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RIVERTON, Wyo. (AP) — University of Wyoming president Laurie Nichols said she would like to boost American Indian enrollment at Wyoming's only public, four-year university.
"A recruitment and pipeline program is probably needed," Nichols, who became president in May, said following a visit this past week to the Wind River Indian Reservation.
During her trip, Nichols met with the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone business councils and other tribal leaders.
She said that visit had been a priority of hers after she was hired in December, adding she hoped she'd be able to improve the relationship between the university and tribal communities.
Before taking over at UW, Nichols had been provost at South Dakota State University where she worked extensively with that state's American Indian community.
"I wanted to get to the reservation here and meet the tribes," she told The Riverton Ranger (http://bit.ly/29VLDbU). "There's similarities, and there's differences, and I wanted to start seeing what some of those were."
While working as dean of SDSU's College of Family and Consumer Sciences, Nichols was project director for an initiative in which SDSU, tribal colleges and high schools collaborated to help American Indian students earn bachelor's degrees.
The program recruited tribal college students and high school students, offering them special stipends, guidance and orientation programs.
In part, Nichols said she developed that program because she wanted to "work with the tribal colleges and not be in competition with them."
Because Wyoming doesn't have as many tribal colleges as South Dakota, Nichols said the program could use Central Wyoming College instead, but she said it also ought to include an option for students to go directly from high school to UW.
"Not every student wants to go to a community college or a tribal college, and they certainly should have the ability to go right to a university if they want to do that," she said.
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Information from: The (Riverton, Wyo.) Ranger, http://www.dailyranger.com
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