Haskell Indian Nations University has faced a number of challenges since it was last accredited in 2005.

Not all of those issues have been resolved, but hopefully the accreditation team from the Higher Learning Commission that arrived on campus Monday will be impressed by recent efforts to identify and address both problems and goals at the American Indian school.

Haskell President Venida Chenault acknowledges that the school is “in a period of transition,” but she welcomes the opportunity that an accreditation process offers Haskell to examine its strengths and weaknesses and set a positive course for the future.

Chenault has been in her current post for just over a year — not much time to turn an institution around. For most of the five years before her selection, Haskell was led by short-term acting presidents who didn’t fully engage with the school. The school went for five years without a strategic plan. During that time, Chenault said, the school lost momentum and lacked direction. In an effort to remedy that situation, she introduced an updated plan that was approved by the school’s Board of Regents last fall. The plan includes an updated vision and mission statement designed to guide university decisions and help boost efforts to raise funds for the school.

Funding is a big issue for Haskell, one of two colleges in the country operated by the federal Bureau of Indian Education. The Haskell Foundation, which had been inactive for more than a decade, has been revived, and Chenault says that raising outside funds for the school is a top priority.

Being operated by a federal agency also creates extra problems for the school. Chenault pointed to one example of a classroom update that received grant funding three years ago but still is incomplete because of the cumbersome federal requirements the school was forced to follow. Chenault correctly points out that legislative fixes are needed to “give us some autonomy and authority” — perhaps something more like a block grant system that would allow the school more spending flexibility — but with only two BIE colleges, it’s hard to wield much legislative clout.

The uniqueness of Haskell’s structure and mission must make it difficult for an accreditation team to measure it against other higher education institutions. The school plays a special role for American Indians throughout the nation as well as in the life and history of Lawrence; its uniqueness is a strength as well as a challenge.

Over the years, Haskell has pushed its academic programs and continued to provide an important service to American Indian students. Hopefully, this accreditation process will be both an affirmation of past efforts and a springboard for future advances.