Haskell University work to reverse Trump-mandated layoffs, staff cut 25%
LAWRENCE, Kan. (KCTV) - It’s been nearly a week since dozens of faculty and staff at Haskell Indian Nations University got abrupt layoff notices and students have yet to go back to class.
University President Frank Arpan made Facebook posts each day since Monday explaining that campus would be closed one more day due to snow and extreme cold. On Sunday, he made a post confirming what many already knew. On Feb. 14, Valentine’s Day, all staff who were still in their probationary periods left their positions.
“The decision was not made at the university level,” he wrote.
On Thursday, with the campus still closed, the Board of Regents released a letter confirming who did make the decision.
The letter to the Secretary of the Interior sought “a waiver to President Trump’s Executive Order of February 11, 2025 ‘Implementing the President’s DOGE Workforce Optimization Initiative’ as directed to apply to Haskell Indian Nations University on February 14, 2025.”
Haskell is unlike most colleges in part because it is federally funded and federally run. It is managed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs within the Department of the Interior. It is funded through Congressional appropriations. Its 800 students represent 150 tribal nations.
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Tyler Moore is a member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and a senior at Haskell University.
“We saw people just lose their livelihoods,” he said. “I saw people who usually have the most bright and shining smiles just with their heads hung low for an entire day. And ever since then, it’s been anger, sadness, and for a lot of people just tiredness as well.”
The Board of Regents letter said the university had approximately 160 faculty and staff and lost 35 of them through Friday’s layoffs, amounting to nearly 23% of the people employed there.
“These employees are mission-critical personnel responsible for delivering legally mandated educational services to Tribal Nations,” Board of Regents interim president Dalton Henry said in a news release posted to Facebook on Thursday.
POURS IN
One of the people who was dismissed is women’s basketball coach Adam Strom, of the Yakama Nation. He chose to finish out the season, with conference playoffs beginning in one week.
Strom chose to stay even though he was notified that he would have to do so on a voluntary basis. In other words, the college coach, who also led numerous camps for younger kids, decided to continue working for free so that he wouldn’t be abandoning his student athletes.
A former player and family friend started a GoFundMe. Strom was uneasy about it. He didn’t want to be the recipient of a fundraiser. It reached its goal in a matter of days and was closed at his request. He said he is overwhelmed by and grateful for the provided.
TREATIES AND CONGRESSIONAL ACTS
The layoffs came after many others in federal agencies and were followed by layoffs at the Internal Revenue Service in the midst of peak tax time. That affects far more people, but the layoffs at Haskell involve an additional factor: federal treaties with numerous tribal nations that date back in some cases to the 1800s.
“The federal government made promises to our nations to uphold these treaties,” Moore said. “They have broken that promise. And in the past 250 years they have broken that promise again and again. The federal government needs to step up and say we have an obligation to these native nations.”
The letters from the Board of Regents to the U.S. Office of Management & Budget, as well as the U.S. Department of Interior, was dated February 17 and released publicly on February 20. It cites numerous 20th-century Congressional acts related to education native peoples and spoke to 19th-century treaties with the Cherokee and Choctaw.
“The federal government established and continues to operate Haskell in fulfillment of its treaty, trust and statutory responsibilities to American Indians and Alaskan Natives,” a portion of the three-page letter reads.
“These workforce cuts are undermining treaty and trust obligations,” Henry added in a subsequent news release, “and we urge immediate action to restore critical staffing levels.”
MOVING FORWARD
Moore said the latest federal action is dispiriting, but he is buoyed by a strong sense of community. He holds an honorific title bestowed to one male student each year, that of Haskell Brave, acting as an ambassador of sorts alongside his female counterpart, Miss Haskell.
“Make your voices loud,” he said, “be there for your community and stand strong as Onward Haskell.”
Coach Strom was preparing for an interview with KCTV5 when he had to cancel suddenly because another interview took precedence. He had secured a job interview, he said, for “an immediate employment opportunity.” Judging from the love displayed for him online, he has a lot of people in his corner cheering him on as he has for them.
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