As part of the Putting Students First Scholarship Campaign, the Native American Studies department at MSU seeks to develop a permanent fund for scholarships assisting American Indian students enrolled on the Bozeman campus. The department is looking to faculty, alumni, friends, corporate sponsors and foundations to invest in students by helping to create a $2 million endowment fund to recruit, retain and educate American Indian undergraduate and graduate students. The undergraduate scholarship portion will be a $1,500,000 scholarship fund established solely for American Indian undergraduates in any field of study, provided they have an unmet financial need and are in good academic standing. The second scholarship fund will be an expansion of the already existing Bobby Wright Scholarship Fund for NAS Graduate Students. This fund currently has approximately $15,000. The amount needs to be raised to $500,000 to be effective in supporting MSU NAS master's students. While not all of the NAS master's students are of American Indian descent, they are all dedicated to the teaching and scholarship of accurate American Indian history, culture and contemporary issues. According to Wayne Stein, professor of Native American Studies, and chair of the Native American Scholarship Steering Committee, financial hurdles are among the few remaining obstacles to success for American Indian students. "We've recognized for years that this is a pressing need," says Stein. "Most Indian students leave college because of financial difficulties, not academics or anything else. We've addressed most all other issues with great support programs, mentoring and tutoring. MSU has worked very hard for about 25 years to be a place where American Indian students feel welcome and will have their needs met." In Montana, American Indians constitute almost 7 percent of the state's populace. There are approximately 250 Indian students currently enrolled at MSU (representing roughly 2 percent of the student body). Nationally, the number one barrier preventing American Indians from pursuing higher education is the lack of financial aid resources (such as grants, scholarships and fellowships). With only a handful of small scholarships available for American Indian students at MSU, a majority go unsupported and/or underfunded. So much more urgently needs to be done in the recruitment, retention and education of these students. Many of their needs would be addressed with an additional $2 million endowed scholarship fund. For more information about the $2 million scholarship effort, contact Wayne Stein at the Native American Studies department at MSU, (406) 994-3881, e-mail: wstein@montana.edu, or Tiffany Sandholm, MSU Foundation development officer, at (800) 457-1696, (406) 994-6858. For more information about the Montana State University Foundation, visit their website at www.montana.edu/foundation