Montana Technological University

Montana Tech has historically had about 2-3% Native American students each year since 2011. However, in AY 20-21 it increased to 4% (Table 1). Native American retention has ranged from a low of 45% to a high of 72%, with the most recent academic year being 63% (Table 2). Completion data is provided in Table 3. In our 2018 AIMA action plan we provided goals associated with enrollment, persistence, graduation rates and completions (Table 4). Our 2019 enrollment goal was 40 and we had 39 students. Our 2021 goal was 41 we currently have 46 students enrolled. Our campus is optimistic that we will reach or surpass the 2021 goal. We have not been able to close the gap between our American Indian students and our non-American Indian students. We do not have the six-year graduation rate data yet so we cannot speak to those goals and we did not provide completion goals but we had two and seven students complete in 2018 and 2019.

Many of our initial plans were sidelined in Spring 2019 when Covid-19 became an international pandemic. With the prospect of a semi-normal Fall 2021 we plan to reinvest time and energy into our action plan.

Table 1. Campus Enrollment for the four-year and two-year programs (AY2015-16 through AY2020-21)*data from MUS AIMA dashboards

Table 1-Campus Enrollment


Table 2. Campus Retention for Montana Tech (AY2011-12 through AY2019-20) *data from MUS AIMA dashboards

Table 2 - Campus Retention


Table 3. Completion for Montana Tech (AY2011-12 through AY2019-20) *data from MUS AIMA dashboards

Table 3 - Completion for Montana Tech

 

Table 4.  Montana Tech’s four-year campus enrollment, persistence, graduation rate, and completion goals. Italics data have been added
  2016 2017 2018 2019 2021 GOAL 2024 GOAL
American Indian Student Enrollment 39 41 40 40 41 45
American Indian First Returning Fall Persistence 88% 54% N/A 77% 77%
(our goal is to have no negative gap for Native students)		 77%
(our goal is to have no negative gap for Native students)
American Indian Six Year Graduation Rate for Full-Time, First-Time Graduation Rate (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 Cohorts) 25% 44% 60% 60% 60% 60%
American Indian Completions 9 6 2 7 N/A N/A

 

Action Plans
Recommendations Action Plan Next Steps Person Responsible Implementation Date

Recommendation 1: Senior level point of contact.

TBA, Dean of Students

Amy Verlanic, Director IEO

Charlie Faught, LEAD Team Co-Chair		 Completed Amy Verlanic 7/15/21

Recommendation 2: Department points of contact.

Name the following individuals, with cultural perspective, to be the lead point of contact for NA students

  • Financial Aid- Shauna Savage
  • Residence Life- Nathan McQuinn
  • Admissions- Debbie Luft
  • Student Health and Counseling- Tara Kloker
  • Advising-TBA
  • LEAD Committee-Charie Faught
  • AISES Club Advisor- Amy Verlanic
  • Career Services- Sarah Raymond

This group was convened in Spring 2018.  In Fall 2020

As part of a professional development programming for the Student Affairs teams the book From Equity Talk to Equity Walk was read and the concepts are being integrated into the 20-21 Program reviews, the 

Student Affairs Strategic plan, and 21-22 faculty and staff professional development in area of diversity, inclusion and equity.

 Steve Gammon and Amy Verlanic On-going implementation

Recommendation 3: Data collection and dissemination.

 Developed data points associated with gender, major, county of origin Upon review the trends we noticed were that American Indian students were widely dispersed by major (i.e. no clumping), gender was roughly equal, and that the majority came from “urban” counties. We plan to incorporate this data into the Diversity and Inclusivity program review.

TBA Dean of Students

Amy Verlanic

Melissa Kump

With OCHE launching the MUS AMIA Student Success Dashboard we have use that more frequently than our internal data pull.

D & I Program review will include a specific section on American Indian Student Success.
Recommendation 4: Professional development. The Faculty Senate Teaching Circle adapted the PNW COSNOS IM program and provided workshops to faculty in Fall 2018. In Fall 2018 we launched the Indian Education for All (IEFA) program and enroll all faculty, staff, and students into the program.  New initiatives will be carried out through the LEAD Committee Although the IEFA is offered it is not mandatory for community members to complete. Moving forward we want to promote completion of the modules and work with the Chancellor to secure incentives.

Amy Verlanic

Vanessa Van Dyk, Dir. of HR

Amanda Badovinac, Ex. Dr. PR & communications

Les Cook, Chancellor

Develop and implement a new communication plan to promote completion to launch in Fall 2021
Recommendation 5: Dissemination of professional development. The Dir. of Human Resources and Co-Chair of LEAD will work on integrating materials into the new employee training. This continues to be a work in progress but instead of sperate materials we will be using the IEFA modules.

Charie Faught

Vanessa Van Dyk

On-going but a revitalized launch in Fall 2021

 

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