The Silent Decline: Native American Student Enrollment at Ohio State
By Xiyonne McCullough | Patricia B. Miller Special Projects Reporter
What she found instead was a sense of belonging that felt temporary.
During her first year, she remembers being surprised by how present the Native community seemed. The Center for Belonging and Social Change funded student trips to powwows, a Native student advisor, Madison Eagle, helped organize beadwork nights, connected students to faculty and cultivated a small but vibrant cohort.
“That told me there was at least something here,” Walkup said. “Native student experiences were heavily funded through the CBSC. It felt like people cared about our success.”
But within four years, almost all of that infrastructure disappeared. The CBSC was closed, Native-affiliated programs shrank and the Native American and Indigenous People Cohort dissolved this semester due to low student numbers.
Walkup, now a fourth-year in psychology, will graduate from a university posting its lowest Native American enrollment in a decade.
According to Ohio State’s 10-year enrollment trend tables based on the 15th-day enrollment report census, Native American enrollment has steadily fallen across the past 10 years. On the Columbus campus, the number of students who identify as Native American dropped from 99 in 2013 to 37 in 2023, the most recent year available.
Faculty at Ohio State who teach within the American Indian Studies program say the drop is the end result of a pattern of reduced institutional support over several years, which ultimately coincided with the closure of the CBSC after a state law banned diversity, equity and inclusion programs at all Ohio public universities.
“Over time, there has been a reduction in those support systems,” Teresa Lynch, an assistant professor in the School of Communication and a faculty member in the American Indian Studies program, said. “Madison was at first dedicated to supporting Native students, but her role shifted, and eventually she left because she wasn’t being given funding to support students.”
Land acknowledgments are a statement noting the university resides on tribal land, as purchased through the Morrill Act of 1862.
According to the university’s website outlining SB 1 guidelines, Ohio State may not issue statements that engage in advocacy or calls to action, which they consider land acknowledgments.
Elissa Washuta, an associate professor of English and director of the American Indian Studies program, said territory around what can and cannot be said feels muddy.
“It’s hard to feel like I’m allowed to be fully Native in the classroom at this point because of the lack of clarity around what we are and are not allowed to say,” Washuta said.
As a professor, Lynch echoed a similar sentiment.
“It’s been hard as a Native faculty to watch many colleagues leaving, and knowing that’s just going to make the issue more difficult,” she said. “These university workers end up leaving for other Big Ten schools that have programs and allow them the freedom to be openly Native.”
Faced with these issues, university spokesperson Chris Booker said Ohio State both acknowledges and provides resources pertaining to indigeneity.
“Ohio State continues to support students from Indigenous communities, offer courses in American Indian Studies and other indigenous cultures,” Booker said.
Walkup said she remembers a time during the fall semester of 2022 being asked by university officials to participate in discussion around their findings of Native American enrollment.
“I remember I went to one meeting with four or five officials, and it was a mixture of students, staff and faculty that identify as Native American,” Walkup said. “We talked and planned out how to improve student enrollment from Native American communities.”
At this point, Native American enrollment across the Columbus campus sat at 34. Even with the efforts, Walkup said there was still a feeling of abandonment from the university.
“Despite what did exist, it was definitely noticeable that there were a lot of issues that kind of came across as the university not really wanting to meet the Native community where they were,” she said.
Across all six Ohio State campuses, the count fell from 119 to 44 over that same period, according to racial demographic reporting, ending in 2023.
“Native American and Alaska Native enrollment trends at Ohio State mirror similar enrollment trends in higher education,” he said.
A 2024 report from the American Indian College Fund states that, since 2010, enrollment among Native American and Alaska Native students has dropped 40 percent nationally.
The trend at Ohio State is consistent, year after year with no rebound in sight.
Native students represent less than one-tenth of 1 percent of the student population, making them one of the smallest racial demographics at the university.
For the faculty who teach Native studies, these numbers are not abstract figures on a spreadsheet. They determine whether student organizations can remain active, program offerings and where institutional investment goes.
Lynch said earlier this semester, she learned that the student organization, Native American and Indigenous People Cohort, had to pause meetings due to low student numbers.
Lynch arrived nine years ago at Ohio State when programming for Native students was run through what was then called the Multicultural Center.
