestly, it just feels lonely. When I came to UMD, I was hoping to join the AISU and be in a community of people who shared similar cultural backgrounds, but that just has not happened because there are so few of us,” the junior public health science major said. “It’s really hard to get people to participate and actually build a community.”
Allston struggled to even find the American Indian Student Union when she first got to campus her freshman year. She looked for the club at the First Look Fair but was unsuccessful. She only found it once she got into contact with the Multicultural Involvement Community Advocacy Office.
When Emily Minner came to Maryland for graduate school, she expected a larger Native American population as well, given the size of the university. She was shocked to find out that the AISU president at the time held weekly meetings with as little as three students, she said.
“It feels like shock, but it also feels like the same old same old, like what I experienced in most of my other school situations; but lonely is a good word for it,” said Minner, who serves as the graduate coordinator for Native American/indigenous involvement & advocacy at UMD.
Low Native American student enrollment is not a problem specific to UMD. According to The Postsecondary National Policy Institute, American Indian and Alaskan Native students account for only 1% of the U.S. undergraduate population and less than 1% of the graduate student population.
Just 19% of 18-24-year-old Native American students were enrolled in college in 2020, compared to 41% of the overall U.S. population.
The vast majority — 90% — of Native American college students are attending tribal colleges and universities as of fall 2018. Maryland has no tribal colleges or universities.
Allston would like to see the university try to encourage more Native American students to apply and enroll, as well as help the current Native American student population get more connected.
“I would like it if they would help the AISU get in contact with other Native students, just to let them know that our organization exists and that we’re here if they want to join our community,” she said.
Minner, who is working toward her master’s in library science, agrees that the low Native American representation on campus is an admissions issue. She suggested that UMD employ an admissions officer dedicated to recruiting Native American students. She has always remembered the recruiting officer that came to her high school, and she wants other Native American students to be able to have that same experience.
Minner says the dedication of the new dining hall, called Yahentamitsi, will help give Native American students a space on campus. Yahentamitsi means “a place to go to eat” in Algonquian, the extinct language of the Piscataway people.
The dining hall is set to open in 2022 with art, artifacts, and other educational materials from the Piscataway people.
The university is also in the process of designing five new cultural centers and gathering spaces, including one for Native American students, in Cole Field House.
Despite the welcome changes, Allston said there’s still a lot of progress that needs to be made, and the new dining hall is just one small step in the right direction.
“I thought it was an exciting day and event. It was nice that they’re taking small steps to recognize that we’re on Piscataway land, but it’s just truly the beginning of what they need to do to recognize it.”
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