By Craig T. Kojima, Star-Bulletin
University of Hawaii President Kenneth Mortimer finetunes
his speech before giving the annual State of the University
address at Kennedy Theatre yesterday.

Mortimer calls
for ‘common vision’
on priority programs

Protesters say the UH president
should listen to their ideas and not
just communicate his own

By Susan Kreifels
Star-Bulletin

University of Hawaii President Kenneth Mortimer has called on the university community to create a "common vision" about what programs should get priority.

At the same time yesterday, 80-100 students and faculty members were protesting attempts to shut down the School of Public Health. While they agreed about sharing a vision, they asked that Mortimer listen to their ideas, not just communicate his own.

"President Mortimer thinks it's a matter of him communicating his ideas to everybody else," said Mary Tiles, chairwoman of the UH-Manoa Faculty Senate executive committee. "He doesn't understand listening is part of it."

Mortimer gave the annual State of the University message yesterday, asking for cooperation instead of finger-pointing. "We have to look in the mirror and ask ourselves, what are we doing together to create that common vision around which we can unite. When we're divided internally, it gives everybody reason not to support us."

Mortimer said the university's share of the state budget in the last decade dropped by a quarter, from 12 percent to 9 percent, the biggest drop in the nation. Meanwhile other education, health and public safety have received bigger shares. At the same time,he said, UH's purchasing power declined 30 percent.

The Manoa campus has also suffered a year of controversy over the loss of accreditation at the School of Public Health and plans to fold it into the medical school, and a critical accreditation report that said important decisions are held up because the leadership at UH-Manoa failed to communicate with faculty and students. A task force will present its findings on options for the public health school at the regents meeting tomorrow.

Pi'ilani Smith, president of the Associated Students of UH, called the speech "eloquent but lacking commitment and integrity. There's nothing but emptiness."

But Board of Regents member Ah Quon McElrath said Mortimer's speech was the most forceful she had heard from him. "For the first time the president has come out with a very strong speech in order to clarify what the university is all about."

Wayne Panoke, a UH student and former student regent, said Mortimer did a good job in explaining the university's problems. "The underlying message was to the Legislature. Autonomy doesn't mean to cut funding."

At the same time, Panoke said, improving campus communication and solving problems together would mean "opening the door, whether they (administration) likes hearing it or not."

Mortimer pointed out UH achievements despite budget cuts:

Distinguished professionals have taken over the John A. Burns School of Medicine, Cancer Research Center and College of Engineering. First Hawaiian Bank donated $1 million to endow the deanship of the newly merged College of Travel Industry Management and College of Business Administration.

For the third year UH-Manoa set records in research and training money. The University Foundation has raised $45 million in two years of a five-year goal to earn $100 million.

New autonomy granted to the university has enabled it to hire its own legal counsel, cut bureaucracy and make decisions faster. At the same time, autonomy has given some legislators an excuse to cut funding. "Autonomy is not independence from a need to serve the public," Mortimer said.

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