Post last updated at 8:47 p.m. Friday, Feb. 14:
Numerous employees of Haskell Indian Nations University lost their jobs Friday as part of sweeping nationwide cuts ordered by President Donald Trump’s administration.
A member of Haskell’s Board of Regents said the layoffs are in “basically every department on campus” — faculty, student services, athletics, IT and more. They said about 40 people are losing their jobs.
One now-former staff member estimated that about 30% of faculty and staff were laid off. Some employees at the Indian Health Service are also being laid off.
A survey published in 2023 indicated that the university had 146 full-time equivalent employees as of fall 2022.
There will be students on campus whose classes have no instructors when school resumes Tuesday, sources on campus said Friday. The university’s accreditation could also be at risk, as it cannot support all its students with the reduced staff.
Trump’s Office of Personnel Management ordered agencies to lay off nearly all probationary employees, generally meaning those who have a year or less on the job, the Associated Press reported. Some Haskell employees were on probationary periods lasting more than a year. The cuts are part of the Trump administration’s push to shrink the size of the federal workforce.
Campus on Friday afternoon was desolate as people processed what had happened. Some people had already left; others sat anxiously, waiting for their names to be called.
It was mostly quiet, with some sobs here and there, and people consoled each other with hugs. No one wanted to speak for this article.
The impacts of the layoffs are rippling through campus life.
The Haskell Spring Welcome Back Powwow has been postponed, and the university’s third annual entrepreneurial summit that was set to span two days next week has been canceled. The Allies of Equality club also lost its faculty sponsor. Countless other Haskell community groups and events will likely be affected.
Community efforts are underway to organize support for the former employees, who will only be paid through Friday.
The Haskell Board of Regents said in a statement that it was “closely monitoring the recent directive from the Office of Personnel Management, which has resulted in the termination of certain probationary federal employees across multiple agencies. At this time, the Board has not received confirmation that Haskell Indian Nations University is exempt from these layoffs.”
“We have been in contact with (Haskell) President (Francis) Arpan and Congressional offices, and we appreciate their efforts to mitigate any disruptions to Haskell’s operations,” Dalton Henry, president of the Haskell Board of Regents, said in a press release sent out Friday evening. “We recognize that the Bureau of Indian Education, Senator Moran, and Representative Mann are working to reduce the impact of these changes, and we are grateful for their attention to this issue.”
The board’s statement said that Douglas Burgum, U.S. secretary of the interior, “recently indicated he would fulfill the Department’s statutory, treaty, and trust obligations to American Indians and Alaska Natives. Haskell is just such an obligation.”
It said the board acknowledges ongoing conversations around proposed legislation that would give administrative control at Haskell to a board of regents rather than the Bureau of Indian Education, and that the board remains engaged in conversations about solutions that could help insulate the university from the effects of shifting federal policies.
A spokesperson for the Bureau of Indian Education and a representative of Sen. Jerry Moran’s office did not respond to emails seeking information Friday. The Haskell president’s office directed a request for comment to the BIE.
Kansas’ First congressional district, which includes Lawrence, is estimated to have 8,155 federal workers, according to AP.
If our local journalism matters to you, please help us keep doing this work.
Don’t miss a beat … Click here to sign up for our email newsletters
Click here to learn more about our newsletters first
Molly Adams (she/her), photojournalist and news operations coordinator for The Lawrence Times, can be reached at molly@lawrencekstimes.com. Check out more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
Mackenzie Clark (she/her), reporter/founder of The Lawrence Times, can be reached at mclark@lawrencekstimes.com. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
Latest Lawrence news:
Nathan Kramer / Lawrence Times
Douglas County/Contributed Photo