Madison Eagle, the Native student advisor at the time, single-handedly planned cultural events, handled one-on-one advising and ensured that Native students had someone within the university who understood the challenges they faced.
That support, Lynch said, made a substantial difference.
“She did a lot of program development,” Lynch said. “She brought people together to share experiences, and those activities gave students a sense of community and identity.”
During its existence, the CBSC served as the prime physical location for Native American students to meet with Eagle. After her departure, Lynch and Walkup said meetings were still held by students in the physical location until its closure this year.
The closure, as part of the implementation of Ohio Senate Bill 1, dealt what Lynch described as the last straw.
“As Indigenous people, space is very important in our cultures,” Lynch said. “Not having a space is really a blow to the community, and these very few things the university was doing to support Native students are being taken away.”
Now, students are left questioning if this university is right for them.
Many Native students are the first in their families to attend college, and financial strain, lack of representation and limited campus support can play significant roles in retention and graduation rates.
Having no federally recognized tribes in the state, Washuta said retention resources can be a powerful way to bring Native students to Ohio State, but that there are none.
“I don’t know that there are any dedicated resources for Native students,” she said.
Booker said Ohio State offers “extensive support services for students of all backgrounds.” He specifically mentioned Buckeye Commons, and the Monda Student Resource Center, as well as offering a link to the student organization directory, which currently lists over 1,400 student organizations.
Buckeye Commons, however, resides where diverse student groups, such as Native American students’ resources, once lived — in the former CBSC.
Those phased-out resources, as well as community connection, can be a small, yet powerful benefit that Washuta said can impact students’ choices to attend the university.
“The university needs to have somebody to do tribal relations and connect university leadership at the level of president and provost to tribal leadership,” she said. “Tribes have no reason to engage with the university unless the university is prepared to meet them with the respect that they need to be afforded.”
The Newark Earthworks Center, located on Ohio State’s Newark campus, is dedicated to research, preservation and education on the ancient earthworks built by Indigenous peoples in the Midwest. The center focuses on the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks, which are now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and works to connect tribal nations with knowledge tied to those sites.
Faculty and staff there facilitate community partnerships, public programming and scholarly work highlighting the Indigenous roots of Ohio, offering one of the few institutional hubs in the state that foregrounds Native history and stewardship.
Washuta said increased connection efforts with the earthworks center is another way to connect Native identity to all students.
The Moonrise Gallery
Direct work in admissions is another area that Washuta said needs focus.
According to Booker, there currently are no positions related to Native American admission connections.
“Somebody in admissions [could] work as a Native recruiter, whether a dedicated recruiter or somebody who has that as part of their position to go to urban areas in Ohio where there are Native communities following mid-century relocation efforts,” Washuta said.
“We’re small, but we’re not invisible,” she said. “But when the university treats us like we don’t need specific support, it feels like they’re okay with us disappearing.”
Students and faculty also point to the symbolic significance of representation. Lynch said these limitations make the campus less attractive to prospective Native students, who often look for universities with robust Native life, clear commitments to tribal engagement and scholarship programs to assist retention.
“There is a sense that, if you come here, you will be one of very few,” Lynch said. “And when students see that programming has been cut and spaces have been closed, that weakens the message that they are valued.”
Walkup said she has watched incoming cohorts shrink each year. When she arrived, she knew at least a dozen Native students across majors and dorms. This year, she said she can name only a handful.
“It used to feel like a community, even if it was small,” she said. “Now it feels scattered.”
For students like Walkup, the issue can be more than a statistic. It affects their perception of Ohio State and hopes of the university’s future.
“It doesn’t feel like there’s urgency,” she said. “It feels like we’re shrinking, and no one is trying to figure out why.”
Lynch worries that without meaningful change, the decline will continue. She said she hopes the university considers not only recruitment but also what Native students encounter once they arrive.
“Students need more than a number on an enrollment sheet. They need community, support, and a sense that the university recognizes them,” Lynch said.
With her graduation date around the corner, Walkup said she accepted that the community she imagined at Ohio State never fully materialized, but hopes future students have a different experience.
“It’s not too late to fix this,” she said. “But it starts with the university recognizing that we’re here, even if we’re few, and choosing to invest in us again.”