photo by: Kathy Hanks

Venida Chenault is beginning her fifth year as president of Haskell Indian Nations University. She spoke Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2018, about student enrollment and how the university is reaching out to potential students to help them prepare for college.

Enrollment is down by 73 students — or about 9 percent — from last year for the fall semester at Haskell Indian Nations University, Haskell President Venida Chenault said Tuesday.

Currently, 733 students are enrolled from 142 tribal affiliations. Previously, 806 students were enrolled in fall 2017 and 820 in fall 2016.

“It’s down a little bit, and we are seeing that nationally. Both mainstream institutions, as well as tribal colleges, are seeing a bit of a dip,” Chenault said. “Students are not attending college at the rates they historically have and that can be contributed to a number of factors. For some, it’s a concern about going into debt.”

Other potential students, Chenault said, might be led into the workforce if they find job opportunities during the relatively robust economy.

Haskell’s highest enrollment was 1,059 students in 2009, according to Duane Reeder, the university’s statistician.

“It’s not a decline just for us,” Reeder said. “Tribal colleges across the country, in general, have undergone a mass decline. We’re 4,000 students less across the board for all tribal colleges.”

Chenault, though, sees positive numbers in the graduation rate, which was up 10 percent in 2017 from 2012.

While keeping their eyes on the numbers over the past five years, Haskell officials have implemented a new approach for recruitment: They are reaching out to students as young as junior high, so those children can begin planning for college earlier by taking suitable courses and preparing for the ACT, a standardized test widely used for college admissions.

Tuition at Haskell is free for American Indians and Alaskan Natives of federally recognized tribes.

“It’s in fulfillment of the U.S. government’s trust and treaty obligation to Native American tribes,” said Stephen Prue, executive assistant to Chenault.

However, those living on campus are charged a fee of $715 per semester for such things as housing, food service, library, laundry and internet fees.

“The fees don’t cover the actual expenses,” Prue said. “Students are charged a $245 food service fee, and I can tell you the students eat a lot more than that. The rest of the cost is paid for through appropriated funds from Congress.”

Haskell was first known as the United States Indian Industrial Training School in 1884. Then in 1887, it became Haskell Institute. In 1970, it became Haskell Indian Junior College, and in 1993, Haskell Indian Nations University.

It will soon be five years since Chenault, a member of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, took the helm of the university, one of two federally funded by the Bureau of Indian Education (the other is Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute in Albuquerque, N.M.). She attended Haskell for two semesters back when it was a junior college, then went on to the University of Kansas, where she earned her degrees, including a doctorate in 2004.

Haskell is also part of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium, along with 35 tribal colleges.

The biggest difference between Haskell and Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute and the other institutions, Chenault said, is that most of them are located on reservations and serve the needs of those particular communities. Haskell and SIPI, she noted, are national institutions, serving federally recognized tribes throughout the U.S.

“We have diversity within diversity in our student population; we serve students from the 567 recognized tribes,” she said.