MSU enrollment has increased among black, Asian Pacific Islander and Hispanic freshmen, according to an annual report released Tuesday.

The overall numbers indicate "historic highs," said Paulette Granberry Russell, head of the Office of Affirmative Action, Compliance and Monitoring, the office which released the report.

"We're doing an outstanding job in terms of our efforts to recruit, to increase the diversity of our student body," said Granberry Russell, senior adviser to MSU President M. Peter McPherson for diversity.

"Unquestionably, MSU can do better, but the one thing that I think we should recognize is that the trend has been to see increases."

Granberry Russell said MSU could seek to develop more relationships with high schools and middle schools.

"There are some untapped opportunities that exist with respect to creating those kinds of community partnerships," she said. "I think we also have to market the value of an MSU education.

"We can always do better. We strive to do better."

But while many minority groups saw an increase in freshman enrollment, Native American enrollment decreased from 66 freshmen in 2000-01 to 57 in 2001-02, a change of 13.64 percent.

As of October, there were 239 native American or Alaskan Native undergraduates enrolled at MSU.

A lack of a quality K-12 education could be the reason for a decline in the number of Native American students, said Arnie Parish, academic specialist for the Native American Institute at MSU.

"Most of our kids come from poor rural school districts or poor urban areas," he said. "Money and affluence doesn't exist where native kids go to school."

Jefferson Sina, faculty adviser to the Native American Indian Student Organization, said there is no explanation for a decrease in Native American enrollment numbers.

"I'd like to say that there is a simple answer but there is not," he said. "The university doesn't have enough native faculty and staff for the native students to not feel isolated.

"The people that are here work really hard to make them feel a part of the community, but we don't have a critical mass of faculty and staff."

The U.S. Supreme Court is hearing arguments in a case concerning the University of Michigan's admissions policies. But a ruling against the policies could reduce all minority enrollment, Sina said.

"I think students will be less attracted to schools that change their admissions policies," he said.

The study also reported 237 Hispanic freshmen enrolled at MSU, up from 220 last year - an increase of 7.73 percent.

"It's the fastest growing group so naturally you would expect that as this population grows older they would enroll in college," said Israel Cuellar, director of the Julian Samora Research Institute.

While numbers have increased, Cuellar said enrollment doesn't reflect nationwide totals.

"It may have gone up by 7.73 percent, but it still doesn't represent the Latino population in the country," he said.

The report also indicated Asian Pacific Islander enrollment has increased 6.02 percent, while black enrollment has increased 3.93 percent.

While the increase is a positive step, Argentina Lewis, president of Black Student Alliance, said problems still arise in getting students to stay in college once they've arrived.

"We need to do anything we can as far as programs and faculty and staff to have them stay here," she said. "We can get them here, but the real task is keeping them here."

Chrystal Griffin can be reached at griff242@msu.edu.