An agreement was signed Monday between UW-Madison and the College of the Menominee Nation that will make full student transfers possible between the two schools, the first formal arrangement with a tribal school in the state.

The agreement allows students to take classes at CMN, located north of Shawano, and then be given guaranteed admission to UW-Madison two years later if they have completed 54 credits in specified areas and have earned a 3.0 grade point average at the tribal school.

A 2002 arrangement was created with CMN and UW-Madison’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, but the agreement signed Monday is a formal campus-to-campus contract.

CMN is one of 34 tribally controlled community colleges in the United States, and is recognized as a national leader in sustainable development, according to a University Communications statement. The school creates greater opportunities for American Indians for higher education, stated Dean of College of Letters and Science at UW-Madison Gary Sandefur.

Sandefur said he is optimistic the program will increase the total enrollment of Native American students at UW-Madison.

The arrangement agreed upon Monday is similar to others already in place between the 13 two-year UW colleges and three Wisconsin technical colleges. “We started looking at this [college] after technical college agreements,” stated UW-Madison Provost Patrick Farrell.

Farrell said he hopes that it will be beneficial to UW-Madison, the students of CMN, and the greater Shawano area. UW-Madison has the capacity to expand its transfer student numbers at upperclassmen levels, according to the statement. There are only 182 American Indians undergraduate students this fall at UW-Madison. Eight American Indians were among the 1,276 transfer students.

The 182 students represent an increase from last fall, with the number of graduate and professional students also increasing.

“I don’t think we’ll get an abrupt change [in the number of American Indians from CMN], but I would expect over the next two to three years, I’d like to see a steady increase in the number of students from there,” Farrell said.

CMN will also become a part of UW Connections, allowing students to apply for dual-admission and giving them full UW-Madison student status from day one, even though they started their schooling at CMN.