photo by: Shawn Valverde

Haskell Indian Nations University is pictured on Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024.

The sudden loss of nearly a third of its workforce has shaken up the Haskell Indian Nations University campus, creating confusion and uncertainty about the school’s future, and federal lawmakers who once seemed invested in “fixing” Haskell have said little about the situation.

Among the concerns is what will happen to the academic courses that were taught by seven instructors before they were fired on Friday pursuant to a Trump administration order to rid the federal government of probationary workers.

One source at Haskell, who declined to be publicly identified for fear of retaliation, told the Journal-World that the instructor firings affected more than 500 of the 900-plus students enrolled at Haskell.

Students have not been in class since Friday due to the federal holiday Monday and weather cancellations Tuesday and Wednesday, but when they resume their coursework they are going to see different faces — possibly those of adjunct instructors — at the front of the classroom.

The source told the Journal-World that university administration had relayed that the courses would be covered, leaving no student “unserved,” but the specifics of the plan remained vague, and the source criticized the lack of transparency.

Though the order for the firings came from the White House via the Office of Personnel Management, and not from Haskell, local information about next steps — including job security — was scarce, the source said.

“There is a lot to be concerned about — not just about whether you have a job or not,” he said, noting that he would not have come to Haskell had he known this kind of disruption — nearly 40 people being abruptly fired in a day — was remotely possible.

He said he also feared that the chaotic disruption and uncertainty would deter good job candidates from ever considering Haskell.

“Who’s going to want to come, knowing they can be fired at any time?” he said, explaining that employees generally are on probationary status for one to two years, depending on various factors.

He also noted that some of the probationers who lost their jobs had actually worked on a contract basis for Haskell for years before switching over to the federal employee track that has a probationary period.

The layoffs, which included coaches like Clay Mayes and Adam Strom, custodial workers, program specialists and many others, came just seven months after a bipartisan congressional hearing at which federal lawmakers looking into allegations of dysfunction and mismanagement at Haskell, vowed continued commitment to bettering the situation at the university, which they spoke of as special and unique in America — the “pinnacle of BIE-operated schools,” as a committee report put it.

Congressional members last summer chastised the Bureau of Indian Education, which oversees Haskell, for failing to rein in the “toxicity” and hold people accountable.

“We need to fix it and fix it now,” said Congresswoman Harriet Hageman, R-Wyoming.

But the same people who spoke of “fixing” Haskell and salvaging its special status as one of only two BIE schools in the country devoted to Indigenous students have been largely quiet about the Trump administration’s mass firings and the effect it will have on Indian Country.

Republican U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, of Kansas, who just recently proposed legislation that would strip control of Haskell from the BIE and place it under the oversight of a Board of Regents, has likewise said little.

The Journal-World reached out to Moran’s office the day of the firings. Five days later, a spokesperson for Moran replied, saying only that the senator had requested more details from Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, who oversees the BIE.

“Sen. Moran has requested more information from Secretary Burgum on the layoffs at Haskell Indian Nations University and urged the secretary to make certain the university has an adequate workforce to prevent disruptions for students enrolled at Haskell,” the spokesperson said.