Accrediting team
says UH better
since Dobelle left

The University of Hawaii's leadership has improved "dramatically" since President Evan Dobelle was ousted in June, a regional accrediting agency said in a report released yesterday.

A team from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges talked to UH officials in December for the report, following up on a visit in March that found "severe difficulties" between Dobelle and the Board of Regents. The relationship, the team found, did not meet standards of accreditation for university leadership. WASC is the accrediting body for UH-Manoa, UH-Hilo and UH-West Oahu.

The new report said that "rather than tensions and acrimony" between the board and interim President David McClain, WASC found "solid trust and the beginning of a very effective and professional working relationship."

McClain said he was pleased the accrediting team had "recognized the significant progress we've made as compared with last March." He also pledged his "continuing efforts to sustain this progress."

Officials have said the earlier WASC report likely played a part in Dobelle's firing, which the board later rescinded under a settlement in exchange for the former president's resignation. But the WASC team also criticized board members after its March visit for getting involved in "too many issues, which would normally be the responsibilities of the administration."

The new report found the board "has acted to improve its own functioning," and said regents have learned to make a clearer distinction between "policy development and management." It pointed to the board's training sessions and creation of a guidebook to detail its role in the university's governance.

The WASC team recommended that the "positive and productive relationship" between McClain and the board be sustained and "institutionalized over time in formal working relationship and procedures."

Meanwhile, the WASC team also found an urgent need for UH-Manoa's organizational plan to be ironed out as soon as possible "to provide the basis for working through key issues in the definition of campus and system roles and functions, particularly as related to this large and complex campus."

For a copy of the report, visit www.hawaii.edu/vpaa.