Thousands raised to support Haskell students, staff after federal cuts
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — After dozens of staff members lost their jobs at Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence last month, a foundation connected to the school is raising thousands of dollars to help students and remaining employees affected by the federal cuts.
The Haskell Foundation announced in a statement Feb. 25 that it launched an emergency fundraiser to raise $350,000 to support the Haskell community.
Haskell students protest layoffs at the Kansas Statehouse
The school said it was working with university leadership and its partners 'to ensure funds are allocated to mitigate the immediate impact of these disruptions.'
As of Monday, the foundation's website showed that it has raised more than $112,000 with more than 400 donors contributing.
Kansas, Missouri prep for Severe Weather Preparedness Week
The foundation listed the following ways that the money will be used:
Temporary contract extensions for part-time coaches, bus drivers, custodial staff, dining services, and general staff to maintain essential campus functions for at least three months.
Emergency assistance for students affected by financial aid delays and unexpected hardships.
Limited relief for displaced employees facing financial instability.
Funding for long-standing cultural events to ensure the continuity of vital community traditions.
Support the remaining Haskell staff, who are overwhelmed by the recent personnel reductions.
A reserve fund to address unexpected university funding cuts, with assistance provided at the request of the HINU President or their appointee.
The foundation emphasized that it is not raising money to rehire the affected employees.
'While this idealistically would be a tremendous support, this is not a realistic goal at this time. Haskell University employees are federal employees and we are not able to circumvent the federal process,' the foundation said in a statement.
Haskell Indian Nations University lays off dozens of employees after federal orders
'The Haskell University Board of Regents and our partners are working together to present a united front to petition these blanket terminations.'
The foundation added that it is also encouraging community members to call their elected officials and U.S. Secretary of the Interior to make their voices heard.
Haskell students last week who gathered outside the Kansas Statehouse to protest the federal layoffs told sister station KSNT that they are concerned about their education and the lack of instructors.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
Impact of drastic federal funding cuts on tribal colleges, universities would be ‘extremely dire'
Adam Strom, head coach for the Haskell Indian Nations University women's basketball team, coaches the team to a March 1, 2025, win against Washington Adventist University (Maryland) during the 2025 Continental Athletic Conference women's basketball championship. After he was laid off Feb. 14, 2025, as a result of mass federal layoffs by the Trump administration, Strom continued to coach without pay until he was rehired on March 6, 2025. (Lauren Richey / Special to ICT) Credit: Adam Strom, head coach for the Haskell Indian Nations University women's basketball team, coaches the team to a March 1, 2025, win against Washington Adventist University (Maryland) during the 2025 Continental Athletic Conference women's basketball championship. Haskell went on to win the tournament after defeating Northern New Mexico. After he was laid off Feb. 14, 2025, as a result of mass federal layoffs by the Trump administration, Strom continue to coach without pay until he was rehired on March 6, 2025. (Photo by Lauren Richey/Special to ICT) LAWRENCE, Kan. – The Trump administration's proposed funding cuts by 90% for tribal colleges and universities surprised many last week, especially for a tribal university already impacted by federal layoffs since February. Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas, has faced numerous challenges since President Donald J. Trump took office in January, including losing nearly a quarter of its staff on Valentine's Day, when the administration laid off all probationary federal employees. The layoffs cost the university 37 employees, who included kitchen workers, custodians, teachers, administrators and academic advisers. The university is one of two tribal colleges and universities that is federally controlled by the U.S. Department of Interior. However, two federal judges later ordered those employees, as well as all federal probationary employees from six federal agencies who had been laid off, to be reinstated. According to an Interior Department budget overview, the Trump administration has requested $22 million for all 37 tribal colleges and universities for 2026, compared to the $196 million appropriated for those programs in 2025. 'This is incredibly concerning,' said Moriah O'Brien, who serves as the vice president of Congressional and Federal Relations for the American Indian Higher Education Consortium, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the 35 accredited tribal colleges and universities and two developing institutions and based in Alexandria, Virginia. TCUs receive core operational funds from three separate government agencies: Interior, the Department of Agriculture, and the Department of Education. Think of the situation as a three-legged stool, O'Brien said. If even one leg is removed, the stool falls. 