In the past 14 months, four Haskell Indian Nations University students have been stabbed during on-campus altercations.

On Thursday, members of the university’s Board of Regents said they’d had enough.

“Something has to be done,” said board member Louis Taylor.

“We need a plan, and that plan needs to be implemented,” said board member Lana Redeye.

Several board members said they’d heard complaints that violence and drunkenness on campus often had gone unpunished.

“Why doesn’t somebody do something?” asked board member Alberta Friday.

Haskell President Karen Swisher and Vice President Marvin Buzzard promised to overhaul the university’s policies for disciplining students before the start of the fall semester.

“The way it is now, the process for handling complaints is way too cumbersome, way too complicated. It takes way too long,” Buzzard said. “It needs to be streamlined.”

Regents President Gil Vigil said he would explore the possibility of getting the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs to station police officers on campus.

Calls to a bureau spokeswoman Thursday were not returned.

“There is not enough security here,” said Student Senate President and board member Caleena Hernasy. “And the staff in the dorms haven’t been trained enough to know what to do when something happens, like when a fight breaks out.”

Haskell officials have not kept statistics on whether on-campus crime and drunkenness have increased in recent years. But Hernasy, a junior from Arizona, said she didn’t need to see statistics.

“It’s the worst it’s been since I’ve been here,” she said.

A night-shift employee at one of the dormitories told the Journal-World that, on average, at least three students a night must be helped to their rooms because they are too drunk to walk.

“I don’t even write them up anymore. It doesn’t do any good,” he said.

He asked not to be identified.

Several board members wondered if today’s students are truly more unruly than their Haskell predecessors or their contemporaries at other colleges.

“The problem is here, just like it is at KU or at Baker University or at any other university,” said board member George Tiger.

Tiger said he feared many of the incidents reported were “embellished” because Haskell students are minorities.

“Sometimes we are our own worst enemies,” he said.

Two charged in stabbing at Haskell (02-01-05)

Vigil warned against demanding that all trouble-making students be kicked out of school.

“It is true that these things are going on on other campuses,” he said. “But it is also true that Haskell is unique. We are family here, and if someone has a problem, we should help them.”

Vigil and Tiger both expressed frustration over the actions of a few miscreants overshadowing the accomplishments of the 170 students who will receive their diplomas during this morning’s commencement at Coffin Sports Complex.

Leon Yahola, president of the Haskell Alumni Association of Oklahoma, attended the meeting on behalf of eight students and one employee who asked him to share their concerns about the lack of security on campus.

The hourlong discussion ended without Yahola getting to speak.

“I am disappointed,” he said. “All I heard today were words. Action is what counts.”