Haskell university president speaks out against ethnic fraud

In an Inside Higher Education article Haskell Indian Nations University President Venida Chenault is extensively quoted on professors who fake being Indian to land a position at a college seeking a diverse faculty.

Haskell a federally funded four-year institution in Lawrence has a 100 percent Native American student body and half its professors are also Native, the other half is not.

Chenault says in the article that cross-checking an applicant’s stated ethnicity with a federal tribal enrollment database is quite simple, and only makes sense. Haskell, she said, verifies every applicant’s claim

“I think it’s offensive when an individual claims the privilege of being native but has no sense of responsibility or integrity in terms of fulfilling any commitment to a tribe,” Chenault said. “Otherwise it’s simply a box they check.”

“Every time this occurs and it’s ignored, these universities are complicit in allowing a fraud when there are qualified tribal people who could provide tremendous contributions.”

This story was originally published September 22, 2015 at 2:03 PM with the headline "Haskell university president speaks out against ethnic fraud."