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Breaking News: Haskell Indian Nations University announces the gutting of its football and volleyball programs.
Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas, has announced the gutting of its football and volleyball programs beginning next fall.
Could this effectively cut Haskell’s enrollment by a 150 students and signal the end of Haskell’s sports programs altogether?
This comes on the heels of The Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Mr. Larry Echohawk’s announcement on Feb, 9, 2011 that the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) schools will participate in the Presidential Active Lifestyle Award (PALA) Challenge inspired by the First Lady’s Let’s Move! initiative and commemorating the Let’s Move! one year anniversary. PALA is a six-week long physical fitness challenge managed by the President’s Council on Physical Fitness, Sports, & Nutrition (PCFSN) and is part of the First Lady’s Let’s Move! campaign to end childhood obesity within a generation.
This certainly seems to imply that Mr. Larry Echohawk is still out of touch with the Bureau of Indian Affairs schools that he is supposed to be running.
By gutting these programs Haskell will lose some of its best students. These are the students held to standards of The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, these are some of Haskell’s most disciplined students, the ones who get up at six a.m. everyday to work out, try and eat right (as much as they can at Curtis) and the ones who win or lose continue to try with no big sponsor name ( lets say like Adidas ) behind them.
Didn’t Haskell’s Board of Regents President George Tiger get to play ball while he was at Haskell? Now he sits idly by and watches sports at Haskell slowly become eliminated.
How can Haskell possibly be called a university after this?
Someone will jump up and down and say it’s a matter of funding. Yet other programs, like the ones Venida Chenault is in charge of fair no better. Don’t those students get credit for protesting for better working conditions for Haskell employees? (While their fellow students are attending one of the biggest moments of their lives..their graduations), attending convocation, protesting for beavers and doing internships that amount to following Dan Wildcat around?
Let’s us help. You can start making some of these cuts and the leave the sports programs alone.
Cut employees, employees, employees and start with the ones who supported getting rid of Haskell’s sports.
Then cut your board get a new one that you don’t have to pay, get rid of Curtis Hall and just give the kids the money used to run that place so that they can actually eat healthy food.
Again, Mr. Larry Echohawk you just keep making Senator Raud Paul’s case for closing The Bureau of Indian Affairs stronger and stronger.
Maybe if Haskell can’t even afford sports, it should no longer seek to exist.
haskellnews commentary 02/28/2011
Photo used with the permission of Getty Imagines
Related Articles
- Larry Echohawk’s Empty Promises. (haskellnews.wordpress.com)
- Senator Rand Paul rallies to shut down The Bureau of Indian Education and The Bureau of Indian Affairs. (haskellnews.wordpress.com)
- Did the rape victim at Haskell Indian Nations University leave the school? (haskellnews.wordpress.com)
- Is the leadership at Haskell Indian Nations University allowing students who have been academically removed to be reinstated? (haskellnews.wordpress.com)
Haskellnews Commentary Blog 
drillsgt (anonymous) says…
The sad thing is to maintain these programs has cost HINU pennies compared to what most colleges spend on these sports. And the benefits are enormous for the college. Yes it is true that the teams have struggled in the past but in the past 5 years both programs have seen there shining moments with some wins against other quality programs that have alot more resources to run their programs. And the money that will be saved by cutting the programs will not be enough to really improve the college in any way. There won’t be any employees let go because of this cut – they will be transfered to other departments and the money used to run the programs will be cut up to not make a real difference in any other program. And if in the future they wish to bring back the programs it will cost a great amount of money to restore the programs (uniforms, equipment etc…)
Maintaining a program and keeping the benefits of bringing in new students with higher GPAs and ACT scores than the regular student body, keeping those student athletes in study halls and on track to graduate per NAIA eligibility guidelines, and the unmeasurable installation of pride and dicipline that it takes to be an athlete at any level and at any school. Just because you don’t make the NAIA playoffs every year doesn’t mean that those student athetes haven’t benefited from being part of these programs. And when students benefit so should the college.
February 28, 2011 at 6:26 p.m.
sbobandme (anonymous) says…
@ drillsgt You make very good points. My wife and I agree with everything you have said. Here’s something the students should really hold protests over. If Haskell remains so should all of their sports programs. Get rid of sports, get rid of Haskell.
loves2paint (anonymous) says…
This is really sad. It should not matter if Haskell teams win or lose. All that should matter is that they try. I don’t understand much about Haskell but I do about sports. Students can learn discipline, sportsmanship, cooperation and dedication from playing sports( I coach a volleyball team). It is unfair to take that away from them.
February 28, 2011 at 9:48 p.m.
enoughalready (anonymous) says…
Where do you get your reliable information “haskellnews” it would be a shame if they gutted football and volleyball like they did track and field which seemed to have the most trophies in the trophy cases in Coffin Complex. I can see fb sadly cuz I believe it is the most expensive, insurance, travel, most players on a roster, more expenses than other teams. Yet fb is independent unlike vb which is in the Midlands Collegiate Athletic Conference, and I could be wrong but I think you have to have a certain number of m/w sports teams to be in a conference. Also recruiting for any team at Haskell seems to be hard because you can’t offer scholarships, and I don’t know if they really have funding for coaches to travel and recruit out of state, unless they do it on their own. I think quite a few do now, I know they did in the past. Sports are an important tradition at Haskell, I am proud of our past and current players and coaches. Ultimately, the main reason a student is at Haskell is to work toward getting their degree whether it be AA , BA/BS or get their core classes done so they can transfer to continue in their academic endeavors.
katatnite (anonymous) says…
This is an injustice too their students, now they have something too protest over.
I hope someone follows the money trail. If they do they will no doubt follow it straight too the AIS program. I found this interesting: From The Kansas Sampler:
” The Haskell Stadium, constructed in 1926, was built to honor the 1926 football team. Coached by Richard E. Hanley, the Haskell Indian Braves had an outstanding season with 12 wins, zero losses, and one tie. The team traveled from coast to coast and scored a total of 558 points, while only giving 63 points to their opposition. They played and defeated major university teams like Notre Dame. All of the money to build the Haskell Stadium came from Native people around the country and on the day of the dedication, October 27, 1926, over 12,000 people came to participate in a buffalo feast, baby contest, pageant, and football game”.