'I think someone may have misunderstood that because TCUs receive funding from a number of different federal agencies that they could somehow make up the difference or use other resources, but it really takes those three core funding streams in order for them to keep the lights on,' O'Brien said. 'This is absolutely critical core operational funding.' Tribal colleges and universities receive 74% of their total revenue from federal funding, the consortium told ICT during tribal college week in February. More than 30,000 jobs are created across the local and regional economies near the tribal colleges and universities in 16 states where all these institutions are located – Montana, Washington, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Alaska, California, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Michigan Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota. The majority of these jobs are tied to federal funding and would affect faculty and staff positions. This federal funding cut would impact 80% of Indian Country, the approximately 160,000 Native students and community residents that these institutions serve, plus the more than 245 federally recognized tribes that have students studying in these postsecondary institutions. RELATED: 'Losing our voice, losing our space' Unlike Harvard University or other major schools, TCUs don't have massive endowments, O'Brien said. Rather, they heavily rely on this funding from the federal government. 'It would be difficult to quantify the exact impact on each TCU, but it would be extremely dire and they don't have any other options to turn to,' O'Brien said. A Bureau of Indian Education spokeswoman and the Bureau of Indian Affairs public affairs office declined to comment on the president's proposed cuts. The Department of Agriculture's public affairs office also declined to comment. For Oglala Lakota College in western South Dakota, this funding loss could mean less financial aid for students, said college president Dawn Frank, Oglala Lakota. Frank said cuts to funding will directly impact these students, cutting student aid and forcing them to choose between continuing their education and supporting their livelihoods. 'We are part of one of the poorest counties in the United States,' Frank said. 'These policies widen existing gaps and threaten educational attainment and workforce development. They also threaten tribal sovereignty by reducing access to higher education, particularly among low-income, non-traditional, first-generation students.' Oglala Lakota College has campuses in Rapid City, South Dakota, and on the Pine Ridge and Cheyenne River reservations, and has an enrollment of 1,188. A significant percentage of the students are non-traditional, meaning they're working full-time or part-time jobs and caring for families of their own. '(Tribal colleges) are change agents,' Frank said. 'They change individual lives. They provide stability to families and also work in the form of employment on the reservation. … They provide hope.' Haskell students who learned about the president's proposed budget cuts expressed shock and dismay at the news. 'It's an amazing school and I think cutting the funding is way out of line, especially for Native Americans,' said Creighton Youngbird, Cheyenne Arapahoe and a sophomore paraprofessional education major. Stopping before the Haskell dining hall, Youngbird said the university provides an affordable education to Indigenous students who might otherwise not be able to afford college. It also serves as a powerful cultural education center for Native students seeking to reconnect to their cultures. Ryan Kingfisher, Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation and a junior social work and Indigenous studies major, said he worried the cuts could force Haskell to close. 'The students and the employees have been walking on egg shells knowing that we're hanging by a thread,' he said. 'I really don't know what to think about it.' Pe-quas Hernandez, Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, and a junior environmental sciences major, also expressed concern about Haskell losing its accreditation. 'I put a lot of work into my grades, into my studies here,' she said. Hernandez has worked to manage a garden and greenhouse at Haskell, and she said she worries what might happen to those places should she lose her job. 'We've been restoring a lot of this land here that is historic,' she said. 'Who's going to be there to continue taking care of that?' She said it's taken nearly three months for the university to start to heal from the March 14 layoffs. She said the layoffs generated significant support for Haskell as tribes and other donors stepped forward to help provide funds to keep the university operating. 'I think that we carried on just fine. We had our tribes pulling together for us,' she said. 