Haskell: ‘On edge’ but excited for upcoming reaccreditation review

Site visit from accreditation team begins Monday

Many at Haskell Indian Nations University blame years of a “revolving door” in the president’s office for leaving a number of things undone, important things.

Since Venida Chenault became president in January 2014, key measures have been put in place, or at least put in motion.

Will it be enough for Haskell to keep its accreditation?

Some at the university are nervous. At the same time, they’re optimistic and excited — students, faculty and Chenault herself used the same word — for the chance to show off the progress they’ve made when a team from the Higher Learning Commission arrives on campus Monday for Haskell’s 10-year accreditation review.

The campus of Haskell Indian Nations University.

Venida Chenault was inaugurated as the president of Haskell Indian Nations University on Sept. 17, 2014. Chenault is the first student of Haskell to become its president.

“A lot of people are kind of on edge,” said 30-year faculty member Dan Wildcat, who teaches Indigenous and American Indian Studies.

“I’m not expecting, necessarily, that we’re going to get the A-plus, but I think we’re going to get a good accreditation (review). We are going to get reaffirmed.”

Now is actually a great time for an accreditation review, Chenault said.

The required self-study process forces a university to take a look at itself and identify strengths, weaknesses and goals. It’s comes on the heels of a new president, a new vision statement and a new strategic plan.

“We are in a period of transition,” Chenault said. “This is a pivotal point in us preparing for our future.”

‘Scattered mess’

In the five years prior to Chenault’s inauguration, Haskell was led by more acting presidents than permanent ones.

“We kind of lost momentum on a lot of things,” said faculty member Mary Stuckey, an instructor in the School of Business. “She (Chenault) has really had to pick up a scattered mess of things and take the ball and run with it.”

For one, Haskell went five years with no strategic plan.

A past plan guided the school through 2009. The next four years saw the hiring of a facilitator, work groups and drafts, but no draft ever made it to the Board of Regents for approval.

Chenault introduced an updated plan last year, Haskell 2020, and the Regents adopted it in the fall.

Since Haskell’s last reaccreditation in 2005, the school has had other problems. Haskell’s athletics programs were placed on National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics probation through 2014, and a U.S. Department of Education report detailed instances of academic fraud in the athletics department between 2007 and 2010.

And the Haskell Foundation — its lifeline for fundraising — spent more than a decade inactive after dissolving amid financial scandal.

“When you have changes in leadership in any organization, you have the potential for a loss of momentum in what you’re doing,” Chenault said. “We did lose some momentum in the past. Things fall through the cracks.”

Strengths

Chenault, who was a Haskell administrator prior to becoming president, said she had a pretty clear idea coming in what needed to be done.

Over the past year, that’s what she’s focused on, she said.

Chenault highlighted the following as some of Haskell’s newly implemented strengths, which support the criteria required for accreditation.

Vision and mission: Haskell has an updated vision and mission statement in the Haskell 2020 plan, which capture Haskell’s unique mission in Indian Country, and is working to ensure they’re applied to all university decisions. That includes department level plans, and students.

Student Senate President Beverly Foley said it’s come up in funding requests, for example.

“Everything we do now, we ask, ‘How does it impact our vision statement?'” Foley said.

Donated funds: The Haskell Foundation was revived last year, which Chenault said is critical for raising much-needed outside funds for the school.

Center for Institutional Effectiveness: Also launched last fall, the center’s goal is to generate data about Haskell services and apply it to student success and retention. Chenault said Haskell was still in the process of filling positions in the center.

Weaknesses

Chenault also noted a few of Haskell’s weaknesses.

Again, funding: Chenault said Haskell is in the process of changing budgeting procedures to prioritize services essential to its core mission before looking at auxiliary programs. She said Haskell also has begun identifying possibilities for alternative revenue strands.

Cumbersome federal systems: Haskell is one of only two colleges in the country operated by the federal Bureau of Indian Education. As such, especially when dealing with contracts and human resources, it’s subject to labor-intensive procedures, Chenault said. For example, she said Haskell received grant money three years ago to update a classroom but following federal contracting requirements has dragged out the process; the classroom still isn’t done.

“We spend an extraordinary amount of time trying to navigate those systems,” she said. “We really need to have some legislative fixes that give us some autonomy and authority.”

Learning from mistakes

The athletics probation is included in Haskell’s self-study.

“We’ve learned from that experience,” Chenault said. “We’ve made changes in the intercollegiate athletic programs to prevent that kind of behavior from repeating itself.”

Haskell also has learned from its sister Bureau of Indian Education college, the Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute in Albuquerque, N.M. The Polytechnic Institute lost its fully accredited status after its last review and had to make improvements to regain it.

Chenault said Haskell worked hard to learn from what happened there and even recently hosted Polytechnic Institute staff to talk about problems and solutions, particularly regarding assessment.

What’s next

Next week’s site visit kicks off the bulk of the process for the Higher Learning Commission, public information officer John Hausaman said. The Commission’s ensuing evaluation process can take six to nine months before a decision is released.

Were the Higher Learning Commission not to reaffirm Haskell’s full accreditation, there are several statuses it could assign, one being candidacy for accreditation for schools showing signs of improvement.

Haskell has been working all year to draft the school’s self-study and prepare for the reaccreditation review.

Students have even taken on roles as ambassadors to help get the word out to their peers about the upcoming visit and the school’s recently updated vision, mission and core values — in case any of the visitors ask, said Foley.

“I can’t wait for them to get here,” she said. “So we can let them know how special Haskell is, the impact it has on native students.”

Faculty member Melinda Crow, of the Environmental Science Department, said there’s a lot of buzz on campus.

“It’s transitioned from very high stress, kind of a rush to tie up loose ends, and now excitement,” said faculty member Melinda Crow. “People are excited to share their stories.”