UA urges recruitment of Native Americans

Efforts to increase the recruitment and representation of Native Americans on campus have been moving forward with the support of both students and administrators.

The Undergraduate Assembly unanimously passed a proposal aimed at increasing the number of Native-American students at Penn last week.

The proposal was submitted by Six Directions, a Penn Native-American student group that consists of roughly five to 10 active members.

Six Directions approached the UA because, according to member and College junior Elaine Bretschneider, "it's hard for us to meet with people to discuss this."

"I don't even know if many administrators know that the group exists," College junior and UA member Erin Cho said. "Backing from the UA will show administrators that people ... support this."

The proposal advocated increasing the recruitment of Native-American students and faculty, expanding course offerings pertinent to Native-American studies and creating a residence hall for those interested in Native-American issues.

"With increased recruitment and retention, we could have a successful program and bring a lot to Penn's diversity and community," Cho said.

Penn currently trails peer institutions in its Native-American representation.

Only two of the 2,468 members of the class of 2008 identified themselves as Native American.

This .08 percent representation is the lowest among figures from peer institutions, which range from Dartmouth's 3.4 percent to Cornell's 0.5 percent, according to the proposal.

Although the Class of 2009 includes 12 Native-American students, Bretschneider said that underrepresentation of Native Americans has been a consistent trend in Penn's history.

"This has been problem at Penn. ... Even if it is 12 this year, we still look pretty pathetic" in comparison to other schools, Bretschneider said.

There is currently only one professor at Penn identified as Native American -- Lisa Bouillion, an assistant professor at the Graduate School of Education. In the past two semesters, only two courses focusing on Native Americans were actually offered out of the 19 advertised in the course register.

Bretschneider feels that such a lack of Native-American community discourages Native Americans from attending Penn.

"You need to have courses and professors to teach in that area. How are we going to get students if we don't have that now?" she said.

College senior Roman Petruniak, a Six Directions member, said that Penn already has a good foundation on which to build a Native-American community.

"We can attract people because of the [University Museum]; it has a lot of artifacts. We have a foundation here. ... We just have to make it formalized," he said.

Bretschneider said that the call for increased Native-American representation has also received support from the vice provost for University life. Bouillion has even expressed interest in creating a Native-American residence hall.

Bretschneider added that she hopes to see at least 15 Native-American students attend Penn each year so they can eventually aid their communities.

"We want financial managers from Wharton to work in tribes and nurses for [reservation] hospitals to be from Penn," Bretschneider said. "We should be getting the best Native Americans so they can go back to their communities."

Quick facts - Two of the 2,468 members of the Class of 2008 are Native American - Twelve of the 2,569 members of the Class of 2009 are Native American - Two of the 19 Native American-related courses listed in the course register over the past two semesters have been offered

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