(FORTUNE Magazine) – College and university officials seeking to diversify their enrollments are unsure how to define ''American Indian'' . . . The issue was spotlighted . . . in the Detroit News, which found that many Michigan institutions simply allowed students to declare their ethnicity or race, without checking to see if the declarations were true. The newspaper also found that some students who had previously described themselves as white now said they were American Indian. As a result, ((they)) were receiving financial aid and other benefits . . . normally reserved for disadvantaged and minority students. Those benefits included a full-tuition waiver under a program for state residents who are at least one-fourth American Indian . . . Some higher-education officials said that white students who identified themselves as Indians might have just misinterpreted the question. When completing admissions applications, some students could have checked the box next to ''Native American'' because they were born in the United States. -- From an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education.