Haskell students fight fee increase

Proposals raise questions about funding priorities

Students at Haskell Indian Nations University are protesting plans to raise their fees.

“There are a lot of questions we don’t have answers to,” said Nikki Crowe, a sophomore majoring in environmental studies.

Currently, Haskell students who live on campus pay $105 in fees each semester. Those who live off-campus pay $70.

The fees are used to offset textbook, housing and activity costs.

Earlier this year, the university’s Board of Regents explored the possibility of raising fees. Proposals ranged from $200 to $680.

“The regents decided they wanted additional options to be presented, and they wanted to hear from students,” said Haskell spokeswoman Lori Tapahonso. “They also talked about doing something incrementally rather than in one lump sum.”

If approved, the fee increase would be used to improve services and conditions on campus.

“There are different things in different proposals,” Tapahonso said. Some, she said, focus on expanding the university’s distance-learning program and its on-campus technology. Others would add money to existing programs.

“A lot of different things are on the table, being looked at,” Tapahonso said. “But no decision has been made.”

Several regents will have an open, town hall-style meeting with students from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. today at Haskell in Tecumseh Hall Gym. Student Senate members are expected to meet with the full board Friday.

Though fee increases are commonplace at most universities, they are especially contentious at Haskell, because the federal government’s promise to educate American Indians without charging tuition is at the heart of treaties struck with hundreds of tribes.”That’s why Haskell was started: to fulfill those treaties,” said Chris Wilkes, a member of Haskell’s Student Senate. “We see this as a moral issue. If the government has an obligation to provide us with an education, then why are they taking the money from our pockets to pay for it?”

Several members of the Haskell Indian Nations University Board of Regents will have a town hall-style meeting with students from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. today at Haskell in Tecumseh Hall Gym to discuss proposed fee increases.The regents meet from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. today and from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday in the Regents Room of Navarre Hall.

Haskell’s mission statement notes that it is to be a “tuition-free” university.

The Student Senate on Wednesday issued a resolution critical of the proposed increase and of the administration’s handling of the issue.

Also, the group has asked the American Civil Liberties Union for guidance in opposing the increase.

“We’re coming at this from three directions,” said Student Senate President Chris Wilkes. “We want to know where the money goes from the fees we’re paying now, we want to see proposal put in writing, and we are taking it upon ourselves to find ways to improve Haskell without raising fees.”

Sophomore Tari Wolfs helped circulate a petition opposing the fee increase.

“One-quarter of the student body has signed it already,” she said, “and we don’t all the petitions back yet.”

Wolfs said opposition to a fee increase was not absolute.

“It’s not that we don’t want fees. We know the university needs money,” she said. “But there’s a long list of issues that should be addressed first, and a lot of those issues have to do with accountability.”

Wolfs said she and others thought the university had put staff and faculty salaries ahead of programs.

Except for student fees, Haskell is funded by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs. Its current budget: $9.1 million, plus $2.5 million to $5 million for facilities and maintenance.

In recent years, BIA funding has not kept pace with inflation, forcing Haskell to cancel its summer classes.

Adopted 10-5-04 by the Student SenateThe Student Senate,INITIATES a resolution formally to solidify the Student Council with wishes of the student body on 10-5-04 concerning fee raises here at Haskell Indian Nations University.WHEREAS, the administration initiated fee raises without talks, approval, of any general acknowledgement of the student body except for their income.WHERAS, federal employees at Haskell Indian Nations University are seeking a “tax” upon a native population in violation of tribal rights of all effected by such tax.WHEREAS, the finding out of the fee raises during the Fall 2004 meeting of the Board of Regents in the rudest fashion.WHEREAS, the student body overwhelmingly being against fee raises.WHEREAS, the memorial idea of Haskell being a place where the sacrifice of the initial students who where bludgeoned to death in genocidal form being of no significance to the parental planners at Haskell Indian Nations University.WHEREAS, no dialogue has occurred that reflects any openness to the wishes of the student body.WHEREAS, the premiere Indian University in the United States is being dictated by ways of the corporate design to assimilate natives away from their culture and into the dominant culture by way of coercion and force.BE IT RESOLVED, The student body is against any type, kind, or wordy form of “fee raises.”BE IT RESOLVED, if the administration and/or Board of Regents raise fees the student body will move to control the spending and allocation of the accrued funds.BE IT RESOLVED, Nikki Crowe and Connie Hudson will seek legal remedy with an initial contact set with A.C.L.U. representatives on October 15.BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, the Student Senate makes a formal commitment in making Haskell Indian Nations University a no fee, no tuition university in holding to the sacred value of the SACRIFICE that has already been paid.