Hawaii’s World
VEXING is my best word to summarize the litany of University of Hawaii troubles brainstormed up recently by more than 100 University of Hawaii lovers gathered in a solutions-seeking group called The Forum. Assessing the
problems facing UHFrom parking to leadership there were hundreds of mentions with a center core on turf fights occasioned by the reduced state funding. UH now shares in only 9 percent of the state budget versus 12 percent 10 years ago. It finds its share's purchasing power down over 30 percent.
Less than half of UH funds now come from the state and a rather hostile state administration. More come from considerable success in grant-seeking and higher student tuitions.
The Forum met the evening after UH President Kenneth Mortimer addressed a UH convocation with one of his strongest speeches ever -- part pep talk, but with a major focus on efforts to establish order amid the vexations.
The pep part dealt with distinguished new faculty recruits choosing UH as a seat for their work, with tough-minded investors choosing UH departments to work with and with increased private giving. On stage beside him were three dozen distinguished faculty contributors to be recognized after his talk -- some of them internationally sensational in their achievements.
He boasted that UH has become the only state department with a strategic plan plus benchmarks to measure results achieved. He said UH can make decisions faster under the 1998 autonomy legislation, has sent much of its added tuition and grant money back to the departments that generated it, has its own attorney and has cut red tape by giving purchasing cards to lower-level administrators.
With protesters gathered outside and out of his hearing to get TV attention to oppose folding the School of Public Health into the School of Medicine, he thanked the faculty of the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources for agreeing to reduce departments from 11 to 6.
Above all, he urged collaboration on a shared vision for the UH future focused on just two points: improved quality in what UH does on all 10 of its campuses, and focus on "distinguished academic programs that reflect the special nature of this university."
Programs where UH can do exceptionally well, he said, include astronomy, ocean sciences, conservation and evolutionary biology, tropical agriculture, things Hawaiian and Asian.
HE lauded First Hawaiian Bank's $1 million endowment to increase the salary for the dean of the newly merged Colleges of Travel Industry Management and Business Administration.
Manoa is where UH primarily earns its credentials as one of 88 or so top research universities in America. Mortimer said some small states like Alaska, Maine and Montana have withdrawn from this competition.
It costs them, he said, the opportunity to have world-class scholars within their ranks and a strong international orientation. I add that it is a well of knowledge for the entire state we would be arid without.
Bugged by media focus on negatives in a recent accreditation report, Mortimer said UH-Manoa has more than 20 programs under regular accreditation review and all are accredited. He called suggestions for improvement a welcome function of the review process.
On the media, he said they invoke what he called "Gresham's Law of the Media -- that bad news drives out good news."
A.A. Smyser is the contributing editor
and former editor of the the Star-Bulletin
His column runs Tuesday and Thursday.