Haskell Indian Nations University was able to take a step forward, rehiring several employees who were fired without cause under federal orders, but it could face two steps back with Trump administration demands for reduction-in-force plans.
Dan Wildcat, a Haskell professor and Yuchi member of the Muscogee Nation of Oklahoma, shared updates during the Douglas County Democratic Party’s Saturday Seminar.
“We are standing strong at Haskell,” Wildcat said. “We know we still have an uphill battle.”
About three dozen people — constituting more than 20% of the university’s staff, and including instructors who were teaching 34 courses — were fired without cause on Feb. 14 based on federal orders. The Trump administration made sweeping, indiscriminate cuts to federal employees nationwide, targeting people based on their unprotected status as probationary employees.
Last week, 14 of those people, including all the instructors, were reinstated at Haskell. Wildcat said they were brought back with backpay.
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“I really think it was a full-court press that made that successful. I mean, it was the community, it was our alumni, it was our Board of Regents, it was tribal leaders, and it was also the tireless work of our president,” he said, referring to Haskell President Frank Arpan, Yankton Sioux.
Wildcat said Arpan has been working endless hours “to do everything he can to ensure that we’re going to be made whole again.”
Federal judges in California and Maryland ruled separately last week that the probationary employees of federal agencies who were fired in those cuts must be reinstated. However, “We haven’t heard anything official from (the Bureau of Indian Education) that that will happen,” Wildcat said, and the administration will probably also appeal the judges’ rulings. Getting the other employees back is still a key priority.
Further, the White House’s Office of Management and Budget and Office of Personnel Management issued a memo on Feb. 26 demanding that all federal agencies create “Agency RIF and Reorganization Plans” by March 13. The plans must include “A significant reduction in the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) positions by eliminating positions that are not required,” according to the memo.
Wildcat said he was told that Haskell had submitted a plan, but “no one knows” yet what the impact will be. A person he’d spoken to at another federal agency said they were told to expect a 40% cut in that agency’s remaining staff, Wildcat said.
“It’s just insane, what’s happening,” he said. “So we’re probably going to take another hit.”
“… Please let our congressional leadership in Washington know that Haskell should be — must be — exempt from a federal reduction in force action,” he said to those in attendance.
Contact information for the congressional delegation representing Lawrence and Douglas County is available at this link. The nonprofit 5 Calls, 5calls.org, has phone numbers and templates of scripts to help people make their voices heard on several federal issues.
Haskell was established under the federal government’s legal treaty and trust obligations to provide education to American Indian and Alaska Native people.
The Haskell Foundation has been raising funds to support temporary contracts for some employees, to provide limited emergency assistance to employees who were terminated and more. As of Sunday afternoon, it had raised more than $246,000, about 70% of its $350,000 goal.
Read more in the articles linked below.
Note: This article was written from a video recording of the meeting, posted by Jerry Jost, of Lawrence.
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More coverage — Haskell Indian Nations University:
Molly Adams / Lawrence TimesHaskell bracing for ‘another hit’ as feds call for reduction-in-force plans
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