'I have a lot of hope that we're going to be able to continue what we've been doing here.' Haskell President Frank Arpan, who recently announced his decision to leave the university, declined to comment recently regarding the proposed cuts, referring an ICT reporter to the Bureau of Indian Education, which also declined to comment. One of the schools specifically targeted is the Institute for American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, O'Brien said. IAIA is a living institute of Native art, a public tribal land-grant college that serves anyone interested in the study, creative application, preservation and contemporary expression of Indigenous arts. Along with Haskell, IAIA is the second tribal college that is federally controlled. Within the thousand-page appendices in the fiscal year 2026 budget released by the Trump administration, a line specifically requested to completely zero out funding for IAIA, O'Brien said. 'This is shocking,' she said. IAIA's board of trustees and administration released a statement on social media on Wednesday, June 4. 'The IAIA Board of Trustees and administration reject this ill-conceived and harmful proposal,' the statement read on Instagram. 'Trump would erase nearly 63 years of progress in American Indian and Alaska Native higher education, artistic expression, and Congressional support for IAIA, the only institution of its kind. As the birthplace of contemporary Native arts, we cannot let this happen.' The statement continued: 'We have reached out to the New Mexico Congressional Delegation to convince the Chairs and Ranking Members of the House and Senate Interior Appropriations subcommittees and committees to fund IAIA at a minimum of $13.482 million in FY 2026. Our New Mexico Delegation is solidly supportive. We could not ask for a stronger delegation and are confident they will do everything possible to restore IAIA funding.' IAIA President Robert Martin, Cherokee, said in a statement that IAIA is resilient and determined to remain operating. 'Every day at IAIA, we witness students discovering their power – artistically, academically and personally. These proposed cuts would cut off that momentum. IAIA is where students learn to lead, innovate and uplift Indigenous knowledge. We cannot let that be erased,' Martin said. He added the school has a longstanding impact and responsibility for its former, current and future students. 'IAIA exists because our ancestors signed treaties in exchange for education. To defund IAIA is to undermine a sacred promise. More than 4,000 graduates have carried forward our cultures, stories and leadership – this is what's at stake.' O'Brien said the AIHEC is currently working to push out letters to congressional delegates educating them on the dangers of the proposed cuts. 'It would be devastating if these cuts were enacted,' she said. 'TCUs specifically enjoy incredibly strong bipartisan support in Congress. We have many champions on each side of the aisle for which we are incredibly grateful. I think the administration may have misunderstood the depth of the negative impacts of cutting the Department of Interior funding for TCUs.' More information about the potential impacts of funding disruption at tribal colleges and universities can be found here. ICT's Jourdan Bennett-Begaye contributed to this report. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Yahoo
Consumers brace for steeper bills and lower credit scores from Trump's financial deregulation
Rob Haskell was hoping a new rule would shield his credit report from thousands of dollars in bills for recent heart procedures. Instead, he's bracing for impact from President Donald Trump's push to slash financial regulations. 'I've always had medical debt hanging over me but, you know, it's just completely unmanageable,' Haskell said in late May. He was speaking to NBC News from a hospital bed at PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center in Bellingham, Washington, days before an open heart surgery that threatened to yield another steep bill. 'So, to the moon on that one,' he sighed. The 58-year-old contractor said he has battled a series of heart and kidney issues for most of his life. Despite having health insurance, his medical needs have resulted in thousands of dollars in debt. Haskell recently paid off a $5,000 bill that knocked his credit score 21 points lower — debt that might have been spared from his report under a rule instituted in the final days of the Biden-era Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The CFPB estimated at the time that the measure would have spared $49 billion in bills from hitting the reports of 15 million people. But in April, Trump-appointed leadership at the consumer watchdog reversed its position and threw its support behind credit unions and consumer reporting companies seeking to block the rule in a Texas federal court. After twice delaying the policy's March start date, the judge is expected to rule within days. Haskell used some retirement savings to pay off his last operation, in 2024. Before his heart surgery last month, he'd hoped the medical debt rule would finally help smooth out his finances, boost his credit score above 700, and improve his chances of buying property to build a home. That now appears unlikely. 'There really was very little information about the whole thing,' Haskell said of the CFPB's about-face. 