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Hawaii’s World
TICK off the qualities needed in the next president of the University of Hawaii. Choosing Mortimer’s successor won’t be easy
For instance:
Works well with regents.
That's just 12 for starters. Everyone involved with every school or campus could name more -- like having new campus structures in working shape when they open.
Is there any one of the above that is not basic? Of course not. So, search team, go out and find us a successor for President Kenneth Mortimer to do the job better than he has for seven years. Easy? NOT!
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Honolulu Star-Bulletin ran a circulation-building contest called "Pruzzle."
It looked like a crossword puzzle but most of the letters were filled in. Add the right dozen or so letters and you could walk off with the prize. Any week the prize wasn't won, the amount would be added to the next week's prize.
We got more than 100,000 entries one week without a winner. My recollection is that we several times went as long as 10 weeks without a winner.
The short of it was that Pruzzle, which looked deceptively easy, wasn't easy at all.
To some people, I imagine, it looks easy, too, to find just the right next university president.
The odds against finding even one who can fill all 12 criteria offered at the start of this column may be in the millions -- and there aren't millions of candidates out there.
We will have to settle, I'm sure, for someone who is weak in a few areas -- then hope he or she will be able to compensate by hiring assistance in areas of weakness.
My view is that President Mortimer has done extremely well in steering UH through budget adversities far worse than anticipated when he was hired.
He followed an effusive, wonderful person in Albert Simone, who built a lot of buildings and sparked a lot of programs but also left behind a lot of loose ends.
The object of at least some of the regents who hired Mortimer was to get a good organizer, in part to tidy up those loose ends.
Had the state remained prosperous, as in the 1970s and 1980s, it would have been easier. But the Mortimer years turned out to be ones where the crucial state funding contribution was cut 30 percent on a cost-adjusted basis.
Under such budget stress, Mortimer identified areas where hard choices had to be made, heard all sides, and then forced them to decisions -- not all joyous to everyone, obviously. There were regretted departures, plus some unregretted.
Only one dean (in law) was outright fired and that was a test of whether the dean or the president was boss.
As a journalist, I have had contact with all the UH presidents since 1946. Mortimer probably had it toughest of all because of the budget. He deserves a "Well Done."
A.A. Smyser is the contributing editor
and former editor of the the Star-Bulletin
His column runs Tuesday and Thursday.
