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Fired UH prof gets 2nd
chance; back pay at issue

By Susan Kreifels
Star-Bulletin

Two faculty review committees supported Beei-Huan Chao's qualifications for tenure promotion to associate professor in the University of Hawaii-Manoa College of Engineering, but the UH administration did not grant it.

A hearing officer also supported his qualifications, saying the wrong criteria were used by the Department of Mechanical Engineering's personnel committee. Still, the decision remained the same, and Chao's contract expired last summer.

Now the UH faculty union has filed a complaint with the Hawaii Labor Relations Board against the administration for not fully complying with a second hearing officer's recommendations. The board is scheduled to hear the case tomorrow.

In December, the second hearing officer, James Marsh, a professor in the UH-Manoa College of Business Administration, supported earlier findings of violations in the tenure review process. He directed that Chao's probationary period be extended another year, that he be allowed to reapply for tenure, and that he be reinstated with pay retroactive to July 1, according to the complaint filed last month by the University of Hawaii Professional Assembly, the faculty union.

The UH administration followed those directives but did not grant the retroactive pay, only restarting Chao's salary Jan. 1 after he began teaching again.

Attorney Dean Choy, representing UH, said the pay issue was outside the hearing officer's authority.

The faculty union disagrees and says the issue stems from the fact that the process was flawed from the beginning. "They take a year's pay, and even if they do it illegally, they can get away with it," said J.N. Musto, UHPA executive director. "That's why back pay is such an important remedy, to prevent management from doing those types of things."

Chao, who has taught mechanical engineering at UH since 1992, has reapplied for tenure and promotion. A new dean of engineering will make a recommendation to the administration, and Chao, who has won two teaching awards at UH, is hoping for the best.

Chao said the first evaluation process was unfair because "all the reasons they cited to deny my application violated the written departmental tenure and promotion criteria" as pointed out by the two independent faculty review committees and two hearing officers. Chao, a Princeton University researcher before coming to Hawaii, is an assistant professor applying for tenure as an associate professor. But criteria used to evaluate him were for tenure to full professorship, he said.

Dean Smith, senior vice president at UH-Manoa, followed the recommendation of Paul Yuen, former dean of the College of Engineering, to deny Chao's tenure. Both declined comment.

Marsh also declined comment.