Oregon State University graduate students are still waiting to see what action OSU will take to address the allegations brought against Associate Professor Qwo-Li Driskill.
A petition by graduate students in the Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies program at OSU calling for removing Driskill has garnered more than 1,000 signatures since last November.
The group calling itself the Graduate Leaders for Equitable Education alleges that Driskill has mistreated current and former students and faculty and that the professor has falsely claimed Indigenous ancestry while continuing to teach classes related to that ancestry.
In a statement, Shaina Khan, a Ph.D. student in the WGSS program spoke about the progress made in reaching out to others about speaking out about their experiences within the program.
She also spoke about how GLEE has yet to see their demands met and the lack of communication from OSU has been a tiring process.
“Our initial letter, which we sent to faculty and OSU administration in the summer of 2023, explicitly said that we weren’t asking for Driskill to be fired,” Khan said. “However, after we sent that letter, we’ve heard more and more from former students who had experienced bullying, retaliation and other mistreatment from Driskill.”
At the moment, Driskill is still a professor at the university for the winter term.
Qwo-Li Driskill could not be reached for comment after multiple attempts, and the faculty in OSU’s WGSS program declined to comment on the matter.
The Tribal Alliance Against Frauds is a watchdog organization dedicated to exposing individuals who monetize identities they have no claim to.
“We expose ethnic frauds pretending to be American Indian people or ‘tribes’ when they are not. We are researchers. We gather facts. We are the whistle-blowers,” their website states.
The TAAF also called for OSU to “fire Qwo-Li Driskill for academic dishonesty and ethnic fraud, unless Driskill makes a public statement admitting that they are not American Indian at all and gives a public apology.”
Chief Bill KillsCrow of the Lenape Delaware Tribe confirmed that they “do not have anyone by the name of Qwo-Li Driskill in our enrollment records,” confirming the TAAF report.
When asked about the kind of work the TAAF does and the exposure the watchdog group brings to people lying about their identities Chief KillsCrow found it to be “valuable” work.
Khan also spoke to the dissatisfaction that comes with a lack of transparency from OSU in communicating what is going on.
“We haven’t heard from the university … I understand that university administrators can’t comment on ongoing investigations (if an investigation is happening),” Khan said in an email. “Still, it’s frustrating to feel as if we’re not making any progress because of the lack of communication.”
