MADISON, Wis. — Native students from one of Wisconsin's 11 tribes will be able to attend the University of Wisconsin-Madison for free starting next fall, Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin announced Monday.
The Wisconsin Tribal Education Promise program will use private donations and other internal funding to cover tuition, fees, housing, meals, books and other expenses for students who can prove membership in one of Wisconsin's tribes, Mnookin said at a press conference.
Confirmed tribal members pursuing law or medical training will also have their tuition and fees reimbursed. The program will begin in the fall semester of 2024.
The program is similar to Bucky's Tuition Promise and Bucky's Pell Pathway programs. Bucky's Tuition Promise guarantees that the university will cover tuition and fees for students from low-income households. Bucky's Pell Pathway program covers the full financial needs of students from low-income families through grants, scholarships and work-study opportunities.
Students in the state currently pay approximately $28,000 per year to attend UW-Madison. That includes tuition, fees, housing and transportation. Tuition and fees total approximately $11,200.
Faith Helen, director of student finance at UW-Madison, said she did not know how many students would benefit from the Indigenous program. Mnookin said UW-Madison does not track the ethnicity of indigenous students and relies primarily on self-reporting. Currently, about 650 students identify as Indigenous and most are college students, she said, but some students may be from outside Wisconsin or may not be confirmed tribal members.
The announcement comes less than a week after the regents of Wisconsin's universities reached a deal with Republican lawmakers to freeze diversity hiring on campuses and shift at least 43 diversity positions to “student success” positions in exchange for money to fund hiring and fund construction projects, including a new engineering building at UW-Madison.
Opponents accused the regents of selling out students of color and LGBTQ+ students. Regents emphasized that the deal would not slow down inclusion efforts on campuses. Mnookin said Monday that the Indigenous coverage plan has been in the works for at least a year, but that it shows how UW-Madison remains committed to diversity.
Shannon Holsey, president of the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians, and Ho-Chunk Nation President Jon Greendeer, also attended the news conference. Holsey called the aid program “cycle-breaking” for Indigenous youth.
“It is certainly an important and historic day,” she said. “We are incredibly grateful to UW-Madison.”
Greendeer said the program removes one of the many barriers Indigenous students face in obtaining a university degree. He added that tribes sometimes disapprove of college because students often leave their native cultures behind and that tribal leaders need to do more to encourage native youth to pursue post-secondary education.
“We have work to do,” he said.
According to a report published last year by the Hunt Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving education policy, Indigenous students make up about 1% of the nation's postsecondary students.
The report cites academic preparation and the cost of college as two major barriers to Indigenous enrollment, noting that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health reported that the median household income for Indigenous people in 2019 was $49,906. non-Hispanic white households totaled $71,664.