'I was really surprised.' The change adds to the financial risks consumers increasingly face from months of cuts and policy rollbacks at the agency, advocates say, contributing to broader economic uncertainty stoked by Trump's trade war. Since January, CFPB leadership has attempted to fire nearly all of the agency's 1,700 workers, halted standard supervisory and enforcement actions and blocked rules aimed at buttressing consumers' wallets. The actions have stunned consumer advocates who just months ago had expected at least some of the Biden-era guidance to remain untouched. Some pointed to the populist economic message that propelled Trump back into the Oval Office, even though the CFPB — itself a byproduct of populist frustrations churned up by the 2008 financial crisis — has drawn GOP ire since its inception. 'These rules generally are very politically popular,' said Chi Chi Wu, a senior attorney at the National Consumer Law Center, a nonprofit group that stepped in to defend both the medical debt rule and a separate one capping overdraft fees at large banks at $5. The latter measure was voided in early May when Trump signed House Republicans' resolution repealing it. When federal agencies' policies are nullified under the Congressional Review Act, they're prevented from issuing substantially similar ones in the future. 'They're actively harming regular, hard-working Americans so that their billionaire buddies can profit,' Wu said of administration officials. 'There's really no other way to look at it.' Spokespeople for the CFPB and the White House didn't respond to requests for comment. The Trump administration has cast its changes as efforts to combat government overreach. In remarks to the American Bankers Association in April, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who was appointed acting director of the CFPB in late January, described Biden-era rules as politically biased and criticized their 'compliance costs' that could impede 'responsible lending and risk-taking.' 'The associated mission drift can lend itself to political ends,' he said at the time. The consumer banking industry has applauded efforts to rein in the agency. 'How do we take politics out of regulation, where it never should have been?' Lindsey Johnson, president and CEO of the Consumer Bankers Association, said at a recent industry event. She also thanked Trump in a statement last month cheering the elimination of the overdraft rule 'for protecting consumer choice and access to a deeply valued financial tool utilized by millions of Americans in times of need.' Republican policymakers, both at the CFPB and in Congress, have taken steps to unwind other recent financial regulations. In April, a Biden-era rule capping most credit card late fees at $8 was eliminated. So was a policy aimed at tightening regulations around the sale of consumers' financial data and Social Security numbers. The CFPB has also abandoned a lawsuit against the three big banks that operate the digital payments platform Zelle, which was accused of mishandling users' fraud complaints totaling more than $870 million since 2017. Gone, too, are oversight powers over big tech companies offering payment tools and plans to hold Buy Now, Pay Later services — which have rapidly become many consumers' default choice of credit — to the same regulations as card issuers. 'A lot of people don't necessarily know about the CFPB and may not understand how it's being attacked, but they will be affected,' said Adam Rust, director of financial services at the Consumer Federation of America. 'Partisanship is what is driving these actions, both by Congress and the CFPB, and it strikes me as an inside-the-Beltway game that ignores the effect on regular people.' In the meantime, some advocates are shifting focus to state and municipal safeguards. New York City Comptroller Brad Lander published a report this week outlining how the city and the state can fill the void left by a CFPB 'in crisis,' recommending a consumer restitution fund and bank overdraft caps. In January, California instituted its own prohibitions on health care providers and debt collectors from reporting medical debt to credit agencies. Still, Armen Meyer, a financial policy consultant who has served as both a fintech executive and a bank regulator, said he expects 'many, many consumers will be harmed no matter how much the states stand up.' George Curlee, 51, is keenly aware of how the CFPB's policy reversals threaten his finances. In 2023, the Garland, Texas, resident underwent an emergency toe amputation that resulted in $61,000 in total medical debt despite the insurance he'd purchased on an Affordable Care Act marketplace. Around the same time, he was fired from his retail job and his credit score plunged 60 points. Curlee said he has since managed to whittle the debt down to about $50,000 and found part-time work in March. The job pays less than half his previous $40,000 annual salary, and he's been living with two of his brothers to save money. 'When you're broke, you're broke,' he said. 'You just do what you can to survive.' Curlee now fears worse to come because of House Republicans' so-called Big Beautiful Bill, which the Congressional Budget Office estimates would push at least 16 million people off health insurance by 2034 — including those who pay for ACA coverage like him. He has since joined advocates to lobby policymakers against the proposed cuts and in favor of preserving the medical debt rule. 'I really wish that politicians would take the politics out of these bills and do what's right for the American people,' he said. 'This is a little insane.' This article was originally published on
