Robert San Juan
McKaylin Peters at the Indigenous Student Center’s Student Welcome
Now a senior at UW-Madison, McKaylin Peters received a PEOPLE scholarship but won't reap the benefits of the university's new scholarship program for Native American students.
McKaylin Peters grew up on the Menominee reservation in northeastern Wisconsin. She says she always knew she wanted a career that would allow her to give back to her community, perhaps by studying politics or psychology. But college was never a guaranteed route.
The Menominee reservation is in the poorest county in the state, Peters notes, “so attending a Big 10 university such as UW Madison isn't an option for most Indigenous students. Especially because like eight out of 10 times, they're paying out of pocket by themselves.”
She did make it to UW-Madison through the PEOPLE scholarship, and is now a senior in the Community and Nonprofit Leadership Program. “I could not have afforded to attend here without it,” Peters says. But because the PEOPLE scholarship covers only tuition, Peters will still be graduating with student debt.
Other Indigenous students might have a bit more help in the future.
In December, UW-Madison announced that UW would cover the full cost of undergraduate attendance for students enrolled in a federally recognized Wisconsin Indian tribe. Unlike the PEOPLE scholarship, the scholarship also covers room and board and other educational expenses.
Carla Vigue, the director of tribal relations at UW-Madison, notes that schools like the University of Michigan and University of Minnesota have full tuition waivers, but none in Wisconsin provided this support. Vigue says UW-Madison wanted to “take full care” of Native students by providing them with money for room, board and all other expenses.
Vigue says that the goal of the program is to “bring more students here and then make sure that we set them up for success once they arrive.”
Peters says she is encouraging Native students to apply to UW now because this assistance would allow them to focus more completely on their studies, without needing a part time job or federal aid. At one point during her undergrad years, Peters says she needed two part-time jobs to pay for her expenses.
“It just allows for a more even playing field for Indigenous students to be able to focus on their studies or to do opportunities such as study abroad, or to pick up more classes so we can get done in four years versus going on to five or six,” Peters says.
While this program is too late for Peters, she knows others who will experience the benefits. One friend of hers needed to stay an extra year to finish nursing school, but wasn’t sure if she could afford it. With the new scholarship, she’ll be able to finish her education. Another friend wasn’t sure how she would pay for her apartment next year, but now has a solution.
Peters says the new scholarship will form a “pipeline” for Native students to attend a prestigious university. Without a scholarship, they might have to attend a smaller university, but smaller schools would not have the resources for Indigenous students like UW-Madison.
“Growing up on the reservation, UW-Madison is the number one school you can even aim for in our state,” Peters says. “And it's often more of a dream than a reality.”
Vigue emphasizes that the university wants to move beyond acknowledging the land they are on as a university, and “start to do something that builds and grows our relationship with the Native population and the Native leadership in the native communities across the state.”
They do not yet know how many students will need to be covered by the program, and Vigue estimates the initial numbers will be small, because there is only a small percentage of the Wisconsin population that identifies as Native American.
Students accepted into UW-Madison will have the option of applying for the program as part of their financial aid package. Otherwise, there is a portal where students can offer proof of enrollment in a tribe to show their qualifications for the scholarship.
According to a story from Henry Redman in the Wisconsin Examiner, the use of enrollment for eligibility has sparked controversy among Native residents since it relies on a system known as “blood quantum.” “First instituted by the federal government, blood quantum tracks the percentage of Native 'blood' someone has. Different tribes require different blood quantum percentages to be eligible for enrollment.”
But Richard Monette, a law professor at UW, defended the practice.
“If this tuition waiver were not based on tribal membership, it would be race-based, and it would suffer a defeat at the hands of a constitutional challenge based on equal protection,” Monette told Redman.
