Providing Tuition Assistance to Native American Students

Michigan State University (MSU) will offer in-state tuition to out-of-state Native American students through their Native American Tuition Advantage Program (NATAP), beginning in Fall 2025.

Dr. Kevin Leonard, director of the Native American Institute at MSU, was speaking with a Native, out-of-state student whose tribal affiliation was in Michigan when she began to share the struggles that come with paying out-of-state tuition. Leonard went to Dr. Dave Weatherspoon, vice provost of enrollment and academic strategic planning at MSU, to see if the student’s status could be changed to in-state.

“Borders crossed our people. We didn’t cross them,” said Leonard, who is a member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians and part of the Three Fire Confederacy. 

After looking into and providing a solution to assist the student, Weatherspoon wanted to know what more the institution could do.
“Why shouldn’t this be more permanent?” says Weatherspoon in an interview with Diverse. “Why do we have to have this big discussion each time, when we understand this philosophically?”

Leonard and Laura Kennedy, an admissions officer at MSU, were tasked with researching institutions with similar initiatives.

“We started having conversations about what it would take, what this would look like, what the criteria would be, and having conversations with tribal leaders and different individuals who have been doing this work out in the Indigenous world,” says Leonard, who added that  the goal of NATP is two-fold.

“The primary goal is helping increase the number of Native students enrolling in MSU and successfully completing a degree at MSU,” says Leonard. “One of the challenges for some of our students once they get to MSU is maintaining the ability to pay for tuition costs.”

The second goal of the program is to help build a community and culture at the institution that is attractive to prospective Native staff, faculty, and students.

“As we grow our numbers, we build our community, and we strengthen that community, which then creates an environment where it’s attractive for other Indigenous faculty, staff, and students to come to our university,” says Leonard.

Building on Current Initiatives to Support Prospective Native Students

Michigan State University
Currently, MSU offers the Maynard Kennedy Turtle Island Acknowledgement Scholarship, which has similar benefits to NATAP but is only offered to a limited number of students each year. MSU also participates in the Michigan Indian Tuition Waiver, which waives tuition for in-state Native American students at Michigan’s public colleges and universities.

“We didn’t think that was enough,” says Weatherspoon. “[NATAP] was to really focus on what is inhibiting [Native] students from participating on our campus and becoming our students and our alumni.”

In addition, out-of-state Native students who are Pell-eligible will be able to take advantage of a full tuition waiver. Students who are eligible for NATAP and come from a family with a total household income of $65,000 or less and do not qualify for the Michigan Indian Tuition Waiver can receive a full tuition waiver through the Spartan Tuition Advantage Program.

“We slowly built NATAP, and leveraging existing programs and new programs like the Spartan Tuition Advantage program was all Dr. Weatherspoon’s idea,” says Leonard. “I thought it was brilliant. We were looking more on just getting them in-state tuition, and when you couple that with the opportunity for those families making less than $65,000 to have that tuition advantage program, to me, that was the cherry on top.”

NATAP is a collaborative effort between MSU’s Native American Institute, Office of Admissions, Office of Financial Aid, University Outreach and Engagement and the Office of the Provost. Collectively, each team is working to get the word out to as many prospective students and families as possible.

“I hope that this will be secondhand knowledge to everybody, no matter if you’re Native or not,” says Weatherspoon. “We know that low-income students often get detoured from the university track early on in life because they don’t think they can afford it, and we want to eliminate that concern.”
Leonard understands the power of word-of-mouth in the Native community, and he plans to speak with the United Tribe of Michigan group about NATAP.

“I think this makes MSU much more accessible than ever before,” adds Leonard. “That’s huge for many in our community. To think that they can say, ‘Well, I can go [to MSU] because I can afford it, and it’s not going to burden me or my family to be able to have that dream.”

After a series of listening sessions conducted by an external firm, the Native American Institute at MSU received the “MSU Tribal Outreach Report.” Leonard and his team hired the firm over a year ago to examine what MSU was doing well and where improvement was needed. Both recruiting and retaining Native students showed up in the report as an area of improvement for MSU.

“We took it seriously and wanted to do something about it,” says Weatherspoon. “We had that knowledge and something that was statistically valid to point to and say, ‘we can do better in this area, so let’s figure out what that looks like.’”

According to Leonard, results from the report echoed a popular theme: “You need to come out and recruit us, [and] once you do make it more affordable, you need to be in our communities talking to our youth and our students about what opportunities there are and then support them once they get to MSU.”

Supporting Native Students Beyond Tuition Waivers

Although NATAP answered one of the requests the Native American Institute was receiving from tribes to make MSU more accessible and affordable for Native students, this is just a first step.

“We have a ton of work to do on our end to make an environment where once we get [Native students] here, we keep them here, “ says Leonard.
Dr. Heather Shotton, an Indigenous Education scholar who is currently the vice president of diversity affairs at Fort Lewis College, has done extensive research on Indigenous student success and what it means to be a Native-ready campus.

“These types of Native American tuition waivers or programs are a great step, particularly for our state institutions and land grant institutions, to recognize their foundation and history that is often based on the dispossession of land for Indigenous people and tribal nations,” says Shotton in an interview with Diverse.

Shotton is a citizen of the Wichita & Affiliated Tribes, a Kiowa and Cheyenne descendant and the author of Beyond the Asterisk: Understanding Native Students in Higher Education.

“It’s not enough just to recruit and enroll Indigenous students at our institutions, she says. “It’s important that institutions are ready to receive Indigenous students, to serve them and to provide the support that is necessary once they arrive on campus.”

Being a Native-ready campus includes faculty and staff representation and ensuring that students feel welcomed, supported, with a sense of belonging, according to Shotton.

“What does that look like?” Shotton asked. “Does it mirror your student enrollment? Are there support programs in place? Whether it be support around culture, academics, or community support relationships once Indigenous students step onto our campuses.”

Leonard wants the Native American Institute at MSU to make Native students feel supported physically and financially. He envisions a collaborative space between departments and units where Native and Indigenous students can come to have their questions answered.

“We’re brainstorming right now about how we do this and the ways we provide it,” says Leonard.

Shotton, whose current institution has had a Native American tuition waiver since its inception, also emphasizes the institution’s role in ensuring the details of the waiver are clear.

“Language matters,” she says. “First and foremost, about what a tuition waiver covers, and then communicate that with families so they understand and can prepare for the full cost of attendance because we know tuition is only one piece, right? Fees, housing, meals, books, all of that adds up.”

MSU is currently implementing small changes that will become permanent and grow to make the University more welcoming for Native students.

“What that looks like in the future, I have no idea, and that’s what’s fun about this is that we have people who are committed to making it happen, whatever it takes,” says Weatherspoon.