photo by: Contributed

Alex Red Corn

Haskell Indian Nations University once again has a new interim leader at the helm, and it is still working to identify a permanent president, the Bureau of Indian Education announced on Monday.

The BIE said in a news release that Alex Red Corn, a citizen of the Osage Nation and director of Indigenous studies at the University of Kansas, would become Haskell’s new temporary president while the university continues its search for a permanent president. That search has been ongoing since the previous president, Frank Arpan, abruptly resigned in May 2025; since then, Haskell business dean Mackie Moore had been serving as interim president.

The BIE’s announcement on Monday did not mention Moore or give any information about why a new temporary president was being installed. However, a spokesperson from the BIE said that interim appointments at the school were “time-limited by design,” and the transition “reflects the next phase of Haskell’s leadership needs.”

As recently as a few weeks ago, Moore spoke publicly at the Lawrence chamber of commerce’s annual Legislative Priorities Breakfast about the university’s struggles due to a federal hiring freeze. He said that “in the past year, we haven’t been able to hire anybody,” and that he had planned to go to Washington, D.C., in the near future to ask for help on the hiring front.

The Journal-World has reported on the frequent turnover in Haskell’s top leadership role. Moore and Arpan were the latest in a string of more than half a dozen temporary or long-term leaders, including — going back to 2018 — Julia Good Fox, Tamarah Pfeiffer, Ronald Graham, Jim Rains, Dan Wildcat and Venida Chenault.

Red Corn, the new temporary president, was selected through an Intergovernmental Personnel Act assignment, the release said. It said the act enables temporary assignments, typically lasting up to two years, between federal agencies and certain other organizations, such as universities.

“Dr. Red Corn’s deep understanding of education and his longstanding commitment to Native students make him an ideal leader for Haskell during this time,” Tony Dearman, director of the BIE, said in the release. “This partnership with the University of Kansas is a model for how we can strengthen institutions through collaboration and shared purpose, allowing us to bring in exceptional talent from within the community to lead Haskell during a pivotal time.”

Red Corn has worked with multiple universities and other educational organizations during his career. In addition to his work at KU, the release said he founded the Indigenous Educational Leadership Graduate Certificate program at Kansas State University and has led partnerships with the Osage Nation to increase the number of educators earning master’s degrees. He has served as executive director of the Kansas Association for Native American Education and chair of the Kansas Advisory Council for Indigenous Education. He has a doctorate in educational leadership from Kansas State University and bachelor’s and master’s degrees in social studies education from KU.

“I’m motivated by this exciting opportunity to be in community with Haskell students, faculty and staff as we collectively continue the good work of enhancing student success and advancing tribal sovereignty in service to Indian Country,” Red Corn said in the release.

The release said that the search for a permanent president at Haskell was ongoing, but did not provide any more information about the timeline. The email from the BIE spokesperson said that the agency would provide more information about the search process “over the coming months.”

Updates from Haskell about the search and other aspects of its operations have been rare in recent months, as the school is part of a federal agency — the Bureau of Indian Affairs — that is tightly controlled by an even larger federal bureaucracy, the Department of the Interior. As such, most attempts to get updates on operations at the university are directed to Washington, D.C., where they often go unanswered.