photo by: Journal-World File

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

The search for Haskell Indian Nations University’s next president is set to continue indefinitely; a spokesperson with U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran’s office told the Journal-World Friday morning that the candidate who was offered the job has turned it down.

That spokesperson, Angela Lingg, told the Journal-World that Moran’s office reached out to the Bureau of Indian Education this week and learned that the BIE is reopening applications for the position “within the next few days.” Lingg said there doesn’t seem to be a timeline for the process as it restarts, but Moran’s office plans to continue keeping tabs on it as it progresses.

For now, Haskell will be led by a new interim president, Julia Good Fox, who was quietly mentioned in a press release announcing a new hire in a different administrative position in mid-May. Haskell’s website still lists the university’s last interim president, Tamarah Pfeiffer, on its university administration page.

This week’s update from Moran’s office comes a little more than a month from when he submitted a separate inquiry to the BIE requesting an update on the search for Haskell’s new president. At that time, Moran told the Journal-World he’d been informed that a new president had indeed been selected, but the BIE didn’t share who that person was or the timeline for when the name would be announced.

In a separate conversation in April, Moran told the Journal-World that he was frustrated with the bureaucracy and lack of communication from the federal agency guiding Haskell’s operations. Lingg told the Journal-World that Moran was interested in visiting Haskell for a field hearing or something of that nature, but whether that happens is subject to decisions from the Senate Indian Affairs Committee’s leadership.