photo by: Journal-World

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

A congressional hearing has been scheduled for next week in Washington, D.C., to look into long-running allegations of misconduct at Haskell Indian Nations University, and several people with complaints against the university, including the school’s former leader, are invited to appear as witnesses.

As the Journal-World reported, four Republican members of Congress sent a letter earlier this month to the director of the Bureau of Indian Education, Tony Dearman, announcing an investigation and expressing concern over the federal agency’s failure to address concerns of Haskell students over a variety of issues at the Lawrence school, including allegations of sexual assault and other serious misconduct.

At 2 p.m. Tuesday, the Committee on Natural Resources and the Committee on Education and the Workforce are scheduled to hold a joint oversight hearing on the issues at Haskell.

The Journal-World has learned that invited witnesses for the hearing will include former Haskell cross country coach Clay Mayes, former student Tierra Thomas and former president Ronald Graham.

A federal investigative report that is at the heart of the hearing found that Mayes was the subject of a “frivolous investigation” that inappropriately resulted in his termination based on “unsupported allegations,” as the Journal-World reported. Mayes has filed a petition for reinstatement. The same report described the athletic department at the university as being in “disarray.”

In September of 2023, Thomas, the student, told the Journal-World that after being sexually assaulted by a fellow student in April of 2022, her dozens of reports to 18 employees at Haskell and the university’s Board of Regents had gone unanswered. Days after Thomas’ story ran in the newspaper, Haskell’s current president, Frank Arpan, announced plans to create a new position and to revise the university’s policies related to sexual assault.

Graham, the former president, is also seeking reinstatement at Haskell via a federal appeal process more than three years after being terminated from the role. He maintains that he was retaliated against for “whistleblowing activity.” Graham received a performance review just months before his termination in May 2021 that said he exceeded expectations in the role. Graham also alleges that the BIE “engaged in a conspiracy with members of the (Haskell) faculty to cover up and allow existing and ongoing financial crimes to continue” on campus.

The 80-page report, an unredacted copy of which has been demanded by the congressional team, is itself the subject of controversy. The redacted report was released in April after more than a year of secrecy and questions about whether it even existed. Additionally, members of Congress have cited concerns that the report may have been altered between the time it was submitted, Nov. 7, 2022, and the time it was ultimately dated, Jan. 13, 2023.

The report covers allegations of student harassment and bullying by university administrators, theft, nepotism, sexual assaults, workplace harassment and intimidation, fraud, waste and abuse on Haskell’s campus. The report was prepared by an administrative investigation board under the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Education, the federal agency that oversees Haskell’s operations.