And the next President of Haskell Indian Nations University is ……

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Posted by Haskellnews April 11, 2011 at 9:54 a.m.

And the next President of Haskell Indian Nations University is ……

The Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) reportedly has a certificate with ten qualified applicants for President of Haskell Indian Nations University, in Lawrence, Kansas. Of course the best qualified, Chris Redman, is back in Oklahoma City and essentially no one is currently in charge of Haskell. Some insiders belief the Navajo female candidate will soon be named (this would keep resident female applicant from filing any sex discrimination complaint) and others believe long-time Lakota friend to Keith Moore will be hired following the practice of hiring his buddies. Or will Dr. Linda Sue Warner be reassigned back to Haskell? Any of these choices assures the Haskell campus that Venida Chenault (VCEM) is not going to legitimately seize the helm.

In the meantime, Dr. Lionnel Bordeaux has called for a special session on Haskell at American Indian Higher Education Consortium(AIHEC's) upcoming meeting. AIHEC already has a formal resolution to remove Haskell from the BIE, and Dr. Bordeaux-once a Haskell Regent and most recently the convocation speaker for this semester, may be ready to get AIHEC to vote to cancel Haskell's membership, since it and Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute (SIPI) are the only tribal colleges that aren't tribally operated and do not legally meet the definition of tribal college.

Tribal college presidents are used to fighting for their institutions, but usually it is against bureaucrats who reflect a tendency to interpret the world in terms of western and especially European or Anglo-American values and experiences and not like Haskell, where the leadership has to put up with a union that proposes to be so native that they don't have to really work, and instructors (there are no Professors) on that campus, who pretend to instruct through internships where students don't have to do anything except yell that they are native and have rights. That, by the way, is worth up to 8 credits.

It would be interesting to see what AIHEC presidents decide to do, especially since Dr. Bordeaux asked Haskell's resident Indian expert, the only non-Indian who gets to decide what goes on there, Dr. Dan Wildcat to make a presentation. What will be telling is what Keith Moore decides since he has made no attempt to fix the real problem at Haskell.

haskellnews commentary 04/11/2011