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Yahoo
Senior Feared He Wouldn't Graduate After Massive Cuts to His School. So, He Protested Until He Lost His Voice (Exclusive)
Tyler Moore was one of many seniors who wondered if they'd be able to graduate when a quarter of the staff at Haskell Indian Nations University was laid off because of federal cuts earlier this year The student leader, who was able to graduate earlier this month, helped organize protests in Lawrence, Kan. and the state capital after the layoffs Moore, who plans on becoming a professor of Native history, says the university recently celebrated its 140th anniversary — and "will absolutely be here for another 140 years"In mid-February, senior Tyler Moore visited his photography professor, Robert Hicks Jr., in his office. The space, located at Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kan., was usually covered with papers and cameras. But that day, Hicks was packing his belongings into boxes. Moore had heard a rumor that school employees were being laid off as the result of an executive order from the Trump administration. The 22-year-old — who had been elected as the Haskell Brave, a top leadership position in the student body — wanted to offer his support. 'I'm here for you if you need anything,' Moore remembers telling his professor. He left to speak to another student, but when he returned, Hicks was gone. 'His entire studio room is empty,' Moore, who is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, tells PEOPLE. 'I'm like, this does not feel right. This is just terrible.' In May, Moore graduated with a degree in Indigenous and American Indian Studies, but for days after the mass layoff — part of the Trump administration's plans to cut federal funding and the federal workforce — he worried that his four years of study wouldn't end with a diploma. 'I didn't know if we were going to continue onward,' says Moore, who, at the time, had just hours of credits left before he was set to earn his bachelor's degree. The exit of 30-some employees — which prompted a group of tribal nations and students to file a lawsuit in federal court — also left other seniors reeling. Some students even left the school entirely, according to people familiar with the situation. The president of the university and the Bureau of Indian Affairs did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's requests for comment. By early April, the school was allowed to reinstate employees as part of a judge's order in response to federal workforce cuts, though some did not return, according to The Hechinger Report. But the school was in chaos for two weeks after the initial firings as students navigated new instructors, or no instructors at all, and struggled to catch up with their course work. It was a moment that too closely echoed Haskell's past struggles with the U.S. government. Just one of two federally run colleges for Native people, Haskell has some of the worst outcomes in the country. It's the same location where the U.S. installed a boarding school to assimilate Native children more than 140 years ago and where at least 103 people are buried, The New York Times reported. The school has navigated underfunding and broken promises from the U.S. ever since. But it also provides a sense of community for the indigenous students who attend. Angel Ahtone Elizarraras, student government president at the university, tells PEOPLE she chose to attend Haskell because she knew she "wouldn't feel like an outsider" there. She says the university is a space where she can pray and speak in her language without judgment. For Moore, Haskell provides a 'sense of unity.' He says when the school comes under attack, it 'attacks that sense of cultural identity as well.' The senior, who is Cherokee on his mother's side, had learned of his people's resiliency and history of resistance from his grandfather. So, during that time of uncertainty, when students looked to the Haskell Brave and other leaders like Elizarraras for guidance, they responded. A week after the initial cuts happened, Moore helped organize protests at the state capitol, Topeka, and in downtown Lawrence. At the protest in Topeka, Moore arrived with about 25 fellow students. 'We did round dances as well on the state capitol grounds, healing round dances,' he says. At the end of the protests, in which students shouted 'Hands off Haskell!' their voices were gone. 'I am so proud of my Haskell community throughout all this,' says Moore, whose own grandfather got "fired up" and is proud of what the students accomplished. 'They just showed up and showed out every single time.' When he graduated on Friday, May 9, Moore was also saying goodbye to his title of Haskell Brave. He plans on getting his master's degree in indigenous studies at Kansas University, and dreams of becoming a professor and teaching Native history to other Native scholars. Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Meanwhile, he's celebrating that his school is continuing on. After recently marking Haskell's 140th anniversary, Moore says he's encouraged by the students willing to speak out and protest. 'We will absolutely be here for another 140 years,' he says. 'We're going to outlast any piece of executive paper that they throw at us." Read the original article on People
