Indigenous graduation numbers rising at ACC, BU

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This article was published 13/05/2017 (3175 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The number of indigenous students graduating from Assiniboine Community College and Brandon University is slowly rising, a trend that both institutions expect to continue as indigenous student enrolment increases.

In 2016, there were 234 indigenous grads at ACC compared to 204 in 2012. There were also 1,174 indigenous enrolments in 2016 — the highest amount in the last five years.

The number of indigenous graduates at BU dipped from 66 in 2015 to 48 in 2016, after having gradually increased in fits and starts since 2012. In 2016, BU had 367 undergraduate and 35 graduate indigenous students enrolled at the university, and, based on projections, those numbers are expected to increase to 543 undergrads and 39 graduates in 2022, and716 undergrads and 44 graduates in 2027.

Both ACC and BU signed the Indigenous Education Blueprint in 2015 — a plan aiming to advance indigenous education and reconciliation in Manitoba based on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s recommendations.

ACC has come away from that creating its Indigenization Strategy, which dean of students, indigenous and community development Michael Cameron said is already having an impact.

“(The strategy) will help the college in the long run do a better job at recruiting and retaining our students and getting them to successfully graduate at the end in their chosen fields,” Cameron said. “One of our goals … is to increase our indigenous student numbers and indigenous student graduates, and our expectation is that will continue to rise. Our goal as an institution is to double our graduate rate by 2025, and our indigenous students will contribute to that as well.”

ACC is trying to provide a better support system for indigenous students on campus, Cameron said, through initiatives such as having visiting elders to each campus, as well as a cultural centre on site.

“(The cultural centre) provides a safe haven that indigenous students can go to any time of the day and just be alone or be with other indigenous students, talk with elders, talk with staff — just having a safe space within the college itself is very supportive of the success of our students,” Cameron said.

“When you’re coming from a northern community and you’ve never really been to an urban centre before, it can be pretty daunting, so to have a place to go to and have people of your own culture to talk to, it’s pretty important.”

ACC is also focused on building relationships within the indigenous community, including providing community-based training.

“Our staff is in the communities on a regular basis as well, promoting not only the college, but programming that can be done within the community themselves,” Cameron said.

BU is still in the process of creating its plan for supporting indigenous education, but has already been making similar strides, focusing on building relationships and support.

“There has been an increase in enrolment numbers … and it’s 100 per cent a priority in our recruitment and retention office,” said Courtney Adams, director of recruitment and retention.

“With everything we do, we think of our indigenous prospective students and how we can make events more appealing to them, meet their needs, in a sense, and make them feel that their traditions and culture is respected and valued here.”

Chris Lagimodiere, director of the Indigenous Peoples’ Centre, said he believes increases in graduation rates are directly tied to the concentrated effort in supporting students throughout their education.

“A lot of challenges that students are facing, indigenous or not, are things that happen outside the classroom — having a job, having to work, child care, transportation, relocating from either a First Nation community or a rural community — that all plays into how successful a student will be,” Lagimodiere said.

“Recognizing that these students do have unique challenges or barriers that they may be facing or even just different culture changes coming from rural or northern community. There is an invested effort of the university to identify those things and then put programs in place to help support students with that.”

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