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Next UH An unusual University of Hawaii Board of Regents public meeting scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Monday at Bachman Hall has stirred speculation that a successor to UH President Kenneth Mortimer will be announced.
president may be
announced Monday
Evan S. Dobelle of Trinity College
in Connecticut seems
the front-runnerBy Helen Altonn
Star-BulletinNo finalists have been revealed in the secret selection process, to the dismay and anger of faculty members. But names of two candidates have surfaced in unconfirmed reports.
Evan S. Dobelle, 55, president since 1994 of Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., is most prominently mentioned for the job.
Susan Prager, who announced her resignation in January as Dartmouth's chief academic officer, also was mentioned, but denied she was a candidate.
Linda Campanella, senior vice president of Trinity College, a small, private liberal-arts college with about 2,200 students, said by telephone that Dobelle was scheduled to leave Connecticut Sunday for an unknown destination.
Speaking for the college, Campanella said: "There is no comment at this point. The nature of the search is very confidential. We respect that. We can't confirm or deny that he is among those being considered for the post."
She added that Dobelle, an advocate for the liberal arts who supports research and technology, "is an extraordinary guy. ... There is no one in this college or city who wants to see him go."
He also is a professor of public policy.
If Dobelle is coming here, he may be surprised at the faculty's reception.
"We will make it clear with sideboards what kind of university this man ... would become president of," said Faculty Senate Vice Chairman John Cox, with the School of Travel Industry Management.
He said the latest management offer in negotiations between the faculty union and state is "an absolutely insulting offer" and "the attitude, atmosphere and morale" at UH "just gets worse all the time."
Asked why Dobelle would want to leave a city where he reportedly built a national reputation to head a demoralized university, one source said, "This is a guy who likes to fight, who likes a challenge and particularly likes to prove people wrong who say, 'This can't be done.'"
Mortimer announced early last year that he would leave the presidency this June. An advisory committee was appointed to submit recommendations to the regents for a successor.
Cox said David Iha, board secretary, spoke to the Faculty Senate in January. "One of the things promised to us was, we would be given a list of who the finalists were, but we weren't given any."
"All the people are asking what's going on. Nobody likes this secrecy in terms of approach.
"Although Mortimer was sort of slipped in on us, three finalists made presentations" before he was named, Cox said.
If the regents go ahead and name a president, he said: "In essence, we're being told who our new president is without any involvement whatsoever. That bothers us without question."
David Sanders, Institute for Astronomy associate director and member of the Faculty Senate Committee for Rules and Procedures, said the faculty understood a short list of candidates would be presented before a selection was made for president.
"This would be a very big surprise, I think, to the Faculty Senate if a done deal were being presented to the faculty at this point."
Sanders said the two candidates identified so far "pretty much fail on one of the major criteria in the search, and that is experience in running a large multicampus system."
UH encompasses 10 campuses statewide.
Sanders said the Faculty Senate felt the search committee was doing a good job and the faculty felt good about the process, but "they felt they would have some input at this stage when finalists were announced.
"I think, speaking for a large fraction of the faculty, any done deal of a single name at this stage would be rather awkward in terms of expectations of the faculty."
Ka Leo O Hawaii
University of Hawaii
