KU and Haskell are connected: If HINU falls short, Lawrence hurts too | Williams
The University of Kansas and the city of Lawrence benefit from having Haskell Indian Nations University in town, and vice versa, so neither wants to see this historic school struggling to operate.
Nevertheless, Haskell is in trouble again — and this time, if problems don’t get fixed in the next few months, it could cost the only completely federally funded four-year institution for Native Americans in the country its accreditation. And some worry that could lead to its end. That should not be allowed to happen.
“I am a big fan of Haskell, for what it means to the people and for the Lawrence community and economic development,” Lawrence Mayor Brad Finkeldei told me this week. “Haskell is so important.”
He said Haskell and the University of Kansas have a unique relationship, with KU professors teaching at Haskell and Haskell instructors teaching at KU. KU students take classes at Haskell, and Haskell students take classes at KU. Students and faculty at the two institutions support one another’s programming, too. They have a mutual relationship.
Not surprising that Alex Red Corn, a citizen of the Osage Nation, Haskell’s director and associate professor of Indigenous studies and associate vice chancellor for sovereign partnerships and Indigenous initiatives at KU, was named acting president at Haskell earlier this year.
Haskell, Finkeldei said, is woven into the fabric of the Lawrence community.
I was very aware of that during the years I covered higher education for The Star and spent a significant amount of time on both the KU and the Haskell campuses. They are close neighbors.
It may take some bold new steps to keep this institution in good standing, but whatever it takes, we should not let Haskell go.
‘Accredited on notice’
While the responsibility for this unique institution falls to federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of the Interior, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Bureau of Indian Education, it’s a report from the Higher Learning Commission that now puts the future of the university at risk.
An HLC review of university operations concluded last summer with a report that changed the school’s status from accredited to “accredited on notice” because it is at risk of being out of compliance with the criteria for accreditation. The problems relate to concerns involving academic advising, program assessment, faculty training, and administrative leadership. Those things seem administrative, and they are, but they trickle down to students and the quality of the education they receive at this government-run institution.
The new status requires the university to host a second review in December and show proof that the administration is well on its way to remedying the problems. Failure to show improvement could warrant giving the university more time to get up to par, but also could lead HLC to pull Haskell’s accreditation.
Slowed by federal bureaucracy
I’m not alone in believing that the federal government is to blame for much of the failures at Haskell because, unlike any other institutions of higher learning in this country, other than military academies, Haskell is fully governed by federal agencies.
Nothing happens at Haskell without leaders having to first wade through a swamp of bureaucratic red tape that takes too long, and often functions as a barrier to timely progress.
Here’s a small example: I reached out to Acting President Red Corn for comments about how Haskell is responding to the HCL accreditation ruling and to talk with him about how the change in its accreditation status impacts its relationship with KU.
Even though he is the head of the university, Red Corn said he couldn’t talk with me until he got permission from the BIE. He said he was waiting for a reply to his request for permission.
Mayor Finkeldei, is familiar with that kind of bureaucracy at Haskell. It has kept the city and the community on occasion from lending a hand to help the institution.
He said Lawrence, the city, and members of the community have wanted to lend real support to the institution in terms of helping repair the school’s “huge deferred maintenance” problem. But since it is a federal institution, “we can’t do that so easily,” he said. Everything requires approval from the federal government, and federal bureaucracy means “that is not fast coming.”
In the last decade, Haskell has faced problem after problem, including conflicts between students and the administration over free speech and accusations from female students that the university administration failed to protect women on campus from sexual abuse. The university has lacked steady leadership. It has seen a troubling amount of executive-level turnover and operated under eight different presidents, including acting and interim leaders, since 2015.
Last year, the Trump administration proposed massive cuts to Indian education, including Haskell, which has long struggled with a lack of federal funding for infrastructure upkeep, among other things. University faculty at the time said those cuts threaten to devastate tribal colleges “beyond any hope of functionality.”
Then last summer, a group of Republican lawmakers led by U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran of Hays formally announced the “Haskell Indian Nations University Improvement Act” to remove the Bureau of Indian Education from the management of the university and place governance under a Haskell Board of Regents.
“When we began drafting the bill, the Bureau of Indian Education and Bureau of Indian Affairs had for years been failing to protect Haskell University students, respond to congressional inquiries or meet the basic infrastructure needs of the university.,” Moran told The Star this week.
He said, these challenges “have no doubt contributed to Haskell’s accreditation being under review and make it even more important to act quickly to reform the university.”
Jerry Moran: Haskell ‘custodian of Tribal culture’
Knowing Haskell’s history is important, as crucial decisions are made that could determine its future. Established in 1884, Haskell was started as an assimilation-era boarding school to forcibly strip Native American children of their culture. The school transitioned into a college-level institution in 1970 and was renamed Haskell Indian Nations University in 1993. The university enrolls — tuition-free — about 1,000 students a semester from over 140 tribal nations and Alaska Native communities across the United States.
The existence of this university is tied to an American promise — formed during the treaty-making era from 1778 to 1871 — to provide educational opportunities to Native Americans in exchange for millions of acres of tribal lands.
Like the city of Lawrence, I am fully in favor of efforts, local and national, to save and protect this institution from harm. I’m thrilled that the indomitable spirit of the Indigenous who have fought for years to keep this institution going and to protect the pride they have in the university has not gone unnoticed.
“Haskell University serves as a custodian of Tribal culture,” Moran said. “Making reforms to strengthen and improve Haskell University are critical.” Yes, that, and its students deserve better than the inefficiency, mismanagement and neglect they face under the current governance system.
