The firing of three dozen Haskell Indian Nations University employees last week following Trump administration orders is putting a new focus on attempts to shift control of the school to its Board of Regents. But some students worry that could alter the qualities that make Haskell unique.
In December, Kansas Republican congressional representatives Sen. Jerry Moran and Rep. Tracey Mann proposed a bill to take control of the university away from the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Education. The bill would reclassify Haskell as a federally chartered corporation that would continue to receive federal funding.
The bill is in early stages, and most legislation introduced in Congress doesn’t even receive a full vote. Nevertheless, proponents of the bill say it would strengthen Haskell by removing it from the control of the federal government; opponents say it is a way for the government to shirk its responsibility to support Native American education and could affect Haskell’s culture.
The bill would authorize $21 million to be appropriated to Haskell every fiscal year. Haskell received about $19.7 million in funding for fiscal year 2024, according to Department of the Interior budget documents. Biden’s budget for FY 2025 requested $23.55 million for Haskell, which has been approved by the U.S. House of Representatives.
The bill, dubbed the “Haskell Indian Nations University Improvement Act,” says the BIE has failed to fulfill the educational mission of the university.
Allegations of misconduct at the university were aired during a congressional hearing in July where some congresspeople focused on Haskell’s alleged failures to respond to reports of sexual violence and decried its outdated infrastructure and technology.
In an effort to solve this, the legislation puts control of university operations solely in the hands of the Board of Regents. Members of the board would be appointed by the U.S. president after being nominated by tribal communities.
A press release from the Board of Regents said it was monitoring the legislation and “remains engaged in conversations about solutions that could help insulate the university from the effects of shifting federal policies.”
Current board Interim President Dalton Henry, Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, said many other tribal colleges are governed by a board of regents.
Multiple Haskell faculty members either did not respond or declined requests for an interview.
‘The students are very against it’
Haskell student Kylie Standingwater, a member of the Choctaw and Cherokee nations of Oklahoma, said many students are hesitant about putting control of the university in the hands of the Board of Regents.
The top priority of Haskell should be its students, Standingwater said, and too often students have been left in the dark. She feels the board has been “quiet around campus.”
“I think that is because they know the students are very against it,” she said of the board. “The students are just fine with, in my opinion, with how everything is being run right now.”
Tyler Moore, Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, is a senior at Haskell and current Haskell Brave, an elected student ambassador role.
He is in favor of more self-determination, but is worried about the board taking control. He said they need to show “actionable intent” to prove they would work to solve problems if they received more authority.
Multiple students said they were worried funding changes might lead to increased costs and the implementation of tuition. Under the bill, funding would come from a congressional charter instead of a department in the executive branch.
“This is a place that was promised to us that it will be a free and affordable education,” Moore said. “That will go away under this bill.”
The bill references Haskell’s current tuition-free status but doesn’t specify that it would remain that way. Henry said raising costs or implementing tuition is not something the board would consider.
Henry said the best framework for self-governance is to use the charter process. He said the Institute of American Indian Arts already uses a similar process. IAIA has tuition and fees that can add up to multiple thousands of dollars, which students said would be a barrier for many at Haskell.
Regarding concerns about the board’s leadership, “The students are astute to decide for themselves if we have the capability,” Henry said. “We have educators, tribal leaders, etc. on the board.”
‘This crisis must be resolved’
Steve Cadue, Elder of the Kickapoo Tribe of Kansas and community advocate, said he has children and grandchildren who graduated from Haskell.
He said his long-term relationship with Haskell has helped him see how the university has evolved over the years. He believes the next step in that evolution is to give control to the board.
This month’s terminations, Cadue said, were a direct violation of the U.S. government’s responsibilities to provide education for tribal nations. Haskell was established under the federal government’s legal treaty and trust obligations to provide education to American Indian and Alaska Native people.
Cadue said shifting to local control was necessary. He said under the current structure, students and staff can face retribution for speaking out. That ability to speak freely is crucial to Haskell’s future, Cadue said.
“We regarded Indian education as a cornerstone of self-sufficiency and quality of life,” he said. “This crisis must be resolved.”
The Haskell Board of Regents sent a letter last week to U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum asking for a waiver from the federal government’s swath of layoffs, saying the functions of Haskell staff are legally required. Henry said the board was “genuinely concerned” about the BIE’s leadership shortcomings.
Haskell professor Dan Wildcat has taught at the school for nearly 40 years. On local radio show “According to the Record with Kim Murphree” Monday morning, Wildcat said that shortly after he came to the university, he’d “never been in an institution of higher education that seemed to be immersed in so much bureaucracy of the federal government.”
‘We have family here’
Haskell student Jade Warrington said she felt the bill was “a slap in the face to everything that Haskell has accomplished.”
Warrington was raised Yuchi but is enrolled Menominee. She said she was worried about Haskell possibly opening up to non-Native students if the bill passed.
Currently, students must prove they are enrolled in a federally recognized tribe or a direct descendant of an enrolled member of a tribe. The Native community, Warrington said, is what makes Haskell special.
The Institute of American Indian Arts, which is federally chartered, is a public institution for Native and non-Native students interested in American Indian and Alaska Native arts. The draft bill says Haskell could develop a policy “to extend preference to members of Indian Tribes” in admissions and in hiring, but students said this might not be enough to ensure Haskell’s unique culture remains.
“We function the way we do because we’re Indigenous, and I feel like that message of Indigeneity and Indigenous education has been led astray,” Warrington said.
Haskell’s growing enrollment has pushed its infrastructure. Students said Haskell is in desperate need of more housing and renovated dorms.
The burgeoning student population is proof, students said, of the university’s unique importance and need for support. Haskell provides education to more than 900 Native American and Alaska Native students from more than 150 tribal nations, according to spring enrollment numbers published this week.
“We have family here that we wouldn’t have known about unless we came to Haskell,” Standingwater said. “I have met so many cousins and relatives that I wouldn’t have known about. And I know that’s the case for so many other people.”
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Cuyler Dunn (he/him), a contributor to The Lawrence Times since April 2022, is a student at the University of Kansas School of Journalism. He is a graduate of Lawrence High School where he was the editor-in-chief of the school’s newspaper, The Budget, and was named the 2022 Kansas High School Journalist of the Year. Read his complete bio here. Read more of his work for the Times here.
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