Haskell’s new president promises a long stay, growth

The first time Venida Chenault left Haskell Indian Junior College, she went home to Topeka and ended up working as a maid.

It was 1975 and she had dropped out to help family members who were mourning the loss of her oldest brother, a Vietnam veteran and Haskell student who had been shot to death in Topeka.

A Haskell professor insisted Chenault get back on track, pointing her toward a vo-tech school she could attend while she worked.

Nine years later, Chenault returned to Lawrence and re-enrolled at Haskell. She stayed a semester and then left again, but this time it was to transfer to the University of Kansas. She graduated from KU with a bachelor’s degree in 1989 and then a master’s in clinical social work.

Chenault eventually returned to her old school — now Haskell Indian Nations University, the only federally funded four-year Indian university in the country — and now she is its president. The school’s 745 students represent more than 150 Native American tribes.

“I owe a lot to Haskell and I have a big belief in giving back,” said Chenault, 57.

She replaced Chris Redman, who came to Haskell in the summer of 2011 after the school had gone through two years of turmoil with no permanent president on campus and growing divisions among faculty, students and administrators. The school had gained a reputation as financially troubled and unsafe, with one of the nation’s lowest graduation rates. Redman promised to turn it all around, but left after two years.

Chenault “is the right person at this point in time to lead this university,” said American Indian studies professor Dan Wildcat, a Faculty Senate member. “If she had been made president seven years ago, we wouldn’t have to work so mightily to play catch up now.”

Chenault accepted the top job after 23 years as a faculty member and administrator at Haskell. She said she has big plans for the school, including tapping private money for the first time in its 130-year history, protecting the school’s brand, fixing aging buildings and improving academic programs.

One priority is to keep improving the graduation rate, which in 2010 had dropped to 9 percent. In 2013, it was 32 percent. The university offers four bachelor’s programs, but more students earn a two-year’s associate’s degree before transferring to a larger four-year institution.

Also on her list is to bring in young leaders to carry on the school’s mission of providing a higher education designed for Native American students. About 40 percent of the school’s employees are nearing retirement.

Chenault emerged one recent day from her office inside Haskell’s Navarre Hall. She was smiling — something that would have been rare four years ago when, as vice president of academic affairs, Chenault filled in for then-president Linda Sue Warner, who’d been re-located to Oklahoma just as Haskell landed at the center of controversy.

U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts had called on the Obama administration to investigate complaints of mishandled money, personnel issues and ethics violations. A visit from federal officials found mismanagement and discord throughout the campus.

Supporters of the absent president blamed Chenault for the problems and attacked her in blogs and in comments on online news stories.

“It was a difficult time,” Chenault recalled. She said it was tough on her and her four children — two of them Haskell graduates and one a current student. All questioned why she would want to lead the troubled university.

She admits she had offers to leave Haskell for a post at another Kansas university. “But I couldn’t leave,” Chenault said. “Being a leader means running into the arrows. I have a responsibility here.”

Students, she said, look at her and see another administrator, a university president. When Chenault looks at Haskell students, many of whom didn’t think of themselves as college material until they got to the campus, she sees herself.

Chenault grew up poor in Topeka. As a single mother, she relied on federal assistance and food stamps to feed her children. Before starting her teaching career in higher education at Haskell, she worked with addicted Native Americans at a private psychiatric hospital.

It’s clear she hasn’t forgotten the hard work that put her behind the desk where the buck stops.

“I know what it is like to struggle,” Chenault said. “And I know what difference is made when you have a good education.”

Haskell, she said, is a place where students discover their potential. “It is like all they need is an opportunity. Haskell is their opportunity.”

Haskell began with 22 Indian children in 1884. It grew into Haskell Indian Junior College, and in 1993 the U.S. Department of the Interior changed its name to Haskell Indian Nations University.

Staci Kaye, student body president, is a senior studying business administration. She’s met with Chenault on a number of occasions, and even traveled with her for several days to a tribal college conference.

“I’m excited, and most of us — students — are excited to have her as our president,” Kaye said. “We know she is an alum and that Haskell is near and dear to her heart. ... In President Chenault we have a newfound strength because we have someone who will stay here and not leave us again.”

Chenault, a member of the Prairie Band Potawatomi and Kickapoo tribes, said she’s ready to roll up her sleeves and do what needs to be done.

“There isn’t anyone to do it, so you do it yourself,” she said.

Chenault has been known to step behind the serving table at an event and dish out food to people in line — and stay afterward to help clean up.

“I work next to her every day,” said Stephen Prue, the university’s spokesman. “She walks through the halls greeting people and she knows everyone’s name. I’ve heard her say, ‘How’s your family,’ because she knows their family.”

With federal funding slowing in the last 10 to 15 years, Haskell’s faculty and staff have dwindled to 184, about half the size Chenault remembers. The university’s budget is about $10 million.

Students don’t pay tuition but do pay a $200 fee to attend the university. Chenault said that fee is being raised to $700 for fall 2014.

“Haskell will still be the best bargain among our peer institutions,” Chenault said. “We haven’t raised it so much that access will be denied. I want us to be able to attract students who have potential but don’t have funds.”

Toward that end, Haskell is developing a foundation that will allow the school to solicit private funds to restore programs that had been cut, catch up on some deferred maintenance and provide need-based scholarships.

The university is preparing to market itself as a safe institution offering strong bachelor degree-granting programs in business administration, environmental science, elementary teacher education and American Indian studies.

Chenault said she doesn’t want Haskell adding degree programs it’s not prepared to sustain. “My goal is that whatever programs we offer, we will have programs of distinction.

“And I will be here to shepherd us through it all.”

This story was originally published April 1, 2014 at 11:08 PM with the headline "Haskell’s new president promises a long stay, growth."