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The Special Advisor fosters and develops relationships with tribal nations and their members on behalf of the university and advises ASU on programming and initiatives that are designed to help improve outreach, retention and graduation rates of American Indian students.

American Indian Students make up less than 1% of college students in the U.S., according to the National Center for Education Statistics, and only about 13% of Native Americans have a college degree. ASU, whose Tempe campus sits on the ancestral homelands of Indigenous peoples, including the Akimel O’odham (Pima) and Xalychidom Piipaash (Maricopa) is striving to change those numbers.

In 1995, there were 672 American Indian students attending ASU. Today, that number is about 3,500, and ASU is one of the nation’s leaders in degrees granted to American Indian students on an annual basis.