LAWRENCE, Kan.— Dr. Linda Sue Warner had big ambitions when she arrived in 2007 as president of Haskell Indian Nation University, the only four-year college operated by the federal government for American Indians. Now she wonders whether those ambitions could cost her the job.
She envisioned major campus improvements and an expansion of the college's programs. But she also proposed to increase the extremely small fees paid by Haskell's roughly 1,050 students —$215 per semester, including room and board — to $1,000.
And that was where she ran headlong into the belief among many Haskell students and alumni that the government owes them a free or nearly free education, both by treaty and as compensation for generations of cultural oppression.
Students protested and members of the Board of Regents called for Warner's ouster.
“I feel strongly that these kids shouldn't have to pay to go to school here,'' said Haskell alumnus and Kickapoo tribal chairman Russell Bradley.
In September, amid the furor, Warner was sent to New Mexico on what the government said was a temporary assignment.
Warner and other Haskell employees have been ordered not to speak with reporters. Interior Department spokeswoman Nedra Darling portrayed the ban as an effort to keep track of media inquiries. “It wasn't muzzling by any means,'' Darling said.
Darling said there are no plans to replace Warner, who is scheduled to return to Kansas in January.
