A sign at the entrance to Haskell Indian Nations University is shown Friday, Aug. 5, 2016.

The acting president of Haskell Indian Nations University is keeping mum on her plans for the university she is now leading after Haskell’s former leader was fired last week.

The Journal-World reached out to Tamarah Pfeiffer, the new acting president, about her vision for Haskell, how long she expects to serve in the role and whether she plans to move to Lawrence, among other questions. According to her bio on the website of the Bureau of Indian Education, Pfeiffer currently works in Albuquerque, N.M.

Pfeiffer thanked the Journal-World for reaching out but then referred all questions to the BIE’s acting communications officer, Klarissa Jensen.

Jensen did not address the Journal-World’s questions but only touted Pfeiffer’s credentials. She said that Pfeiffer is a member of the Senior Executive Service and the BIE Senior Leadership Team. She is the BIE’s chief academic officer and has secondary and post-secondary education experience.

“She is a proven leader with the ability to identify and maximize employee strengths, motivate departments, inspire teams, and implement a sound vision to achieve educational success,” Jensen wrote in an email to the Journal-World. She said that the BIE had no further comments.

In addition to the aforementioned questions, which went unanswered, the Journal-World also asked whether Pfeiffer had a response to Haskell’s former president, Ronald Graham, sending a statement to the Journal-World after his dismissal on Friday. Jensen did not respond.

Graham was removed from office on Friday following an internal investigation and criticism — including a unanimous no-confidence vote by the Faculty Senate and a lawsuit by the editor of the student newspaper — that he was stifling free speech rights of students and faculty. On Monday, he wrote a statement to the Journal-World defending his tenure and said he would never intentionally violate the First Amendment.

In March Jared Nally, the editor of Haskell’s student newspaper, filed a federal lawsuit against Graham, the university, the BIE and BIE Director Tony Dearman after Graham sent a directive to Nally in October that told the student journalist what he could and could not publish. Only a little over a week after he was sued by Nally, Graham sent a directive to his staff restricting how they could communicate. On April 6, Dearman rescinded Graham’s directive to his staff, stating that the bureau was committed to freedom of expression.

Nally told the Journal-World on Wednesday that the lawsuit was still active, despite Graham’s removal.

“It’s a civil rights case so it’s not about whether Graham is in office or not; it’s about the protection of students’ free speech and expression rights,” he said.

Graham, a former division dean of instruction at Victor Valley College in Victorville, Calif., began his presidency of Haskell in May of 2020. Prior to his becoming president, Haskell was led by two interim presidents — Jim Rains and Dan Wildcat — for more than a year. Before that, Haskell was led by President Venida Chenault, who left in 2018 to work on special assignment for the Bureau of Indian Education just days after a federal report detailed allegations of misconduct at the university.

On Friday, Brandon Yellowbird-Stevens, president of the Haskell National Board of Regents, told the Journal-World that Graham’s dismissal was “more than likely needed” because of a “disconnection” between the Regents, the president of Haskell, and the Faculty Senate and staff. He said that the communication problems with Graham were significant and that he hoped Haskell could restructure itself to operate more like a traditional university than a federal bureaucracy.

“Those who have been at Haskell and who have graduated from Haskell understand it is a family,” Yellowbird-Stevens said Friday. “When we can’t speak to each other like family and can’t communicate open and freely, that becomes an issue.”