Sen. Jerry Moran said Monday that he will propose legislation to remove Haskell Indian Nations University from control by the Bureau of Indian Education, a sweeping move that comes as the university has been criticized for failing to protect its students.

The university in Lawrence is the only Tribal Nations University in the country and is the only four-year college funded and run by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Over the past decade, the university has faced turmoil as it ran through eight presidents and was subject to a congressional investigation over failing to address student concerns about sexual assault.

Moran’s bill, in partnership with Rep. Tracey Mann, a Salina Republican, would remove the university from the control of the Bureau of Indian Education and transfer it to a Haskell Board of Trustees appointed by the tribal community. The move would take the institution from being completely government-run to one modeled after public colleges and universities.

“For the last few years the university has been neglected and mismanaged by the Bureau of Indian Education,” Moran said. “The bureau has failed to protect students, respond to my congressional inquiries or meet the basic infrastructure needs of the school.”

According to a 2023 report from the Department of the Interior, numerous student allegations arising from Haskell’s athletics department fell on deaf ears when they were reported to university leadership and federal officials in 2022.

Those allegations of sexual assault, harassment, theft, nepotism and fraud were ignored or dismissed by the university president, BIE director and the assistant secretary of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the report found.

A spokesperson for the Bureau of Indian Education declined to comment about Moran’s plan.

But his plan does have the support of Brittany Hall, the president of the Haskell Board of Regents, and Joseph Rupnick, chairman of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation.

Hall said granting the university a congressional charter would help it better serve its students because it would no longer be constrained by federal agencies.

“Over the years, Haskell has encountered barriers to progress and innovation that stem from the structural and operational constraints within federal agencies,” Hall said. “These challenges, while not unique to Haskell, underscore the critical need for a more tailored governance model empowered by a U.S. Congressional charter — one that enables the University to thrive while better serving its students and communities.”

Troubled Haskell

University leaders have faced criticism in the past for failing to properly respond to serious accusations and upholding a culture of secrecy around alleged misconduct.

An earlier 2018 federal report concluded that former Haskell President Venida Chenault mishandled multiple sexual misconduct complaints. In 2021, then-President Ronald Graham was fired after issuing a directive that student journalists on campus not contact law enforcement or government agencies seeking information.

A revolving door at the university president position and revelations about mismanagement have raised new questions about who should actually have a say in its governance.

Transitioning away from direct federal oversight would represent yet another transformation for Haskell, which has seen many different iterations since its inception in 1884 as a strict boarding school where Native children were forcibly assimilated into American culture.

In its first decades of existence, students were forbidden from returning home, speaking their tribal language and practicing non-Christian religions and spiritual beliefs.

“The United States wanted to solve the ‘Indian Problem’ and viewed education as the fastest and most complete means of achieving that end,” according to the Haskell Cultural Center and Museum website.

After transitioning to a high school, the institution became accredited as Haskell Indian Junior College in 1970 and eventually Haskell Indian Nations University in 1993. Its mission is to provide a tuition-free education for Native students who are still required to pay some yearly fees.

Whether the historic institution can effectively serve students under the oversight of the Bureau of Indian Education became the subject of a congressional hearing earlier this year after the report detailing officials’ failure to respond to student allegations was finally made public.

When members of Congress began to press the Bureau of Indian Education for answers, they often found the agency unresponsive. A January 2023 investigation into sexual assault claims stemming from the athletic department wasn’t released until a government advocacy group received it in a Freedom of Information Request in April 2024.

After Moran initially pushed for a response to the allegations of sexual assault at Haskell, the Bureau of Indian Education issued a report on the changes it planned to make.

But Moran said that both faculty and students have reached out to his office and indicated that none of the issues they’ve raised with the Bureau of Indian Education have been effectively addressed.

What’s in the bill

Given how many people would be affected by the plan – staff at Haskell would go from being government employees to employees of the university – Moran said he is releasing the bill so there can be a discussion before he formally files it in the new Congress.

The bill currently sets up a system where Haskell would become “congressionally chartered” joining the five universities located in Washington, D.C., and the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe as the only congressionally chartered universities in the U.S.

It would also form a 16-person Board of Trustees that would consist of 12 trustees from each of the geographic regions under the Bureau of Indian Affairs, one trustee from the Indian tribes of Kansas, one alumni trustee and one at-large member from any Indian tribe in the geographic regions. The Haskell student body president would be a non-voting trustee.

Each year, Congress would give Haskell $21 million and it would have admissions and hiring preferences for members of Native tribes.

The law would only apply to Haskell and not Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the only other higher education institution managed by the Bureau of Indian Education.

“I am thankful that Sen. Moran and Rep. Mann have introduced this legislation to strengthen Haskell as a federally chartered university to further the federal government’s treaty and trust responsibility to Indian people,” Rupnick, the Chairman of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation said. “I look forward to discussions in the new year with Tribal leaders and Haskell alums, faculty and students so that this bill can safeguard Haskell’s future and its funding.”

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